1996 Saturn SC sc2 review from North America

Electrical - In Florida the engine compartment layout causes excessive heat buildup under the hood. The excessive heat has caused two batteries and alternators until to fail (under warranty). The dealership replace the two batteries and two alternators as different time, but until they replace both the battery and alternator with upgrade units did the problem go away. This happened in the first two year. Since then, 8 years later, have had no unexpected problems. Just replace two batteries as excepted for sealed batteries in Florida.

Engine power - When I first had the SC2, during some accelerations, the engine would seem to lose power. After numerous attempts by Saturn to detect and then repair the cause, the factory finally sent out a newly designed knock sensor and new program that cleared the problem. The problem was with the knock sensor in a manual transmission SC2s. The sensor would pick up noise that was detected as knock from the engine and the electronic would adjust the timing, causing the loss of power. Have not had a problem with the engine power since the correction, 80,000 miles ago.

Engine vibrations - the 1996 1.9L SC2 engine mount rubber begins to separate every 50,000 miles of fast starts off the line. This would cause vibrations at idle. It is a design issue that was corrected in later models. But replacement cost is about $250.

Headlamp motor - the clutch in the right headlight motor has started slipping at 110,000 mile, but only when the outside temperature is below 70F. Yet, replacement is expensive as the assembly is only half the cost. Yet, at 128,000 miles, thing start to fail.

After 128,000 miles the SC2 has not shown the typical deterioration as I have seen in my other cars.

The body is still looking good.

I still have the original exhaust system.

The interior shows little wear or fading.

However, the door panels are coming unglued and have and to be re-glued twice.

It gets better gas mileage at 128,000 then when it was new. I did get 27mpg no mater how I drove. Now I get nearly 30mpg.

Overall this has been the best and most reliable car of the 6 cars I have owned, including the 1973 Duster with the 232 slant six.