I miss Uranus more than Saturn but that's a different story altogether.
I grew up putzing around in Grandma's Saturn wagon. Grandma really let me hone in my 3 pedal skills at the age of 13 in it too. I think it's because she had one too many glasses of wine at lunch but hey, those memories stuck with me forever and Saturn has always held a spot in my heart because of that. The rebadging and demise of the brand was sad. Same with Pontiac. It's a shame we got left with Buick here simply because of their success in China....
Plus their race cars.....#TBT | Want to race a Saturn? Here's some insider know-how. | Articles | Grassroots Motorsports
SL2 memories: spin-on filter for auto trans, power button- trans didn't upshift until max rpm, chirp from the tires on the 1-2 shift, 3-4 shift at 104 mph, "NO DENT DOORS", possibaly the quickest car I have ever owened.
Duke
MegaDork
2/12/24 2:56 p.m.
Speaking of keeping love alive, I saw this the other day and had to snap a pic:
pedalboy said:
chirp from the tires on the 1-2 shift, 3-4 shift at 104 mph
That was the clogged valve body, which interestingly on these cars is on the TOP of the transmission (right below battery tray).
I do miss this car often:
My bride and I were wed on 1999-03-20. (25th anniversary is right around the corner!) My father-in-law was a lifetime UAW member, and they drove anything with a GM badge on it. For the last two years she lived with him, prior to our marriage, he had her driving a 1998(?) Saturn SL.
5MT. No power steering. I think it had front lit gauges.
I've very much enjoyed reading the nostalgia in this thread, but I don't share it. I drove the Saturn a fair bit, including as the getaway vehicle from Warren First Assembly of God to the Hartville Kitchen for our reception, and then later to our wedding night lair.
By my wedding at age 28, I specialized in bad cars: multiple Fieros, a 1981 Caprice Classic Estate, a 1985 Renault Encore... you get the point. In my estimation, the Saturn had only two things going for it: it was almost new so it hadn't broken yet, and it was remarkably fuel efficient. I disliked everything else about it.
From a business perspective, it was hard to understand Saturn's inception. The intent was to prove GM could build a competitive small car? Great! The way to do this is to pour huge money into a completely new division that had its own powertrain, fabrication, assembly, and dealer network? Hey wait...
In grand GM fashion, they boogered it up. Saturn's cost overruns were so high that GM could never recouped the investment. Some say "The S series was a better car than the Cavalier of the day." Yeah, what wasn't a better car than the Cavalier? In 2002 I purchased a 1995 Ford Ford Econobox wagon with 91,XXX miles on it. It drove far better than any Cavalier, and better than my wife's SL, too. 111,000 miles later we gave that car away. It wasn't maintenance-free (shocks, tires, brakes, plugs, etc.) but it was almost repair free. I'm not suggesting the Ford Econobox was a great car; it wasn't. I'm suggesting that Saturn's product wasn't great.
A well-run organization would have used the billions of Saturn's startup dollars (an unimaginable sum for the time) to end the fiefdoms at GM, and actually improve their existing products, including their small cars. GM couldn't do this.
I remember going into my local Saturn dealer shortly after the Astra arrived. Here was a compact car that cost effectively as much as a Japanese counterpart, and it burned a lot more fuel. I couldn't work out at all the value proposition, and judging by its sales, neither could many other people.
And then there was the Ion. I remember an article in one of the prominent auto mags written after Saturn's demise, about how Chevrolet used the Ion as the basis for the Cobalt. (I rented a Cobalt in Vegas in 2009. It wasn't great, but it didn't suck.) I remember the article interviewing a Chevrolet executive who told the author that there were a lot of problems with the car they had to clean up before they started assembling the Cobalt. I believe it.
Again, I've greatly enjoyed the nostalgia in this thread. Here's to all you who love(d) your Saturns. I can relate.
It's a little strange seeing that car here, but I love it. Back in spring of 2021 I was dating an adventurous lady and bought a '94 SL2 in Mountain View CA off Cars & Bids. 23K miles and it looked like it had been in a garage all it's life. I suggested a road trip and she was game. Flew into San Diego and rented a car to drive up the coast to SFO where my daughter picked us up in the new (old) Saturn. 
We continued on north to wine country, up the hill to Tahoe, and back to Wisconsin. I have some better pics somewhere (including one of me trying to install a new stereo while she drove up a mountain on I80).
My daughter has it now. 52K miles. I was under it yesterday - haven't seen the insides of a drum brake in decades...
