1994 Saturn SL SL2 review from North America

Engine blew at 122,000km's (75,000MI)

Front end clicking when I steer and accelerate, It might be the drive shaft, but I have no idea?

Automatic seat-belts malfunctioned when a little bit of water got inside the centre console.

Lumbar support in seat sticks in my back when I sit the wrong way.

Fuel unjector went on the new engine a month after I got it.

Rotors are warped, but that is typical of many GM vehicles, But still very bad!!!

The front doors leak every time there is heavy rain or when it goes through the car wash.

Wind noise at highway speeds, both problems due to poor sealing again typical of GM products.

I have the twin cam engine with the manual transmission and I find that it has plenty of power for what ever I need it for. It would dust my '91 ford escort in a heartbeat.

The old engine had a knocking sound which got worse in the months before it died. It is not probably the best made engine, but the mechanic said that the problem stemmed from the previous owners not maintaining proper oil changes since lack of oil circulation caused the problem which the car already had when I bought it, but the knocking was so low that I didn't notice it to be out of the ordinary.

I replaced the engine since I found a really good deal on a used one with 85,000km's (50,000MI) in Montreal. It was only $1100 installed plus $250 for a new clutch since the engine was out. which is about 750USD.

Then 3 weeks later the car drove awful because of a blown fuel injector. Bought a refurbished one for $95 and had the students at the local college replace it so that wasn't too bad and the cleaned out the throttle body and after that the car had so much more power, I really urge owners of this car to get this done and the injectors cleaned too because you will notice the difference in performance and fuel economy as well.

I get around 5.8-6Litres per 100km's (44-49MPG) in the summer mixed city highway, but that is with smart gentle driving with shifting gears as soon as possible (in the 1300-1800RPM range) and not accelerating to red lights or speeding on the highway. In the winter which gets fairly cold in Ontario I get about 6.5-7.2 Litres per 100km's (36-41MPG). If you drive the Twin cam engine properly and gently it will give better fuel economy than the single cam because it is more efficient, but the Twin cam will burn more fuel if you rev it high and push it.

By the way north american cars don't like to be pushed. They will let you know that you shouldn't be reving them so high when you hear the noise they make at high RPM and since this car has such a low 5th gear you hear it a bit at highway speeds. It revs at around 2700RPM at 100km/h (62MPH) and 3400RPM at 120km/h (75MPH) Much too high in my opinion bit it is typical of most manual transmission cars.