PENDING SALE
Hey,
I’m considering selling my girlfriend’s 1995 Saturn SW2 and buying her something new against her will. It kind of sucks, but not enough for you to not drive it in the winter. Here’s why:
Info:
1995 Saturn SW2
4 Speed Automatic
Factory Roof Rack (2 kayaks, no problem. Really. Get yourself some ratchet straps.)
160k (roughly) on the clock
No rust.
Good stuff:
- It starts.
- It drives places still.
- It spent its entire life until 2010 in Texas so the underbody is actually clean as hell still. I personally haven’t found any rust on this car at all.
- It’s plastic.
- Interior is decent for the age of the vehicle (headliner has a little sag, couple of stains but not unacceptable/destroyed)
- It’s great for picking up ladies who don’t care about your socioeconomic status.
- It would be the ideal vehicle to impregnate a resident of South Buffalo in.
- I’m the sole owner on the title and have the clear title on premises.
- It’s been maintained pretty well under my ownership. These repairs have been made in the past 3 years and 20k miles or so:
– Regular Oil Changes
– Front brake pads (rotors were/are fine, these were done last summer and probably have seen less than 10k miles)
– Serpentine belt
– New Radiator + full cooling system flush
– A handful of lower suspension parts (I believe I’ve had tie rods & at least one ball joint done, but I can’t remember which of)
– Valve cover gasket (These are notorious for burning oil - the valve cover gasket was done about 10k miles ago and it has shown no signs of warping/burning since. Prior to that, it was definitely burning oil but it was never ran low.)
– New windshield (this was done 3 years ago when the car was purchased - it currently has one tiny stone chip in the new windshield which was sealed and has not grown or failed inspection in 3 winters)
– New passenger side mirror
Bad stuff:
- Air conditioning isn’t cold anymore.
- Front wheels have 1 season snows on them (at best) and rear wheels have “should have been replaced 2 seasons ago” all seasons on them. I’d recommend making this a priority item.
- Rear drum brakes have seen better days - I’d recommend fully replacing the drums, shoes, hardware kit & wheel cylinders. This can be done for roughly $100 in parts from partsgeek if you feel like taking it apart yourself.
- E Brake doesn’t stay up. It does work and has passed inspection for 3 years but I’m sure that would be an opinion of your tech.
- Some jackass backed into the passenger front fender and cracked the plastic body, left no note. Classy move. This was never fixed because Saturn wagon. This has no effect on car structure, hood function, et cetera. Picture is attached.
- When hot, the transmission sometimes likes to kick into reverse if you throttle it quickly after picking the R on the gear selector. After realizing (again) that I hate automatic transmissions and reading more about how they work, I have found that it is recommended to not flush the fluids because apparently these GM products from this era are famous for blowing seals after you stir up whatever shavings are kicking around in that autobox. This problem has not progressed or shown signs or worsening during the time we’ve owned the car so I figured that it was better to let it go.
- Clear coat and paint have seen better days. The car is from Texas as previously stated and the sun did it no favors down there. Also, there is some white road paint sprayed from the front tires onto the front quarters due to a sloppy road crew. I suppose you aren’t buying this car for looks, though.
Price: $1100 b/o. This price is mostly due to the fact that the car is a southern car and still has rocker panels which are fully in tact.
