If you can do any of the work yourself, like replacing interior parts such as seats, carpet, etc., Sandy, there's a large Pull-A-Part yard in Nashville off Centennial Blvd. They used to have a LOT of Saturns. Seats ran about $25 each. Carpet and plastic panels are very cheap. I even got a head liner for a 99 Grand Caravan I had for $15. You can just go to pullapart.com and type in the location you're interested in and check the inventory of the yard. It'll tell you what year cars they have and what row in the yard they're on. The only drawback is that it's a crap shoot whether you find what you want or not. I used to drive 170 mile round trips only to strike out on specific items. They DON'T track any inventory other than the cars.

 

I'm not sure where you are, but they have a location in Knoxville too. Knoxville yard shows to have 3 L series cars. 2000 model on row 122, 2001 on row 133 and a 2002 on row 109. I'm not sure, but THINK the seats are all interchangeable. Andy might know.

 

2005 Silverado. One lives across the street from me. Stay away. They have several manufacturer confirmed design flaws which are a pain in the *** to address and some are $$$ non DIY stuff. This seems to be the case for the 2000 ish MYs up though when they redid the truck in the late 2000's. Service dog. Same for equivalent truck across the GM line.

140K seems a long time to wait before timing bet change, the fact that your dealer didn't mention that is scary. Or I'm wrong. Andy will know,

Every month you don't have a car payment of $350 to me justifies 350/month of repairs if keeping the vehicle in good running condition is (in my mind of the rest of the car is now sound.

Water pumps fail
Wheel bearings fail (though misdiagnosed, it happens. They are sealed for life. Can't regrease them.
Ignitions fail. If it was previously owned by a day care, it had probably been cycled twice as much as the avg 140K vehicle. Things just wear out.

Did they check for possible head gasket starting to fail? You often don't get much warning but do you smell a sickly sweet smell at the exhaust pipe once the car is warmed up? Oil in the coolant/coolant in the oil?
If they see a puddle under the engine area then indeed water pump sounds like ot may be the issue.

A for check engine light, go to autozone or similar and have the codes read for FREE. Post them here Pxxxx format please and that may give us more insight as to what plagues your car.

Definitely at the pivotal point in ownership of this car.
Trying to adivise you on the decision as best we can.

For perspective, I have a 97 and 95 SC2, both of which will be driven into the ground. (about 259K each. Things that should have failed still haven't, so I won't be surprised when they do.
If you decide to run into the ground that is a major factor as to whether to put the money into repairing it. Thus justifying the mathematical example above.
If you are keeping it till it dies

 

Thank you SO much for the info!
I'm between Nashville and Knoxville, closer to Nashville but still, about 160 miles round trip. If I were good at working on cars, it would definitely be worth the drive, but I'm not. I will keep it in mind though - you never know when I might get desperate.

I just called the dealer and told them to go ahead with the repair.
So, fair warning, it looks like I'm going to be a regular here on the forum.

 

We like regulars here. The people that come and ask for advice, get their cars fixed and then never tell us are the ones that **** us off. Changing seats and other interior pieces are not difficult things to do. I'm 61 years old and still do all of my own maintenance and I'm disabled. Two brain surgeries and a couple of bad discs in the lower back have slowed me down, but not stopped me. If I can do it, I'm sure you can. Those items are just a matter of removing four bolts per seat, folding them and pulling them out. They even have wheel barrows you can use to transport the larger, heavier items, such as seats. But just like the parts, the wheel barrows are on a first come, first served basis.

 

Yeah, that's pretty rude. You guys are so nice and helpful, even if I had got rid of the Saturn I would have made an attempt to hang out in the Off-topic forum.
I'll be 61 this year... I think you have more confidence in my mechanical ability than I do... but, we'll see. Baby steps. I'll pick something small first, like the headliner that's coming loose above the driver's side window.

 

I find the easiest way to overcome the jitters associated with something I've never done/attempted is to just get in there, work slowly and methodically until you wreck it.

You then learn more about how you SHOULD have approached it as you devise a way to and successfully repair whatever you wrecked.

Therefore, on your second try, you know at least one approach you should not take.
It is possible to find unique and different ways to wreck stuff, but unless you have the engine opened, the parts to repair whatever you wrecked can usually be found at a junkyard.

The key point is that it's YOUR old car, long since paid off, and if you wreck something on it, SO WHAT? As long as it is driveable and passes inspection (if needed), and is safe to drive, it's YOUR ride and you can wreck stuff as you learn the ropes and you will find that it is not a big deal. As time passes, you will wreck less.and less.

Self confidence is half the battle. Just make sure you know what order you need to do things in, follow the directions using the appropriate tools, and review it before you start.
If you get hung up, post here, and after we're done making fun of you (jk) we'll help figure out a path forward

 

Derf is right. And a headliner is not a simple task on cars. You have to remove all of the inside plastic trim from around the windows, the a, b and c pillars and then the top seat belt anchor bolts. Sun visors and rear view mirror and dome light. Trust me, seat replacement is much, much easier than the headliner. But as stated by my buddy, derf, it's YOUR car and if you mess something up, so what? The key is to be patient and take your time. Take pictures of what things look like before your start and refer back to them when reassembling.

 

So... the saga continues.
Haven't heard anything about the car all week so I called this morning. They just got the parts today.

 

You should remind them that a courtesy phone call does a lot for a business to retain customers.