1995 Saturn SW Reviews

1.9 DOHC engines leak oil; I go through about a quart every 400 miles. I been using SAE 30 and it doesn't leak out as fast. I read online that the rings in these cars aren't the best, but it's no major concern, just be sure to check your oil once a week to be on the safe side.

When it rains, wet spots appeared on the driver back floor board. I ripped part of the carpet back, and found the problem; some of the welding around the emergency brake cable wasn't sealed, and water drained in from the rear of the car as rain would run down into the car. I used a "form a gasket" tube of this rubbery stuff from Advanced Auto, and ran it all around the welded area; seems OK so far.

One drawback is it's hard to work on by yourself. If the alternator goes out, good luck, it's located under the engine and you need a mechanic to replace it. It's also hard to change the serpentine belt; in fact I can't do it, and take that to the mechanic to change as well.

The lighter seems to always blow out a fuse. I don't smoke, so I threw the lighter away, but use the port for my cell phone charger, as well to charge my GPS.

One of the best features about this car (that no one mentions) is it does NOT have timing belt, but has a timing CHAIN, and probably won't ever need changing.

All those drivers who had a timing belt snap on you, and the car dies in the middle of nowhere; they know what I am talking about. Plus those belts need changing about every 60,000 miles, and get costly.

The car has excellent power for a 4 cylinder. Nice and quiet. Handles nice, looks sporty and cool.

Had a decent sound system, I since put in an MP3/CD player, but it still has original speakers.

Really, for the money, this car blows away the Ford Escort Wagon; I used to own one and it's a good car, but this Saturn Wagon was far superior, and yet you rarely see them on the roads.

I had to replace the dome (interior ceiling) light after someone borrowed it and returned the car with it swinging by the wires. At the junkyard, most of the Saturns of this vintage had the dome lights removed already, which tells me it's a common problem.

Other than that, NOTHING: we just changed the fluids (oil every 5,000; transmission @ 50,000) and the brakes, and the dumb thing just ran and ran.

Once I put decent (but not expensive) tires on it, it handled like a sports car (I once had a Porsche, and know what I'm talking about).

Visibility is excellent, even to rear, and the "wagon" is big enough to actually put stuff in without folding down the rear seats. (Much better in both respects than a Civic, for example.)

Gas mileage is disappointing: around 20 typically. The automatic lets the engine rev too high: it's rarely below 2,000 RPM, even when driven gently.

A 10-year-old car with NO "dings," dents or scratches, thanks to plastic body panels and flexible paint. Only the hood is metal.

Generally a bit noisy: interior parts tend to creak and rattle, engine buzzes a little.

Reliability has been amazing; it doesn't get any better than this.

The extremely strong "space frame" construction makes it very safe, even though it's pretty small: my wife was in a high-speed accident (on the highway) with it, and although the engine compartment was "mushed," the rest of the car was perfect, so much so that the insurance company didn't "total" it, and fixed it. (No injuries in the Saturn, either.) We drove it for another 5 years after that, with no problems.

Even though the automatic SW1 is the slowest Saturn ever built, it's fast enough to keep up with any kind of traffic, as long as you don't mind "flooring it" on the occasional short up-hill on-ramp.

It's a shame the newer Saturns have little of the innovative technology in this old one.

We just sold this one, because my wife was just plain tired of it. I never sold a car before with nothing wrong with it. My mechanic said I was an idiot for selling it, but he's divorced.