My mom bought brand new Saturn SC in 96. In late 98 she got involved in a multi car pileup that had several fatalities but it was the Saturn that saved my mom’s life. Crazy to think that if she hadn’t survived I wouldn’t be born. So uh thanks Saturn.
I STILL drive a 1995 Saturn SL1. It's got less than 150K miles & it still runs pretty well too. I'll drive it until one of us eventually falls apart. I think that the car might last longer than me.
You could get leather in these from the factory. They were assembled in Spring Hill, TN. Today some Cadillac and an Acura model are assembled there. My mother bought a 1993 Saturn SL2 new and it was overall a good car and easy to fix. Parts were cheap and readily available for it. Towards the end when Saturn was discontinued, some OEM parts started getting a little more challenging to find. I always had an OEM parts book for my car, so I knew what to get. When we went to pick up the Saturn, the sales woman was going over the car versus the window sticker. When she got to the wheels, she hesitated----because the window sticker showed wheel covers, but the car had the optional sawtooth alloy wheels on it. As we had already handed over the check and paid for it, they left them on.
After my grandpa died ,my son inherited his 2006 saturn vue. It came with a Honda engine and Trans. It currently has 150,000 miles and purrs like a kitten. Never had a single problem with it.
That's because they were beat to hell by previous owners. They were cheaper eco cars built for dailying which allowed them to get in more careless hand, overall the original S-Series were great cheap reliable cars while some arguments can be made about the later years (Vue, ION, etc.) I'd definitely recommend one! They get to much of a bad image most of the time
I loved my 2005 Quad Coupe. When I finally sold it to a friend, it had 245,000 miles on it. She continued to drive it for about a year until she gave it to her son to drive. I never had to have any work done on it except it needed a brake cylinder and a clutch. My daughter had one too in 4 door. She loved hers too. We went to the rollout premiere of the Sky, but they were only prototypes at the time. I raved about my Saturn so much and how we could pack as much stuff for a trip as would fit in a van that word soon spread. Saturn flew a photographer down to do a photo shoot with me. I was featured in the first Saturn Owner’s Magazine. I still have a few copies. We took that car on so many road trips, hauled mountain bikes and camping equipment in it, and people marveled when I flung open the door and half door at the grocery store. I was sad to see the demise of these innovative cars. But I know that a lot of folks did have trouble with them, particularly the transmissions. We were lucky that we never had any of that with ours. A friend of my daughters had an SL2 for many years. She was in love with that car.
Saturn's are great cars will the s series. I bought one for $850 once. With 150k I literally drove that car a hundred thousand miles for next to nothing
My parents both had Saturn vues. Dad had a sl base model. Only options were a passenger mirror and radio. He ran it to the ground then my buddy bought it for a beater car. I bought one for $300 to run through the winter. Thing lasted 3 years till a friend borrowed it and blew the trans. Then I got another to replace it. They do rust out underneath. My last one you could open the trunk and see the rear bumper. Cradle was rotted out but ran that one for another year. They were great in the snow id try to get them stuck and they would just keep goin. Fun to ebrake slide them around. No power to go anywhere but they kept going. Rings were shot in it the engine. Took it to a fire call once and the truck behind me said to check my oil. I left about a quart on his windshield driving up the hill. I just laughed and said it rollin white coal
my saturn dealership is still standing! it in 2015 got converted into a One Boardshop (skateboard shop) and it's so weird to pass by it... they blacked the entire thing out, covered all the windows, but it still resembles the place that sold cheap, reliable cars once :D
I'm currently driving a 2001 Saturn Ls. My grandma bought it brand new and she can't drive anymore, so I've been driving it. It still runs good. It's got less than 140k miles on it.
My dad has a 2007 Saturn Aura (basically a Chevy Impala) that's loaded with leather seats, a moon roof, remote start and metal body panels. It was Saturn's attempt to be a little more upclass.
I have a 2008 Aura 3.5 V6 that I’ve driven since HS (got it in 2011). I’ve put around 55,000 miles on it in that time, about time for new brakes on it. No rust! But the Aura is based on the G6/Chevy Malibu Epsilon platform from the 2000s. Definitely feels more upscale vs. other Saturns besides the Outlook.
I had an 2002 SC2 with the 16 valve engine and 5 speed. It was a total blast to drive. I once got it up to 83 mph in 3rd gear (in a posted 45) against a guy in a 302 V8 4 speed mustang.
My mom had a Saturn Vue. Then the transmission went out. Dealer said they put in brand new transmission. It blew out a month later and then she found out they put in a used one. They haven’t bought a GM product since
@@ding9633 I'm referring to Honda BYBA 5 speed auto , some 1st gen Saturn Vue with the V6 option had Honda 3.5 liter V6 engines and Honda transmissions.
