SaturnFans.com Forums - View Single Post - Looking for opinions on buying 2000/SC1 2001/SL1

m715 · 03-10-2009, 08:53 AM

Well I have been looking for an inexpensive ($2500 or less) 2nd car that’s good on gas, so the Saturn 5-speed SC/SL series fits that nicely. I’ve searched the forums pretty good and found a bunch of good questions to ask and what to watch for when looking at these cars.

So far I’ve only had phone conservations:

2000 SC1 3-door, 5-speed w/ 121k miles overall and 56k on engine - $1200
- About 2-3k miles ago the car blew a head gasket, and the owner had another motor put in w/53k miles at a shop and a new clutch. Clean interior, light front deer hit, hood dented and small crack in bumper, no rust clean interior, brakes done 2k miles ago. Said may need ball joints soon, how could i check this?
- The seller is just really had to pin down to see the car. There is a pick a parts nearby with a bunch of saturns and good body parts so that would be an easy fix.

2001 SL1 5-speed w/ 75k miles and AC - $2500
- Owners bought for their son in college in 2003, early on the car was lightly rear ended in Chicago and fixed professionally, but basically they can’t tell me anything about maintenance, except it had recent brake work, was just inspected and has new serpentine belt and says the car is clean. In a second conservation she said they check the oil every fill up and that the car is using 1/2 quart of oil per fill up (so about 1qt/700-800miles)…this seems excessive with the mileage and makes me wonder if it is because of the lack of maintenance? Did her son always check the oil? Even though it has low miles, I’m thinking it might be a walk away…

Most of the other cars I have seen have been much higher prices or way higher miles for the same price; I’m mostly watching craigslist (Binghamton/Ithaca/Elmira) as autotrader for Saturns seems way overpriced.

03-10-2009, 08:53 AM	#1
m715 New Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: NY Posts: 2	Looking for opinions on buying 2000/SC1 2001/SL1 Well I have been looking for an inexpensive ($2500 or less) 2nd car that’s good on gas, so the Saturn 5-speed SC/SL series fits that nicely. I’ve searched the forums pretty good and found a bunch of good questions to ask and what to watch for when looking at these cars. So far I’ve only had phone conservations: 2000 SC1 3-door, 5-speed w/ 121k miles overall and 56k on engine - $1200 - About 2-3k miles ago the car blew a head gasket, and the owner had another motor put in w/53k miles at a shop and a new clutch. Clean interior, light front deer hit, hood dented and small crack in bumper, no rust clean interior, brakes done 2k miles ago. Said may need ball joints soon, how could i check this? - The seller is just really had to pin down to see the car. There is a pick a parts nearby with a bunch of saturns and good body parts so that would be an easy fix. 2001 SL1 5-speed w/ 75k miles and AC - $2500 - Owners bought for their son in college in 2003, early on the car was lightly rear ended in Chicago and fixed professionally, but basically they can’t tell me anything about maintenance, except it had recent brake work, was just inspected and has new serpentine belt and says the car is clean. In a second conservation she said they check the oil every fill up and that the car is using 1/2 quart of oil per fill up (so about 1qt/700-800miles)…this seems excessive with the mileage and makes me wonder if it is because of the lack of maintenance? Did her son always check the oil? Even though it has low miles, I’m thinking it might be a walk away… Most of the other cars I have seen have been much higher prices or way higher miles for the same price; I’m mostly watching craigslist (Binghamton/Ithaca/Elmira) as autotrader for Saturns seems way overpriced.