Goodbye and thank you

First, thanks to everyone on here that answers questions and helps. It has
been a great help to myself and I am sure a lot of others.

I am saying goodbye to my 97 SL2. I have nothing but good things to say how
it treated me over the years. 135,000 miles and still going strong. Only out
of ordinary maintenance I ever had was a cracked water pump. Don't consider
TAM's out of ordinary because seems like all the older Saturn's have that
problem eventually. I am selling it to a young college lady with the utmost
confidence that it will be as problem free in the future for her.

Needless to say I have not been impressed with the direction of Saturn and
body styles. IMO it has basically sold out to the GM style vehicles and has
gone a direction that has discouraged me in buying another. With that said I
have decided on an 06 Audi 2.0T Quattro, Ocean pearl blue that I pick up on
Friday.

Again,,

thanks to all, continued success with your vehilces.

 

Tim sez...

Wow, I too proudly own a 97 SL2 as well !!

It is such a shame that Saturn decided not to build their current cars like
they did back then.

Too many poor design changes over the years is to blame.

Mine is going strong. I love it. I never had such a reliable car in my life
before the Saturn.

I only have half the mileage you do.
Besides driving to/from work, my leisurely drive to New York City is also
the reason why my mileage is so low after 9½ years.

So Tim, where has your Saturn driven you over the past decade?

I'm sure you are very excited right now.

Where will you drive your new pet (er, I mean - car) ?

The EPA on the Audi A6 is on par with most SUV's, but that's what you get
with the extra horsepower of the 3.2-liter V6.

Good luck with your new car, Tim.

 

135K miles and that was having it in storage for a year and a half. I am in
the military and have done a bit of traveling along the east coast. Mainly
between VA, NC, and PA. I will be staying in the NC/VA region as I enter my
military retirement but come back doing the same job wearing a suit. Not a
bad deal if you ask me.

 

I just (quite literally) put our '93 SC2 out to pasture. '06 Mustang GT
premium (black) replaced it. 50 miles shy of 256,000 miles, mostly
headache free. Oh well.

Oddly, this marks an interesting thing - for the first time in darn near
40 years, there's no GM cars at all in the driveway in our family. Not
that that won't change - I'd still like a '70 Nova or Chevelle, or maybe
an old 50's Chevy pickup with stomp start, or a 70'sish one lifted up
and on 38" swampers. But GM's current offerings? ZZZZzzzz.

 

Are there any 1970 Nova's left on the road? I remember them as rattle traps
that rusted out in Rochester NY in 2 or 3 years. They were the beginning of
the end for American cars as I remember them.

 

No, that would be what AMC did with such great hits as the Pacer, Gremlin,
Eagle, etc. around that time...That and OPEC are what finally end the
American dominance. It was then IMO, that people first started looking at
Japanese imports with their fuel economy & low price, when everything prior
to that that had come out of that country was considered "jap junk". The
Japanese continued to improve their product while American car mfrs sat on
their collective asses until they started getting it handed to them in 80's

 

I remember be given a Nova as a loaner and driving it in very bad weather
and feeling the pressure of the water when splashing thru puddles under the
carpet. The floor pan was that thin.

 

That was just ingenuity in safety as it was designed to make you slow down
in bad weather...

Seriously, there were certain cars that were in high demand due to the
engine/speed and what you could due to modify them with lifts in the back,
rims, narrow rears, etc, etc. The most popular were the Chevelle, GTO, and
yes, the Nova - Which is probably why the OP wants one....

Scott

 

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9678792/>

The Saturn Relay (17 MPG city 23 MPG highway) is on the list of
"least fuel-efficient" vehicles. See above.

Still no Ion hybrid?

Why the odometer in the middle of the dashboard? Is that supposed
to be a safety feature? Someone please explain. It looks like it
belongs in an Edsel.

Consumer Reports had some good things to say about the SL2--it was
rated high for reliability and customer satisfaction. A few years
later, Consumer Reports dumped on the Ion. What happened?

 

Speedometer. Not odometer.

"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat
it" - George Santayana

Maybe Saturn could have saved GM--if GM had let it.

 

Hey I had one of those, my first car to be exact. I don't miss it
though the transmission had a heck of a whine to it. Years later I got
a used 6 cylinder Gremlin that could burn a little rubber. I would do
ok getting parts until the parts guy came to make and model, and that
would elicit grins to outright laughter. At least it wasn't a Yugo.
I'm on my second Saturn and it would be really hard to go back.

Keith

 

A'70 Nova that is.