I owned a 2001 yellow SC2. SC1 was single cam… SC2s were dual cam and a close ration gear box. I owned this car from new, and to be honest, I still miss it. EGR valve, ignition cylinder, clutch and a power window switch plus regular maintenance. … during 10 years of service, 396k KM and it died because a taxi decided to turn left and kill it. Fun fact, once the car was hit and my brother in law came to, the car was still running in gear, as the half shafts broke… so the trans had no wheels holding it back… aka stalling.
I had a 2000 SL1. For having over 200k miles when I bought it, it was not a bad little car. I believe those seats are factory, while it was rare, you could get some of the SL2/SC2/SW2s with leather.
I had a '97 SC2. I was a decent car but it consumed oil so I had to constantly keep checking it and topping it off. It was also a pain to get in and out of, but it rode well.
The bodies didn't rust, but the frames certainly could (and did). The somewhat perverse irony of that is that the car would look great, right up until something structural gave way underneath ... so, the advice I got from a mechanic friend was "always take it to a shop where it can be put up on a hoist and inspected when you do oil changes".
Leather was an option on the S-Series. Back in the ‘90s, Saturns were one of the only (if not THE only) compact to offer leather and heated seats. They had an all aluminum, twin cam 4 cylinder engine available in 1991 with a fully electronic 4 speed automatic transmission. No American car brand offered anything that sophisticated in a compact, or literally anything else. Even Toyota had three speed autos in the Corolla in to the early 2000s.
My dad and step-mom had one with manual transmission so they could flat tow it behind their RV. They even had decals put on it to match RV. Now it is hard to find a manual car that you can flat tow. They traded it fir a manual Honda Fit.
That was on Dundee rd in buffalo grove thous 2 buildings where empty for years they tried to put a used dealership at the second building a few years ago it lasted like a month
GM really should bring back Saturn as a budget-friendly electric vehicle brand. A front-wheel drive electric sedan, coupe, and hatchback line up with basic amenities, 250 me of range, and a starting price at around $20,000 sounds like a winning formula.
They finally took down Saturn of Gurnee? I worked as a porter at a local dealer for a summer. Iirc (again I’m old and this would be mid 90s). You had SC1, SW1 (station wagon), then the SL1. The. 1 series were more base, and the 2 series were more optioned including leather iirc.
1992 SL2. Engine started smoking at 94,000kms but ran good. Replacement engine was worse. Rusted out at 4 years old. Good looking compared to the counterparts of the time but......
That one might have still run but I'm guessing it's there and you're crushing it because it has some mechanical or rust issue. I think it could've just gotten too old for the owner to "justify" putting parts in it that were technically more expensive than the whole car. And we'd probably see more cars from all brands that last further than 230000 miles if people were willing to invest in their repair. But i guess unless you do rust proofing the cars in your area can go bad just from rust, not mechanical issues, and I'm guessing structural rust is very expensive to fix.
Great economy cars when they came out, nothing fancy, for once GM did something right and had a competitor to Toyota & Honda in the small car marketspace if they would have kept at it. A neighbor had one and his two kids used it over a 6 year span to drive to HS and their youngest daughter used it in college, too. But as GM is known to do they tried to cut costs, went too far with that and everything went downhill. The old Saturn dealership near me was empty for quite a while, it turned into one of the first Kia dealerships when Kia entered the USA market.
Saturns were good cars in the beginning, but they really fell off at the end along Oldsmobile and others. GM's reliability hasn’t been that great since.
Any cars made in the 90s with a manual transmission and a four cylinder non turbo engine would last for 200k or more. The cars these days won’t last 40k miles as soon as the factory warranty expires.
If modern cars weren't lasting 40K, we'd be watching this guy crush three year old cars every day. While reliability has probably fallen off since 2010 or 2015, it hasn't fallen that much.
Im honestly glad Saturn isn't around anymore. They were incredibly cheap. And they weren't even reliable. The interiors were just awful. The cheapest plastic crap you can have in a car. Decent concept in theory, but GM ruined it. They sucked as a brand, and so did their cars.
My mom bought brand new Saturn SC in 96. In late 98 she got involved in a multi car pileup that had several fatalities but it was the Saturn that saved my mom’s life. Crazy to think that if she hadn’t survived I wouldn’t be born. So uh thanks Saturn.
Damn bro.
these were great cars. drove an SL2 to college and for several years after when it finally died around 240,00 miles. Respect to Saturn.
