I inherited a 99 SL1 when my grandpa died. I have little to praise about the thing other than the 39 mpg.

When I got it, the coolant light was on. I flushed it, and 2000 miles later the light is back on. I took the cap off, and smelled oil fouling, and had several other people at my school (almost done getting an auto mechanic degree) smell it too, and they agreed, smells like engine oil, probably indicating a messed up head gasket, which I think is fairly unforgivable at 70,000 miles in a car that's been utterly stock and babied its entire service life.

Perhaps even more annoying is the way it handles. At 75 mph or so, it starts to feel like it's getting ready to spin out and crash because of the terrible aerodynamics, and the steering is perhaps the worst I've ever felt on a compact car. It's about as precise as the econoline I used to have, and there is no problematic wear I can find in the suspension and steering components, and the alignment I did sure didn't help.

But the worst thing I've experienced yet is the EGR malfunctions. Much like in another recent thread, I've been having intermittent EGR malfunctions. Normally, with the way most cars are engineered, this wouldn't be too big of an issue, just a pestering light and perhaps as I understand it a hotter running temp. But apparantly the Saturn engineers felt it necessary to program it so that when the EGR starts acting up, the car should spike the RPM's to about 3000-3500 at idle, and stall out frequently, in addition to occasionally not allowing it to start by way of turning off the fuel injectors, which I managed to get past to get home yesterday by resetting the computer by disconnecting the battery, and disconnecting the wiring harness on the valve, which enabled me to drive home while getting about 5 mpg at 3000 ish RPMs at idle.

Now granted I'm a relative new comer to car mechanics. I've only been a backyard mechanic and automotive student for about 3 years. But I cannot think of any reason at all why they would have engineered the car to go nuts when the EGR stops working as far as the computer knows. My crown victoria got a nice power boost and was much more responsive when I got rid of the EGR.

So, long story short, I'm pissed off at my SL1 in no small way, and curious if anyone wants to try to convince me of any redeeming values it might have.

 

Maybe you are expecting too much from a 11 year old, 2000$ car.

 

Possibly, but I've always driven old cars. This is my newest one yet, and it's also been my most problematic.

 

Dunno,
my 94 SC2 tracks nicely at 75, and will go bunches quicker, never had a problem with the EGR in the 16 years I owned it and the only time I really got pissed off at it is when I was not paying any attention to what I was doing and bounced if off of a curb. It pulled badly untill I got it re-aligned.
I just looked at a new Nissan Ultima coupe. Nice car, not worth $25,000 more than my 16 year old Saturn, but that's personal preference.
So I guess I'll just wait awhile, maybe a new Caddy Coupe when they come out and I can find one used, about a year or so old.

 

my '93SW2 will easily exceed it "birth year" digits, and I have the ticket to prove it --if ya wanna by it (the ticket only), it's $337.50