22nd Oct 2002, 08:17

I recently just bought a used 1992 Saturn SL2 with a manual transmission. All I can say so far is that the car is great and very reliable. I have not had any problems with it and it holds it's own on the road. Shifts are easy and smooth, braking is very quick and efficient, acceleration... needless to say, I have easily taken many cars it's year, such as Grand Dams and Acura Integras. Overall I would have to call it the best car I have even had for the price I paid. It is quick, efficient, affordable, and reliable. I would recommend the Saturn SL2 to anyone looking for a car.

22nd Nov 2004, 09:28

In your review, you said the Saturn is quick. Now I won't dispute this. But you made it seam like parents shouldn't buy their children this vehicle as a first car, because it (I'm assuming because of the context of your review) is to fast.

A Saturn is an economy car, built mostly to give you good gas, a good look, and not break down. This is true of most economy cars. When you say its fast, for me, fast is something like a tuned sports car. A corvette is fast (usually).

But what I want you to understand is a corvette can take abuse (by the way, my definition of abuse is one of the following in order, 1) Hard acceleration. 2) High-speed over rugged terrain, and 3) braking, or turning excessively hard, frequently, All of these will contribute to you needing to do more maintenance, most people don't, because they don't know, or they don't care.) A Saturn, Honda, Toyota, etc. are built to provide you cheap maintenance, when its required at all, and just all around an inexpensive car, which can last well beyond 200k miles.

But when a person abuses a vehicle, some cars simply aren't going to handle it as well. Economy cars aren't build for abuse. There built to go to point a, to point b without trying to make record time.

(I do however know of several people (including myself) who have abuses several vehicles, my experiences are this, some cars take it better then others, true (read: Expensive) sports cars, handle it better then economy cars.)

My personal opinion is if you want a sports car, first get a vehicle for transportation, then get another vehicle from the junkyard, and rebuild it with the help of a good manual. You'll learn a lot, and it's cheaper in the end.

Just so you 'younger' people know, most of the people that have those really fast cars have a not so fast car that takes them to work.

Just something that's been bugging me. Just trying to set the record straight.