The cleanest Saturn SL2 in the universe

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 07/15/2016 at 13:39 • Filed to: None

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These things are wonderful. 45mpg all day, quiet, handle great. I prefer the 1.9DOHC manual, but even the automatic is a nice economy commuter.

For Sweden > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 13:44

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Ummm...

http://jalopnik.com/5578590/my-cra…

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > For Sweden 07/15/2016 at 13:50

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I’m aware. Not the norm by far, though. One anecdote of a lemon doesn’t offset a majority of them being solid commuter cars and complete cockroaches.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > For Sweden 07/15/2016 at 13:50

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I don’t see that being Saturn’s fault.

EL_ULY > For Sweden 07/15/2016 at 13:55

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do you believe everything those dorks say?

lol :]

jimz > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 13:57

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45mpg all day

the downside is that 45 mpg is also its oil consumption...

BeaterGT > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 13:57

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Sometimes I really miss my commuter/beater Saturn but then I remember it was slow as hell and didn’t particularly care for my abuse.

BeaterGT > jimz 07/15/2016 at 13:58

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Highways killed these things. Keep it below 50 and oil consumption is barely an issue. Obviously doesn’t work for everyone’s commute.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 14:27

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Single cam, with body color bumpers and corner-only rear light panel = SL1

SL2 had the twin cam and a full-width light/reflector panel

SL was manual-only and had optional A/C and power steering. Before 2001 it had black bumpers, too.

Rock Bottom > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 14:52

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Neither of my single cam Saturns ever got 45 mpg...

Textured Soy Protein > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 14:53

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“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 15:10

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My best friend had a DOCH, manual from that era that was pretty clean. The only good thing about that car was that it beat walking. It made the average Honda/Toyota/whatever econobox of 10 years earlier seem like driving a fine German machine in comparison. I was able to help convince him to sell it after about 6 months (and before he wasted money on a clutch job on it).

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 15:32

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The only car by grandparents ever bought new was a ‘99 SL1 with an automatic. It was awful, and that was before it cracked the cylinder head at ~60k miles. To think, everyone told him to buy a Honda Civic at the time and he insisted on this shit box.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Rock Bottom 07/15/2016 at 15:41

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My twin cam got 50-ish

The Stig's former college room mate > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/15/2016 at 16:31

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i’m ashamed to admit that i can tell that it’s an SL1, not an SL2.

Trim levels are as follows:

SL- SOHC, manual windows

SL1- SOHC, power windows

SL2- DOHC

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > The Stig's former college room mate 07/15/2016 at 17:31

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Yup. Just checked the online inventory. SL1. It was written on the stock tag wrong.

sdwarf36 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/16/2016 at 00:26

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I’ve worked many years in auto machine shops. You can tell trends. Sometimes you get motors you see lots of-wether from a common problem or just shear numbers. The number of Saturns I’ve been inside of-1. (Badly overheated + continued driving.) And the motor was brilliant. The cylinder head was an excellent design-and something I’ve never seen before-all the external bolts were the same! That may not sound like a big deal-but the amount of engines that have 3 different length bolts holding on a 4 bolt water pump is silly.

I bet it saved GM millions of $. Think about it-if they sold a million cars times 40 bolts per motor. Suppliers only need to make 1 size-parts dept need 1 part number (as opposed to maybe 20 different ones). And obviously the engine design worked with that one size fastener. Someone thought ahead-I like that.

The rest of the car could be a POS-I dunno. I just saw engines. (Any Olds with a Quad 4 comes to mind-another great engine surrounded by a turd of a car.)