These cars used to be everywhere and now you hardly see them.
Yeah, they didn’t hold up.
They hold up ok, they were cheap cars that all got driven into the ground. I see one every so often.
Saw an SUV one last month. At first, I wasn't sure since it had been so long since seen one but yep, Saturn.
@@ksavage681they held up pretty well, they just became dirt cheap and were abused
Them and neons…
I STILL drive a 1995 Saturn SL1. It's got less than 150K miles & it still runs pretty well too. I'll drive it until one of us eventually falls apart.
I think that the car might last longer than me.
I miss Saturn. They were so successful in the early days. My first car was a Saturn loved it
You could get leather in these from the factory. They were assembled in Spring Hill, TN. Today some Cadillac and an Acura model are assembled there. My mother bought a 1993 Saturn SL2 new and it was overall a good car and easy to fix. Parts were cheap and readily available for it. Towards the end when Saturn was discontinued, some OEM parts started getting a little more challenging to find. I always had an OEM parts book for my car, so I knew what to get.
When we went to pick up the Saturn, the sales woman was going over the car versus the window sticker. When she got to the wheels, she hesitated----because the window sticker showed wheel covers, but the car had the optional sawtooth alloy wheels on it. As we had already handed over the check and paid for it, they left them on.
It's sad to see this brand gone
Me too Saturn Oldsmobile and Pontiac
Saturns were pretty good cars! Many people do not give them enough credit for how innovative they were
After my grandpa died ,my son inherited his 2006 saturn vue. It came with a Honda engine and Trans. It currently has 150,000 miles and purrs like a kitten. Never had a single problem with it.
They were gm junk
Fiero had those body panels. This wasn’t innovative. Engine was rough. It was a cheap car. You don’t see many still going.
That's because they were beat to hell by previous owners. They were cheaper eco cars built for dailying which allowed them to get in more careless hand, overall the original S-Series were great cheap reliable cars while some arguments can be made about the later years (Vue, ION, etc.) I'd definitely recommend one! They get to much of a bad image most of the time
@@Star-fc4ni,the original Honda powered ones was good ,but they discontinued them & the GM ones was 🗑
I loved my 2005 Quad Coupe. When I finally sold it to a friend, it had 245,000 miles on it. She continued to drive it for about a year until she gave it to her son to drive. I never had to have any work done on it except it needed a brake cylinder and a clutch. My daughter had one too in 4 door. She loved hers too. We went to the rollout premiere of the Sky, but they were only prototypes at the time. I raved about my Saturn so much and how we could pack as much stuff for a trip as would fit in a van that word soon spread. Saturn flew a photographer down to do a photo shoot with me. I was featured in the first Saturn Owner’s Magazine. I still have a few copies. We took that car on so many road trips, hauled mountain bikes and camping equipment in it, and people marveled when I flung open the door and half door at the grocery store. I was sad to see the demise of these innovative cars. But I know that a lot of folks did have trouble with them, particularly the transmissions. We were lucky that we never had any of that with ours. A friend of my daughters had an SL2 for many years. She was in love with that car.
Am a service technician at a old Saturn store in oak lawn. Now Happy Hyundai!! 😊
I’m sure you stay busy
I still have my 06 ion redline. Fun little cars and yes they actually do rust just under all that Tupperware
I miss saturns
Leather, stick shift, fog lamps, twin cam motor. Add a sunroof, alloys, and a CD player and this would've been the Saturn to have back in the day!
Loved my 03 Vue. Had factory leather in it, fun to drive.
Saturn's are great cars will the s series. I bought one for $850 once. With 150k I literally drove that car a hundred thousand miles for next to nothing
My mom used to work at that Gurnee Saturn before they shut down, I still have alot of the branded pens and plaques from there
My parents both had Saturn vues. Dad had a sl base model. Only options were a passenger mirror and radio. He ran it to the ground then my buddy bought it for a beater car. I bought one for $300 to run through the winter. Thing lasted 3 years till a friend borrowed it and blew the trans. Then I got another to replace it. They do rust out underneath. My last one you could open the trunk and see the rear bumper. Cradle was rotted out but ran that one for another year. They were great in the snow id try to get them stuck and they would just keep goin. Fun to ebrake slide them around. No power to go anywhere but they kept going. Rings were shot in it the engine. Took it to a fire call once and the truck behind me said to check my oil. I left about a quart on his windshield driving up the hill. I just laughed and said it rollin white coal
I had an Aura that had 250k miles on it when I got rid of it. Great solid car.
