1993 Saturn SL SL1 review from North America

The 1993 Saturn SL1 is a highly unreliable vehicle in terms of maintenance costs. My fiancee and I have had this car since 2000 and her mother since it rolled out in 1993. The vehicle itself ran just fine until it hit the 100,000 mile mark. Then everything went wrong.

Head gasket cracked, engine started to overheat, A/C was completely useless (except to turn on the engine fan so that it could cool the engine), interior reading lights wouldn't turn on or wouldn't turn off, door seals started leaking when it was raining, roof of the car got damp after the rain, gear shifter would not activate locking mechanism once you put the car in park, shifter cable was bad, fuel indicator would go from full to half after traveling 50 miles on the interstate, and the oil.

Talk about a guzzler. The SL1 in recent years has been consuming tons and tons of motor oil between oil changes. I have to put in about 3 quarts of oil in between oil changes. Thank goodness there's a dealership in town that offers a $5.95 oil change. It's, of course, not the local Saturn dealership.

The vehicle is reliable in the sense that it is fuel efficient and it will get me from Point A to Point B. It seems to me that all Saturn dealerships are instructed to tell SL1 and SL2 owners that these design flaws are our fault while we shell out thousands of dollars to correct every little problem.

Funny thing is, the SL1 that we own is not worth more than $1300 at trade-in according to Kelly Blue Book. With all the money we've pumped into the car, we could've bought a newer used car.