I bought a used Saturn in the late '90s-early 2000s, after my Plymouth Colt was totaled. It was so generic I can’t even remember what model we had–maybe the SL1? My wife drove it most of the time. It was ok, basic transportation. The engine block cracked but was replaced under warranty. We sold it and I’m trying to remember why–my wife bought a newer car but I usually drive her hand-me-downs so we must have had something else that was ok.
I had an SL-1. Don’t remember the year it was. It was okay, nothing special. As I recall the body was plastic, interior pretty basic.
I took my driving test in my aunt’s Saturn. It was the most basic of cars - manual windows and doors, nothing flashy at all. And I recall a big feature was that they had doors that could withstand getting hit by out of control grocery carts (they had a little bit of “give” to them). It had little power, but got great gas mileage. It was really great as a basic, introductory car.
Later, I bought a Saturn Sky. It was a powder blue 2 door convertible with a 5 speed manual transmission. I got a lot of compliments on it; it had the same basic body style as the Pontiac Solstice. If I could have kept it as a second, weekend car, I would have. But it was never as well built as it looked, and long term reliability was going to be an issue as an everyday vehicle.
Oh yeah, I remember driving my SL1 on two lane mountain highways in California, the sort where there’s a passing lane for maybe a mile on the uphill stretches, and then goes back two two lanes. I was always in the right lane, climbing the hill in third gear, barely able to go faster than the semis.