That Saturn dealership was in Arlington Heights, right down the street from me! Love the channel man
my saturn dealership is still standing! it in 2015 got converted into a One Boardshop (skateboard shop) and it's so weird to pass by it... they blacked the entire thing out, covered all the windows, but it still resembles the place that sold cheap, reliable cars once :D
I still own 3 Saturn vehicles. The leather comes with the sc2 trim with dohc engine same goes for the SL2. I have 2 sc2 models and a 94 sc1.
I miss my 2004 Saturn VUE so much! My favorite car ever owned.
I'm currently driving a 2001 Saturn Ls. My grandma bought it brand new and she can't drive anymore, so I've been driving it. It still runs good. It's got less than 140k miles on it.
The body panels were plastic, but frame was metal. Some think the frames were plastic. Leather seats were an option, BTW.
My dad has a 2007 Saturn Aura (basically a Chevy Impala) that's loaded with leather seats, a moon roof, remote start and metal body panels. It was Saturn's attempt to be a little more upclass.
I have a 2008 Aura 3.5 V6 that I’ve driven since HS (got it in 2011). I’ve put around 55,000 miles on it in that time, about time for new brakes on it. No rust! But the Aura is based on the G6/Chevy Malibu Epsilon platform from the 2000s. Definitely feels more upscale vs. other Saturns besides the Outlook.
@@ATRichard thanks for the correction. All the GM sedans from that time period appears to be the same vehicle to me.
@@seanclark5613 They definitely do share a lot of similarities in that era lol.
To me, the Saturn Sky looks better than its Pontiac Solstice twin.
Opel speedster
I agree
@@TheCarzAll Opel GT actually. The Speedster was an Elise underneath
@@TheCarzAllDaewoo G2X
Yep, the Sky was the Opel GT, identical in every way, just rebadged.
I had an 2002 SC2 with the 16 valve engine and 5 speed. It was a total blast to drive. I once got it up to 83 mph in 3rd gear (in a posted 45) against a guy in a 302 V8 4 speed mustang.
My mom had a Saturn Vue. Then the transmission went out. Dealer said they put in brand new transmission. It blew out a month later and then she found out they put in a used one. They haven’t bought a GM product since
Might have been the Vue with the Honda V6 engine and transmission . Engines were excellent, trans not so much.
Which transmission? 4T60? Honda? CVT?
@@ding9633 I'm referring to Honda BYBA 5 speed auto , some 1st gen Saturn Vue with the V6 option had Honda 3.5 liter V6 engines and Honda transmissions.
@@ding9633 I’m not certain. It was a 4 cylinder and had the transmission that had some sort of special shifting feature.
I miss my sc2 every day
We recently had one hanging in my complex that has been converted into a Ute.
I owned a 2001 yellow SC2. SC1 was single cam… SC2s were dual cam and a close ration gear box. I owned this car from new, and to be honest, I still miss it. EGR valve, ignition cylinder, clutch and a power window switch plus regular maintenance. … during 10 years of service, 396k KM and it died because a taxi decided to turn left and kill it. Fun fact, once the car was hit and my brother in law came to, the car was still running in gear, as the half shafts broke… so the trans had no wheels holding it back… aka stalling.
My friend had a 96 I think. With the flip headlights. His had leather. Had around 240k when it got impounded lol
I had a 2000 SL1. For having over 200k miles when I bought it, it was not a bad little car. I believe those seats are factory, while it was rare, you could get some of the SL2/SC2/SW2s with leather.
I work at the Amazon station down the street from this Saturn dealership and it was sad seeing it demolished.
They were good daily drivers...
My neighbor has one with over 300 k and long distance commutes it.
Yep, no rust or dents.....
Buffalo grove man. That takes me back. Long way from gurnee though
Id never heard of these before. Must've been a US only brand im wondering?
Yes, only available in U.S. and Canada as far as I know.
@@ricksanchezsflask8794 fair enough. Im from Australia and never heard of them down here
Save the clutch pedal as a trophy. Give it out each month to the mechanic who did the oddest repair lol
I had a '97 SC2. I was a decent car but it consumed oil so I had to constantly keep checking it and topping it off. It was also a pain to get in and out of, but it rode well.
Save that Saturn!
I've seen Saturns with broken plastic body panels, but I'm in Arizona.
The bodies didn't rust, but the frames certainly could (and did). The somewhat perverse irony of that is that the car would look great, right up until something structural gave way underneath ... so, the advice I got from a mechanic friend was "always take it to a shop where it can be put up on a hoist and inspected when you do oil changes".