In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :
That SL 2 is exactly like the 92 I bought new off the showroom floor except mine was blue. Fresh out of high school (times were different, a kid with a job could afford such things then) and with my reference points being that my parents always had American cars (their most recent ride was a Buick park Avenue with a Chevrolet celebrity before that) the SL2 with its twin cam engine and manual transmission felt like a spaceship in comparison. It seemed fast and modern and maybe even a little European.
The plastic body panels and "space frame" construction also seemed state of the art and the Saturn name built off the NASA/space exploration that was a source of national pride (my generation watched the tragic challenger explosion live on one of those cart tvs they pulled into our classroom just for the occasion- space was a big deal).
if Saturn had been allowed to build on that car, they might still be around.
My first (and thus far, aside from my wife's truck which isn't truly 'mine', only) truly New car was a Blackberry (very deep purple) 2000 5-speed SL2. I still have the Polaroid of soon-to-be-college-graduate (again, was finishing my Masters) Ashyukun standing in front of it in the St Louis Saturn dealership (it's buried in a box or I'd pull it out and scan it).
I had that car for about 15 years, driving it back and forth from New England to the Mid-West multiple times and constantly being amazed at just how much crap I could stuff into it. Honestly, I'd probably still have it if The Dancer hadn't put a cap on the number of vehicles we could own (not unreasonable given our limited driveway space) and I decided to sell it so I could buy other cars to fix up, drive for a while, and then flip. I still occasionally think that I see it driving around town a decade later, though I can't be certain that it's actually mine.
As others have said, I really wish GM had let Saturn stay independent and hadn't turned it into yet another company selling rebadged Opels only to kill it off later because, surprise! it was just another division and didn't have anything really unique to offer. There was a rumor in the DeLorean community that DMC Houston tried to buy the Sky/Solstice factory & production line to use the platform to make their own new 'DeLorean,' but it either fell through or wasn't ever really a thing (which reminds me, I've not heard anything lately about the 'new' electric DeLorean, which I imagine was yet another attempt by DMC-H to try and drum up news coverage).
About the only things I'd do differently were I to be able to do it all over again would be to 1. have bought a SW2 instead of an SL2 for even more carrying capacity and 2. have sold the El Camino sooner so I could keep the Saturn as a DD for at least a bit longer.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Damn, that thing looks GOOD with those wheels. I always liked that body style. My best friend's dad bought one new when we were in highschool. I think it has aged well, actually. Although, I haven't seen one in real life in years.
Remember the 90s when this was a huge key? I would pay good money for a key that small now.
So much love for my first car, a 1995 SL2 manual in that teal color. 95 is the best year because cool original body, but vastly improved updated interior. Bought it off my aunt in 2004 with 99,000 miles on it. She had it since new, and instead of fixing up brakes, tires, and suspension bought a new Highlander hybrid and gave it to me for $500. The weekend I picked it up I drove from NJ to Pittsburgh, picked up 2 college buddies, and went camping in Canada. We put 1500 miles on it with the steering wheel 30 degrees off center and bad tires and brakes. I found out at 6'2" that I could sleep diagonally in the trunk with the front seat forward.
First car I ever did an oil change on, after the warning light came on in WV and the dipstick showed empty at the nearest quicklube (a walmart) so they refused to do it. Also learned to change brake pads (never did drums or fluid) on it, and changed the radiator. It kept heating up on long drives but would cool when I put the fan on the heater core. Found cracks in the plastic tanks on the side so the rad only had 1/2 coolant in it.
it was the car I brought my first dog, a German shepherd, home in. 124HP was super fun with 2800 lbs and stick, tore up mountain roads all over Appalachia. Always got at least 35mpg. It also was great at hauling kayaks on the roof with just some foam blocks and cam straps through the doors. I wish I had the pictures of an 8 person whitewater raft (Avon Ranger) on it.
I put 140,000 miles on the car, and after I got married I sold it to my neighbor (after teaching her stick) for $800. I would love to find one to keep in the future, but hard to find now!
ProDarwin said:
Remember the 90s when this was a huge key? I would pay good money for a key that small now.
These industries don't get that men hate large keys. Or they just don't care.
In reply to Dneikirk :
Too late to edit, but found a photo! Proper kayak carriage was discovered to be 180 in both horizontal and vertical planes.
and my favorite part of the keys, there was a spare for your wallet that was the size of a credit card. You could unfold the key from the card to use it!
edit to add photo of key card from saturnfans forum.
