1995 Saturn SL SL1 review from North America

Alternators (2 of them).

Front brake rotors warped.

Stuck EGR valve.

Auto tranny valve body.

Engine mount.

Coolant hose leak.

Tranny gasket leak.

Engine gasket leak.

Engine pings and knocks.

Burns 1 qt oil per 1,000 miles.

Valve lifter noise in winter.

Stink A/C odor in summer.

Front door roof water leak.

Rattles, rattles everywhere.

This is one beautiful car, but the beauty is only polymer-panel deep. The car looks great and I get lots of compliments for it. The polymer panels don't rust and the car still look brand new though it's 7 years old. The car gets very good gas mileage. It's not a sports car, but has decent performance for a small economy car. Its optional traction control and ABS are superb in bad weather.

Reliability wise this is a crappy car. I have had lots of problems as listed. Some of the problems are caused by Saturn's design & material flaws, but they refuse to acknowledge that. These design problems include oil burning, brake rotor warp, tranny gasket leak, rattles, front door water leak, and engine mount problem.

The Saturn dealer service in my area is slow, rude and requires 3 weeks wait time for appt. When you go in, they'd find other ways to get your money (throttle body cleaning, fuel-injector cleaning, etc.)

Saturn was setup to convince Americans not to buy foreign, but it has done the opposite for me. While I still love my Saturn (I love all my cars), my next car won't be American made, at least it won't be a GM.