Leather was an option on the S-Series. Back in the ‘90s, Saturns were one of the only (if not THE only) compact to offer leather and heated seats. They had an all aluminum, twin cam 4 cylinder engine available in 1991 with a fully electronic 4 speed automatic transmission. No American car brand offered anything that sophisticated in a compact, or literally anything else. Even Toyota had three speed autos in the Corolla in to the early 2000s.
My dad and step-mom had one with manual transmission so they could flat tow it behind their RV. They even had decals put on it to match RV. Now it is hard to find a manual car that you can flat tow. They traded it fir a manual Honda Fit.
That was on Dundee rd in buffalo grove thous 2 buildings where empty for years they tried to put a used dealership at the second building a few years ago it lasted like a month
GM really should bring back Saturn as a budget-friendly electric vehicle brand. A front-wheel drive electric sedan, coupe, and hatchback line up with basic amenities, 250 me of range, and a starting price at around $20,000 sounds like a winning formula.
rest in peace, saturn.
Congrats to GM for tanking another great idea that could’ve been a game changer.
They finally took down Saturn of Gurnee? I worked as a porter at a local dealer for a summer. Iirc (again I’m old and this would be mid 90s). You had SC1, SW1 (station wagon), then the SL1. The. 1 series were more base, and the 2 series were more optioned including leather iirc.
1992 SL2. Engine started smoking at 94,000kms but ran good. Replacement engine was worse. Rusted out at 4 years old.
Good looking compared to the counterparts of the time but......
"They weren't bad little cars!"
*Door fails to close
*Door doesn't latch again
That’s a high level SC2. Stick, DOHC, leather. And I’m guessing this is a 98 or 99 because it lacks the third door on the left
Saturn went away, and we all got Korea import Autos
Saturn is still in business in outer space.
That one might have still run but I'm guessing it's there and you're crushing it because it has some mechanical or rust issue. I think it could've just gotten too old for the owner to "justify" putting parts in it that were technically more expensive than the whole car. And we'd probably see more cars from all brands that last further than 230000 miles if people were willing to invest in their repair. But i guess unless you do rust proofing the cars in your area can go bad just from rust, not mechanical issues, and I'm guessing structural rust is very expensive to fix.
Can you just accept the fact that the car is done for . Midwest salt most likely corroded everything underneath , it's too far gone
It's nice to say that old cars can be fixed, but can they be fixed affordably with $160 an hour flat rate labor?
I bet old plastic being crushed sounds a little different.😂😂😂😂😂
SATURN ASTRA (OPEL), with it’s little brother in sedan: CHEVY COBALT / PONTIAC G5.
Are plastic or fiberglass bodied cars worth anything for scrap or do they annoy the steel mill that gets one sandwiched between two metal cars?
Please bring back Saturn
Great economy cars when they came out, nothing fancy, for once GM did something right and had a competitor to Toyota & Honda in the small car marketspace if they would have kept at it. A neighbor had one and his two kids used it over a 6 year span to drive to HS and their youngest daughter used it in college, too. But as GM is known to do they tried to cut costs, went too far with that and everything went downhill. The old Saturn dealership near me was empty for quite a while, it turned into one of the first Kia dealerships when Kia entered the USA market.
What was the name of the Saturn dealership?
A lot of them turned into Nissan or Mitsubishi dealerships
Well, blame Roger Smith for GM’s failure in 2009. It all started when he became CEO back in 80s.
Saturns were good cars in the beginning, but they really fell off at the end along Oldsmobile and others. GM's reliability hasn’t been that great since.
If you crush a plastic car, can you still send it to the Chinese steel mill to be recycled?
My neighbor has one I tryed to steal it I don't know if that's how the breaks are on those cars but it went all the way down maybe brake line cut
Any cars made in the 90s with a manual transmission and a four cylinder non turbo engine would last for 200k or more. The cars these days won’t last 40k miles as soon as the factory warranty expires.
The reason I stick to Japanese cars nowadays. Their cars last forever.
If modern cars weren't lasting 40K, we'd be watching this guy crush three year old cars every day. While reliability has probably fallen off since 2010 or 2015, it hasn't fallen that much.
SATURN ASTRA IN THE US and CANADA, CHEVROLET ASTRA in MEXICO and BRAZIL
The worst thing about Saturn they are basically eggshells 🥚 & make a real mess in the crusher
Video downvoted for kicking that car. Have some respect for road veterans.
It was not a different kind of company. This was another gm junk line.
Im honestly glad Saturn isn't around anymore. They were incredibly cheap. And they weren't even reliable. The interiors were just awful. The cheapest plastic crap you can have in a car. Decent concept in theory, but GM ruined it. They sucked as a brand, and so did their cars.
Saturn history en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Corporation