Learn me: $1500-$2000 Saturns

Certainly on this one, and I've been told by the machine shop with all the ones they'd seen, the oil consumption was in the head.

maybe the valveguide seals are going bad now that they're 15 year old cars, i don't know. they don't generally smoke at startup.

Stuck rings on the one i pulled out of the SC2 i worked on.

New motor started smoking less than 6 months after i put it in. Told him i wasn't touching the car ever again, so he's just been putting a quart or two of oil in it a week for the last year.

The plastic body panels won't rust, but I know for damn well the rest of it will.

As an appliance, just find the best sl/w 1 you can. The only reason I'm not driving an '02 SL now is the bank denied me a few years back.

I've seen a few with valveguide issues, but 99% of the time its stuck rings. If you have the motor apart, its a 15 minute fix - just drill some oil-drainback holes in the pistons. The factory pieces don't have them, so the oil stays there and gets cooked, becomes a carbon mess and jams up the oil control ring. Many of the replacement pistons have them.

It can be mitigated with periodic MMO (or ATF) piston soaks, and even 1/2qt ATF 500 miles before each oil change. Synthetic oil takes much longer to clog them, but chances are most cars you find for $1500 haven't been run on synthetic in quite some time.

I found an 01' SL for my girlfriend a few months back and its been a great car for her to rack up miles on. Its a five speed, didn't want to deal with the automatic's bad reputation of lack or involvement. She isn't much for preventative maintenance so I wanted a timing chain or non-interfence engine in her car too. As long as she remembers to check the oil it'll run for quite a while. It's survived 4 deer hits and held up pretty well.

I like driving it in the slow-car-fast mindset.

I don't think I saw it yet, but the radiators tend to crack too. I got a new one for Under $100.

belteshazzar wrote: unless you run them out of oil, they're pretty hard to hurt.

I had a co-worker who put 200k miles on his Saturn. He kept a case of oil in the trunk and the minute the oil light flickered he added another quart.

I have a sister who does not maintain her cars at all.
In 1997, I bought off of her a '90 Prizm that had 100k miles on it. It was trashed! Check oil light on (bad sensor) 4 bad tires, 4 bad shocks, dirty interior (that was a way-too light blue color), bad muffler, etc. She bought a SL2 which, unlike the Prizm, I had not recommended.
Boy was I wrong.
In 2003 the SL2 had 100k miles on it and she wanted to get rid of it. That SL2 with 100k of mostly neglected miles was in farrrrr better shape than the similarly neglected Prizm had been.
I encouraged her into a 2002 SL1 which she still has.

The thing I always say about Saturns is Honda reliability that can be had for scrap metal prices. Seems like a win-win. Plus, they're easier to work on than Hondas (mostly), parts are cheaper, it's easier to find a non-riced one, and they rust less.

Nitroracer wrote: I don't think I saw it yet, but the radiators tend to crack too. I got a new one for Under $100.

Yes, another common issue. The OE units tend to last to ~125-250k miles (shorter lifespan in colder climates). At that point they will crack. If you replace it with an Advanced Auto $100 unit, you are running on borrowed time. 95% chance it will crack again, and soon. This is very common. I personally had a car kill 2 adv. auto units, each with less than 10k miles. Not a big deal, as they are quick to change... probably less than 10 minutes if you don't have AC or Auto. After the replacing the second one in a bank parking lot in the middle of January, I said berkeley it, buying a decent unit next time.

An OE or higher quality replacement will last a long time.

There's a guy on eBay that sells Delphi radiators (the good replacements) for around $100, too. It might be the easiest thing in the car to swap that aren't wheels or a battery.