2001 Saturn SL consumer reviews

I own this car and i find it to be an excellent around the town vehicle. Although the cars exhibits a little more body roll than one would be comfortable with, that it about the only handling issue with the car. The tiny inline four is revvy and might not be the fastest on the road, but its strong enough to get you up to highway speeds in a hurry. The gas milage is wonderful and i have to grin every time i fill up for around twenty dollars. Overall the quality of the build is excellent and i have had no problems with the car and only need to have the oil changed when required. You cant get a better american car for the money.

I bought mine in 2003 with 24000 miles on it, now it has about 67000. Other than oil changes and brakes, I have not had to bring it to a garage in the 4 years that I have owned it. 40 mpg highway and about 30 mpg city. With gas prices as high as they are now...

I have owned my Saturn SL1 (my second Saturn - our first had almost NO problems!) for about 2 years and we have replaced EVERYTHING - brakes, something called a Boot, tires... it is non-stop. I only wish I had read these reviews BEFORE purchasing! I drive about 22 miles each way to work every day... the car is adequate - it gets me there, but the road noise is an issue. The seats are cheap and are broken down already. I do love that my car has both a tape player AND a CD player, but I think that was the last owner, not the company. Overall, I would definately buy something else!

The car ran ok until the transmission stopped working proplerly. This was a big mishap because the transmission would not go into drive after it had been in reverse. We could hardly go anywhere. I would not recommend this car to anyone except someone who is willing to fix it up. Which would cost a lot of money for the new transmission. Otherwise this was a good car. It had some features and good MPG around 30.

This is a fine car except for the extreme road noise . You can barely have a conversation while on the road. and to hear the radio turn it on high. With all the other features of this car how they missed insulating it is mind bongling.

The overdrive revs at 2500(rpm) at 70 mph's, and I still get (at a low in the winter in Wisconsin) 32-33 miles per gallon, in the summer 34-37+, a/c will play a big role in that. My point is I put 20,000 miles on this year and just had to change oil, I'd drive this car anywhere. This car does have every feature under the sun, but at the price I think one gets alot of car.

I've had this car for a year and I love it. I has been the most reliable car that I have ever owned. I bought this car for an extremely low price and it has never broken down on me and I haven't needed any repairs. It's at 90,000 miles now, I've put on 12,000 myself. The features are bottom of the line (manual door locks and windows), but that is not a reason to buy this car. This car is great on gas mileage, great on reliability, and performance is decent considering that this is an economy car. My sister has the same model that is a year older and she does not have any problems either, with higher mileage. We've had older Saturns in the past and they lasted to almost 200,000 miles with hardly any (and only minor) repairs!!! That is four Saturns in my family without any major mechanical problems. The car is great with accidents, too, I've been rear-ended three times and there is no body damage, just paint. When I am ready to buy a new car, I'm buying another Saturn. :-) Great for students, commuters, and people who need a car that works great on a limited budget.

Worst car I every owned. Spent more on repairs than car payments in one year. Worst dealerships to deal with and I dealt with 2. The one were I bought the car and the one closer to where my son was in school. Both were totally unresponsive. There attitude is totally you bought it, you own it, don't bother us with warranties which evidentally don't cover anything that breaks on the car. Worst corporate, they do not even response to inquires. Not even to acknowlege that they received any correspondence.

This car is not for anyone who doesn't have an obsession with maintenence. Although it is a very attractive car with many whistles and bells, keep in mind you'll spend plenty of time and money checking, re-checking and repairing all of them. I owned this car for only 6 months. When I got this car, it was used but had really low mileage and the giddy-up I was used to from driving around a Dodge Intrepid. The estimated 40mpg highway is a joke. I never got that kind of gas mileage out of this car. I worked 20 miles from home and a full tank of gas would last me only about four days. Instead of chaning the oil every 2,000 miles, it had to be done about every 800 miles because I would immediately notice a lack in performance if I didn't. This got to be pretty expensive after a while. After only six months, the transmission was about to completely die on me and there were several fluid leaks including oil leaking completely out of the car after only a 30 mile drive. I had to keep putting oil in the car every day-a quart a day kept the tow truck away and that's how I got the car around for two months before I voluntarily let the bank reposess it. It was going to cost more to fix than to keep running. I drove the car a lot and perhaps that contributed to the problems I encountered but if you're looking for a low-maintenence car that can get you from here to there with a minimal investment, I advise looking somewhere other than the Saturn SL. It's really just a money pit.

Simple car used for going to/fro for work. Transmission could be a bit better, but still gets 33+ mpg after 5 years.