Faults:

Uses lots of oil

Engine smokes

Windows leak when exposed to ice or rain

Dome light fell off.

General Comments:

This car is not pretty. I took ownership of this car after my girlfriend bought a brand new Scion TC. She had this car for 7 years, beat on it, did not take care of it, let her friends eat, drink and smoke in it, scraped it, let other people drive it and run into things and basically turned it into a clunker. To top it off, she bought Mobil 1 synthetic and added it without knowing the difference.

I purchased the car to use during the winter while my VW Golf sat in the garage. I paid $300 and it had been worth every penny. You cannot kill this car. I recently did an entire brake job for $320 and will switch to synthetic soon. The car's interior is totally destroyed but I still love this car. I don't know why!

Faults:

Other than the normal wear and tear (brakes, tires etc):

Radiator at 250,000 (not bad).

The rack and pinion went at 394,000 (approx), and broke just like the ones that were listed on the recall. Broke with no warning, causing a total lack of steering control. (luckily, no accident and lived to tell about it). Since the car's VIN was not one of the numbers that were listed on the recall, Saturn could, or should I say, would not do anything. It wasn't that it wore out and broke... but the fact that it broke without warning!!!

This is totally UNACCEPTABLE in any vehicle, since it is usually a matter of life and death! So, if you have a 1995 Saturn, make sure to have your rack and pinion changed!!! Your life is worth the expense... even if Saturn does not think so!

General Comments:

Best car I have ever had. Change the rack and pinion and you could not have a better vehicle for economy and performance... bar none.

Do not economize on safety... Change the rack and pinion even if it is not one of the ones listed on the recall. Saturn cheaped out and obviously only fixed 75 of the racks...and evidently MORE were affected.

The Saturn Assistance line is fantastic, as long as you are not requesting anything or need information.

Once this is fixed, you have an absolutely great and economical car!!!

Faults:

The shifter cable broke at 180K, I believe it was about $180.00 or in the ball park, and difficult to pop in at the socket that connects it to the shifter, took me about an hour.

The water pump went out last year not really that hard to replace, but I have to say Kudos to the Saturn designers and engineers for making everything pretty accessible, it takes five minutes to change spark plugs.

The battery went out close to the time the water pump went out, but the car actually drove twenty miles and died in front of auto-zone I put in the new battery and went to work, made it on time.

Cylinder one spark plug gets fouled, needs to be replaced by itself every three to four months the other three cylinders are fine.

General Comments:

I paid $2,200 and have owned this car for about four years and only spent about $400.00 to fix it other than maintenance, I did all the work at home, the car is user friendly.

The timing chain is a Genius Idea that caused me to buy a Saturn for my wife, after the timing belt went out on my Honda I decided to switch to Saturn, we also had a Ford Escort and that car also had a timing belt, but needed to be replaced at longer intervals, Great job Saturn, I would rather not worry about a timing belt.

My Saturn SL1 gets a mind boggling 42 miles per gallon, I have to admit that I drive 55 miles per hour but I just leave home a little early to give myself time.

The interior of the car is not that roomy but I like the four doors to put stuff in the back seat, If my little bucket ever goes out I will definitely stay with Saturn maybe get me one with two doors which is also wonderful about Saturn, that the SL models with the five speed manual is almost identical to the SC models making it easy for the people who like to get a little grease on their clothes, you don't have to learn how to work on two different cars.