2000 Saturn SL 2 from North America - Comments

Intake gasket water leak at 38K.

Brake pulsation and bad design carried from GM for the last 25 years.

Front wheel bearing squeak.

Defective automatic transmission casing. Cracks, causing gears and fluid to come out. Totally replaced with used unit at 58k.

Transmission clunking into reverse.

Engine idle speed erratic and vibrations.

Defective coolant temperature sensor caused overheating.

Noisy heater fan motor.

Leaking heater core.

Plastic interior panels falling off under my feet.

Outside rear view mirror rattle.

Drivers power window switch intermittent.

Engine oil seal leak.

Exterior panels changed color shade using regular car washing soap.

The dash retainer clips around the instrument panel are flimsy and break when taken apart, even when under warranty they weren't replaced.

Gas filler door frozen during winter rain snow mix day and wouldn't open, no emergency release in the trunk, or anywhere I could find.

This car was very much unreliable constant servicing was needed.

There was poor visibility out the back while backing specially at night. The back of the car sits much higher then the front. Trying to see anything close out the rear window was next to impossible. The back-up lights are a joke, you'll do better with pen lights duck taped to the rear fenders.

The car did get fairly good fuel economy, 38 mpg when driven easy on the highway. Around town in a little hurry it got around 27 mpg.

I'm 5'11" tall and was cramped for leg room. Forget about adults seating in the back seat.

I do work for a Saturn dealer in sales. But I also own a 2000 model Saturn SL, and have fixes for a couple of the things you mentioned.

The kick panels on either side of the console are held in by two plastic tabs and a Velcro strip. The Velcro strip must be clean in order to hold the panel to the console. Mine are fine at 112,000 miles after removing 5 years of hair, soda, dust, and carpet fuzzes.

The paint should not change color with regular car washing soap. Perhaps your car has some sort of dealer-applied wax or protectant that needs to be polished off. A good car detailer can do this for you and restore your paint to like-new condition. Some Saturn dealers offer this service, I know mine does, but I always wax/polish/wash my cars myself.

The intake gaskets should have been covered under the 5year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty. I hope your dealer took care of this quickly and offered you a loaner vehicle if it took more than a day.

To help rearward visibility, I bought a Lanechanger mirror to clip onto my regular inside rearview mirror. It mounts on the top of the mirror and allows you to see further below the decklid and also shows you the blind spots on the left and right side of your quarter panels.

You can replace the backup bulbs with very bright ones. I do miss the huge backup lamps in some of my previous cars (1991 Ford Aerostar, 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88), but with the brighter bulbs I bought from JC Whitney, the small size of the lens makes no difference.

The transmission problems at 58K should also have been covered by your 5/60 powertrain warranty. I hope this also was fixed quickly and the dealer got you a loaner car.

The brake pulsations are most likely from worn and/or warped rotors. If this is occurring too frequently, it is possible either one of your calipers is sticking or that whatever shop did your brakes did not properly lubricate the pads and sliders during reassembly. I do my own brake jobs and routinely get 50K-60K out of each set of pads on the GM vehicles I have owned.

There are fixes for erratic idle, sometimes it is due to a dirty throttle body, a faulty coolant temperature sensor, or a bad idle air control motor.

Lastly, I'm 5'10" and agree with the front legroom comment. If the car was an automatic, I would put the seat all the way back, but to push in the clutch I can't do that. I wish I could move my pedals closer to the seat. The 2003-up IONs have more front legroom, as do the 1998-up VW Jetta, 2001-up Hyundai Elantra, and 2002-up Mitsubishi Lancer.

All good suggestions, but let's be honest - should a car require us to add all sorts of extra stuff, and/or treat things which should already be durable by default build quality with extra care?

The kick panels are a great example - my mom's 2000 SL2 simply doesn't have them anymore. We stopped bothering to try and put them back.

The dashboard on our car is just a rattling mess.

Overall I can't believe how poorly designed the car is in relation to how much research and development went into it. GM promised that Saturn would be a car you could compare with a Toyota or a Honda, but time has proven that this is far from the case.

I will say that our 1994 SL2 ran so well that mom bought the 2000. And that has been mechanically above average as far as the reliable factor goes - but as far as the durability and the integrity, my 1984 Honda Accord (I owned it from 1997-2000) was infinitely more solid both in and out even though it was 13-16 years old. Not a buzz or a rattle anywhere in the interior, all power options worked flawlessly. This cannot be said for even the most recent Saturns.

I bought a 1999 Saturn SL1 for my wife in 2006. Aside from the thunking into reverse when we bought it with 108k on it (which I fixed with a $400 rebuilt upper valve body, a 1 hour job which I did myself), we had no problems with this vehicle. The brakes did squeak, but once I put new pads and rotors on, it went away. I replaced the exhaust and an engine mount, changed the drive belt, and it was a great car.

We sold the car to my wife's sister to use for college and it was still running fine up until last week when she was broadsided by a 64-year old man who admitted to not paying attention and running a red light.

The car is totalled but we never had any of the supposed kickplate problems, etc., while we had it. It has 130k miles on it as it sits now awaiting the insurance settlement.

I do not own a Saturn, but my boyfriend does, and I tend to do the driving a lot.

I am 6.4 and agree with the legroom. I have to really work to get in the front seat, and trips longer than a hour or 2 make me very cramped up.

Other than that, my only complaint is about how this car drives is at highway speeds; when you need to get going, it just does not. I am used to Audi's where if I am at 65 and need to get up to 5 quick, it just does, but with the Saturn you need to really mash the gas to get it going.

I have a 2000 SL2 with 192,000 miles. The vehicle has had minimal repairs, with the most major being front wheel bearings. The engine has needed only spark plugs and a couple sensors replaced - no big deal. I just replaced stabilizer bar links myself recently. My kick plates have been intact. All electrical components have operated flawlessly. The car has some comfort issues, but look at the price point it was sold at. Overall, it was a good deal. My wife's '97 Toyota Corolla at the same mileage needed more repairs than my Saturn.