
Pat of greenville , NY on Feb. 19, 2010
I have 1995 Saturn SW2 Manual transmission and engine. What happened is I bought a junky car. Actually, I got it for free. My parents gave me the 95 wagon with around 100 k miles on it. It needed a new engine. Burnt oil since it had about 40,000 miles on it and was still under warranty. My mother asked about it. They told her it was ok. It's just "Using" oil and nothing was wrong with the engine. She told me that and I laughed. What do these people think this car is a living breathing dragon? What it gets thirsty and drinks the oil? Maybe hungry and has a little oil snack? I told her to call them back and have them replace or repair the engine and apologize for trying to rip someone off. They said there was nothing wrong with it again. I guess there engines are magical mystical oil eating beasts.
That was until her warranty was up and she went in for her normal servicing. "Oh my," they say. "Your valve seals are gone and you are burning oil. And you are losing compression because of it and you need a new motor." She told them it was doing that while it was only halfway through the warranty and she had it documented. They said that was different. So she bought another car and gave that curse to me. I put in another used engine with 50,000 miles on it and that solved that problem. 10,000 thousand miles later, the manual transmission goes ping pong, while I'm just cruising at 50 on a straight road. Some pin or rod in the transmission decided to shoot through the case leaving a trail of gear oil and I stranded. I called up Saturn and asked what the deal with that was? Their answer was I must have been beating on it for it to do that. I said, "Oh yeah, it's a crappy old 1.9 liter engine and a station wagon. I'm really racing it around." So they were of no help there.
I bought and put in another transmission with 55,000 miles on it. Things were better, for a while. Then what do you know, at around 70,000 miles, the replacement engine started "using oil", as they say or what a normal human would say is that the valve seals went bad and out the exhaust goes the oil. This is the same exact thing that happened to the other engine. Well anyway. Just kept adding a quart every two fill ups. So this crap wagon is still on the road.
Another 15,000 miles, and guess what! The same exact thing happens to my transmission. The case is cracked in the same exact place by the same exact pin or rod. I call Saturn and tell them once again the same thing happened. Their answer was the same, except this time, I was on a two lane road going straight and 55 going with traffic. I guess very abusive by Saturn's standings. I replaced it with another one with 48,000 miles on it and it lasted about 12 to 15 thousand miles and the same exact thing happened to it.
I'm now looking for another transmission. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I know why they are going out of business. They suck! I would never advise someone to buy a Saturn. They are a curse. I wish I never got mine and mine was given to me for free. I wish I still had my Nissan Sentra or my Subaru, much more reliable. Good luck Saturn owners.