12th Sep 2008, 15:14
My wife purchased her 97 SC2 new and has been totally happy with it. It has 100K miles now and it has only been in for a couple minor items plus regular maintenance.
It does use a little oil as in less than a quart every 3K miles. We keep an eye on it and never let it get low. My suspicion regarding all these people complaining about oil consumption, probably stems from neglect and improper maintenance.
I had to beg her to test drive the Saturn, because she didn’t believe in American cars back when we were newly weds. Her previous vehicles were a Honda Prelude and Toyota Corolla. Now I can’t get her to give it up. She’s had the car over 10 years, which is way more than of her other vehicles. This has been her favorite car.
She say’s lets put on a new muffler, get a tune up and she’ll drive it another year. I’ve been trying to get her into a G6 convertible for a couple years now. Maybe next year we’ll make the plunge.
Bottom line, this has been one great vehicle and the dealership experience couldn’t have been better except for maybe my Mercedes experience… they fix things that I didn’t even know were broken, and then didn’t say anything about it.
15th Jan 2009, 11:46
I got my 1995 Saturn SL2 for about $1,000 close to 6 months ago with 134,000. I was another one of the unfortunate people that had the shifter grommet break, and was told by Saturn that it would be $197.00 to replace the shift linkage as they don't sell the grommet separately. I thought about drilling the ball joint out, and just putting a bolt and nut to fix the problem, however consider me fortunate to have a salvage yard nearby that had that grommet, ended up paying a quarter for it.
All in all, I like my Saturn. Is it fair that Saturn wants to charge people $200 for a 30¢ piece of plastic? No, but there's nothing we can do about it.
26th Apr 2009, 07:40
I have a 2000 Saturn LS2. Now I know why the dealer said it was the only car they had in our price range. Wish I had left running. The experience was awful from them lying to us, GM dealer by the way, till now. We replaced 2 O2 sensors, spark plugs, and fuel filter. Still running like crap. Hesitating when you drive runs fine just sitting still. If I didn't owe on it, I would junk it. Don't buy Saturn or GM.
26th Jun 2009, 00:46
I've owned 13 sw2's here in MN and in IA. We run pizza deliveries out of them!
If you do the routine work they hold up. I've gotten 340K on one 1997, and will have nearly 400K on a 1995.
Never let them overheat; that will finish the 1.9 in a hurry.
Sure the seats go to pot, but they are readily available at my bone yard. 10-30 bucks each.
These SW2's...I pick 'em up at auction for between $300 - $600. Great cheesy little cars!
6th Dec 2009, 16:28
I bought a 1997 Saturn SC2 in November 1996. The only trouble I ever had with it was a blown transmission about 3 years later. The car developed an oil leak around the end of 2008.
Finally, about September 2009 the engine blew after I gave it to my teenage daughter who drove it without oil for some time. The car had about 200,000 miles on it and I must say it was a very good car.
If the oil had been maintained, it would have still been running today.
Through the years, I spoke with numerous other Saturn owners on many occasions and they all said they loved their cars. I came upon this website while looking for a replacement engine for my SC2 and was surprised at the negative comments.
I'm sorry to hear about the bad experiences other Saturn owners have had. I guess I am one of those fortunate ones. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't settle for anything less than the Saturn I bought.
8th Dec 2009, 15:45
1999 Saturn SL2. Car has 115k on it. Oil Consumption is excessive, a quart every 300 miles. Any suggestions? I tried "Restore" with zero difference.
6th Jan 2010, 19:08
My Saturn SC2 was bought new in 1997. Haven't had any major issues with it until yesterday when running in idle it started to make a knocking noise. I shut it off and tried to start it up, wouldn't go, just chugged. I assumed it was the alternator or something. Since it was towed to dealer, they said the engine seized! Oil level was fine as I had checked that 1st thing. This vehicle has a whopping 83,000 mile on it, does not and has not burned oil, has been given every routine scheduled dealer maintenance and this is what I got! The dealer is going to quote a new/used engine. I probably will look to another vehicle. It's a shame as I was always a Saturn fan and the car really treated us well for 11 years. 83,000 miles though is unacceptable!
24th Aug 2008, 23:50
We have 2 Saturns. My wife has a 97 SC1 (auto) and I have a 98 SL2 (standard) that I just purchased. The 97's been great. Purchased with 80k, now has 137k.. It doesn't use any noticeable amount of oil!!! This car has been super reliable. So much so that I purchased a 98 SL2. I've had it for a little over 1k miles and this one's a 1/2 quart down on oil. I figured that wasn't "too" bad considering 117k on the clock. Although I know its burning it, I never could "see" the smoke until today. I was in the Mount Washington region here in NH, coming down a very large hill (small mountain really). I had to use a low gear / engine braking. Jeeze!!! Got to the bottom and happened to look behind me. Wholly cow, blue smoke everywhere!!! It cleared up in a few miles and now back to normal. Does this sound more like valve guides than the rings?? The car has already done its time in traffic jams and no smoke at all as I've been looking for it. I've been carefully checking the MPG for the last 1000 miles and it's averaging just over 38 mpg.. Seems like it would have to be pretty healthy to be maintaining that kind of average!!! This one came with a freshly replaced (37k mile) manual transmission and brand new clutch so it drives and shifts like new. The car's in good shape so if it comes to rebuilding the engine in the future, I'd probably consider it, but I intend to avoid that as long as possible!!
On changing oil, just my opinion, but... On a newer engine with lower mileage and no real oil consumption / blow by, I would think that 5k to even 7k would probably be fine between oil changes. However, if you are burning oil, blow by could go both ways. Burned fuel / exhaust gas passing the rings back into the oil. Ever notice how quickly the oil becomes dirty on an engine with high consumption. It seems to me that it's a good idea to change the oil more often in a car that's burning it to keep the problem from getting worse. That's what I've always done and it seems to work for me so far.