1995 Saturn SL SL1 from North America - Comments

At 20,000km the sunroof broke, and was repaired under warranty, then broke again at 45,000, and was repaired under warranty. Also it is currently broken at 110,000km, at which point the warranty is expired and I will not pay for it to be fixed.

As of yesterday I have replaced the alternator 4 times, the muffler 3 times, the brakes 4 times (front and rear, and a new tension wheel and fan belt every 35,000 km or so.

I have consistently been given the run around by the dealership(s) since I first purchased the car. As I am a student I have enough income to cover the basics and intermediates of car maintence. I have been accused of mistreating the car by the dealership officials.

In all, the purchase price of the vehicle was 17,500 cdn, at this point I have spent 11,000 on maintenance reciepts, and havve sent several letters to Saturn and GM, none have received a response.

You must mean $1000 not $11,000. There is no way in hell you spent $11,000 on 4 alternators 3 mufflers, brakes, tensioners & fan belts. A alternator on these cars costs about $70-80. A muffler is about 70-100 dollars, Brakes $200. A majority of these repairs would have been covered under warranty anyway. Fan belts are $15-30 bucks.

The reason your alternator & tension wheel had to be replaced so many times is that the fan belt was put on too tightly, damaging the alternator & wearing out the bearings on your tension wheel. You must have been driving the car awful hard to go through four sets of brakes in such a short period of time, especially with a manual transmission. Try gearing down before you get to a red light. There are two types of mufflers, cheap ones which cost $50 & good ones that cost $100. Cheap ones will last one or two years & good ones will last five. Here's a tip. Get your car serviced somewhere other than your dealership, they obviously aren't doing a good job.

$11,000 was the correct figure - because a dealer will charge $390 alone for an alternator replacement, and brake work at a dealer can easily go over $300-400 each time once they have you hooked. Exhaust work could easily be $400+ per pop. Dave, Owner of a 1994 SL1.

I do not understand why anyone would go to a dealer to service their car unless it is under warranty or it is too new for shops to get the parts.

I own a 1995 SL1 and, yes Saturns do have a bad history with alternators, but my first replacement cost $250 at an auto shop. The second replacement (first being at 115,000 and second at 200,000 miles) I did myself in about 3 hours and save the $150 of labor.

Some people take their Saturns to the dealership because they can't find a reputable auto shop that will work on Saturns. I'm still looking for some shop besides the Saturn dealer that will replace the timing chain in my 95 SL1. $750US is about what I would expect for a new head gasket on a V6.

I own a 95 Saturn SL1. I purchased it approx. 1and 1/2 years ago. Yesterday I managed to seize on of my brakes. It is the first problem I have had with the car.

I have a 94 SL2 with roughly the same problems as discussed above. 5 alternators in 80,000 miles -- replaced once by the dealer -- twice by one reputable shop and twice by another reputable shop. Each time ~$250-300. Actually the last time broke within a year of its last replacement and was fixed by my shop for as a warranty fix. The first three were Saturn (Delco I believe) the last two were Bosch. It seems like no mater what is put in that car it breaks; leading me to believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with the design of its electrical system.