Hello. Im new. I've never owned a Saturn. I was into early to mid 80's Mercedes 300D. I found a 2003 LW300 with the V6. 63k miles, clean title and no problems (they say) for $2000. I'm looking to get a car for my soon to be 16 year old to drive. Seems like a great deal to me. Should I go for it? Anything I should watch out for with these vehicles? It seems in really good shape.

 

Is there any record of a timing belt change? 10 years or 100k miles. Interference engine. I love my 2002.

 

You say you found a good deal and should you buy.
No. Wait until you find a bad deal then buy.

 

Get the maintenance records and make sure the engine is cold before you test drive it.
If the check engine light is on, get the codes read at autozone or similar during your test drive. It's free.
Looks garage kept -- as in low miles bc it lived in garage. Not necessarily a bad thing

 

I'd say buy it. What 16 year old boy wouldn't want to drive a station wagon?

 

Since you are familiar with German cars you will like this one. This is a GM Europe car, it is actually an Opel Vectra B. It was assembled in the US but when you cannot find suspension parts here they are still available from Europe.

 

Well i was all set to go for it, but the seller is now ghosting me. Maybe he sold it but he won't answer anymore texts. Its a shame. Thanks for the replies and the help. You guys are awesome.

 

Somehow missed your post about the seller ghosting you. Went ahead and posted this for any future lurkers to the forum.

Dunno about LW series but my L200 (purchased in 2016 at 65K, now in 2025 has 88K on it) has been very reliable except for the annoyance of accidentally triggering the safety lockout that occurs too often. What happens is if I fumble with the key fob and press the wrong buttons in the wrong order, the lock lite starts flashing on the dash and it won't start. I have to shut it off, back on without attempting to start it, and just sit looking at my phone for exactly 10 minutes. The light comes on steady, and then I can start it.
And just recently, the car started to hesitate a little when accelerating from a stop light. Took it to the shop and they replaced the coil pack which fixed the issue.
Have had two other issues with the car...one where the cabin fan controller module went bad, it's in a little cubby hole behind the glove compartment box. Fan wasn't running so no heating or cooling. Bought a new one from Rock Auto.
And an ongoing issue with the dash light controller system. The dash lights start flickering. Some owners have been able to clean the small brightness control that is supposed to adjust brightness and that fixes it. Others, like with mine, just cleaning that device doesn't fix it. Still working on that one but unplugging the control (brightness control and trunk release are both in that module) causes the lights to go to full brightness (which is too bright in my opinion) but at least I have dash lighting without the annoying flickering.
So those are the only issues I have had with the Saturn so far. I'm very pleased with the car overall since it's a dream to tow behind my RV and any car is going to have issues.