This car was bought to solve a particular problem that showed up for our third son and came about in a strange set of circumstances not of his making. I never particularly envisioned myself owning this car but it makes an interesting contrast to the 2006 Hyundai Elantra I already had. While I only owned it for a short time before it passed into his ownership, I can now add the unique body style of a three door coupe to my COAL history.
Earlier this year our family faced a conundrum as our youngest son needed to get his driver’s license. While he was a little more reluctant to do so than his older siblings as he had limited interest in cars themselves or the costs associated with them but he had a part time job across town. The small time gap between school ending and his job starting ruled out the bus as a means of travel as the route was not a great match against our local transit route options. He had been relying on mid day rides from Mom and Dad which I was eager to see the end of.
Image Source via Creative Commons – https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/14689593349/
We had done the “right” thing and enrolled him in driver training so he would be well prepared for the test. They would teach him all the nuances for traffic circles so, in theory, I would not pass on any poor or technically incorrect habits. We selected the same company that my two older boys had used a few years previously with great results. Crucially, they would also allow you to purchase an extra lesson if your child was not quite ready for the test. Another big bonus of this arrangement was that the company allowed the student to use their vehicle for the test. This was some flavor of a late model car with an automatic transmission decked out with the driver training companies logos. While this had all worked out well with the older sons the company must have changed hands or management as they all but reneged on these two items. The instructor said my son needed at least one more lesson before he would pass the training, which is no problem, but when can I book him in? Apparently six months later was the answer which I found highly unsatisfactory.
This left us without the insurance discount associated with passing the training and they would not let him use their car for the test while being out the cost of the course. The driver company stopped responding to any queries shortly after. Given that we could either start over with a new driving company or I could take on the role of getting him ready for the test I choose the second option. Unfortunately, our fleet of vehicles was a less than ideal for the task. My wife has a near new Volkswagen Tigen SUV which is both large and worth money ramping up the anxiety for the new driver as well as his (Dad) instructor. My car was a Hyundai Elantra with a five speed manual gearbox with a clutch very near the end of its life. Given the options he got the additional task of learning to drive stick a little earlier than expected.
Once he was able to get over the initial mechanics of the clutch and accelerator pedal dance to get the car underway it became clear that the driving instructor company had failed to do much in the way of any effective instruction so we would be starting from basics with the extra challenge of changing one’s own gears tossed in. While I understand it is very common to learn on a manual in many other parts of the world it is undoubtedly easier to go automatic first while learning the basics of steering and braking. Given this, my son did quite well and was able to navigate traffic with only the very occasional stall after a short time.
We reached the point of parallel parking which, no surprise, he had not been taught. This is a tricky skill for new drivers to learn even without the added complication of needing a bit more mastery of the clutch to be completed first. The driver’s test had an informal requirement of being able to parallel park on a hill (they generally combine the hill park and parallel park sections) which could cause even an experienced driver to sweat a little bit in a stick shift car. We also learned that a punitive amount of points would be deducted for every stall on the test. At this point I had to throw in the towel on it being reasonable for him to pass the test in my car. To be clear I do not blame my son or anyone but it was just a tough set of circumstances. This meant some cheap car shopping which is always something I enjoy although that joy was blunted somewhat by the requirement of small car and automatic transmission. I do not mind a bigger, more powerful vehicle with an automatic but a smaller, lower powered vehicle always feels more alive with the ability to change your own gears. Given the price range we would be shopping in all the automatics we would encounter would likely be of the old school “slushbox” variety.
The usual seller ad photo with mandatory thumb over plate.
Selection in the “just above scrap value” price range is very limited these days so I was prepared to purchase something that had a price starting with a two and four whole digits for a change. After checking out a handful of duds we settled on a 2002 Saturn SC1 coupe. It had lower mileage (180k kms or 110k miles) than most and thanks to its mostly plastic panels still looked “respectable” to my wife’s eyes. I knew it would probably need a little bit of work to be roadworthy but it appeared to be a solid bet. My son seemed happy with it and despite his indifference to cars I think he appreciated the sporty looks. As his first car I appreciated its dull and predictable driving experience that completely failed to backup those looks.
The interior was reasonably nice place to be, at least in the front seats, although seats had a few rips in the seams covered by cheapo seat covers.
The jack in the trunk likely had a story to tell with that impressive bend. Luckily the chassis of the car was super clean and did not show any matching damage.
The SC1 was by no means perfect with the worst cosmetic issue being peeling black paint on the door pillar which was easily sorted. My local Member of Parliament was useful in providing some paper to mask it off while painting with whatever black paint I had lying around.
I bought my son in to assist with an oil change and mini service to start off on the right foot. Interesting bit of trivia; the transmission filter is very easy to spot underneath the car and is shaped EXACTLY like an oil filter. The oil filter is much harder to spot and access. So the car got an unscheduled transmission service as well. Do not worry we had jack-stands under the car as well.
Like many Saturns of this era this one suffered from the occasional low idle while not in motion. I cleaned up the throttle body and replaced the idle air control valve which made it better but did not solve the problem completely so there will have to be a part two to this fix.
The biggest issue was the bald rear tires. The front snow tires were almost new and luckily I was able to find a matching pair for the rear.
A couple weeks into my ownership the radiator sprung a leak so I dug in to replace that which was not too bad of job. The only annoyance was having to drain the transmission fluid again as the cooler is built into the radiator.
Luckily my son was able to pass his test and after some negotiation we sold the car to him concluding my ownership of it but it continues to reside at the house.
But wait! That is not all. Last week my son came home with the side mirror dangling off the passenger side. He had hit a garbage bin that someone (or more likely the wind) had left in the middle of the road. This meant a trip to the local scrapyard that luckily had a similar year sedan in stock. They also had a SC1 coupe in stock without a mirror so I was able to verify the sedan mirror fit the coupe before buying the part.
While the design is a little different the mirror swapped on without any drama making the Saturn hole once again. I see some engine mount replacement work in my future but the Saturn continues to serve him well otherwise.
Saturns were quite serviceable and gained a sort of cult following due more to philosophy than technical prowess.
GM refused to invest in a new platform (jealousy? It was probably already better than the Cruze) so it went the way of the Edsel.
In my opinion if it had gone farther away from the mainstream, like weirder, 2CV weird, I might have even bought one
That’s sure a non-boring start to driving. These SC1s are oddballs but perhaps that helped lower the price. The pickings at the $2,000 mark are awfully slim so I’m impressed you managed to find a car that even resembles the condition it rolled out of the showroom in. Both of my $2,000 cars are rather on the post-apocalyptic side.
Your comment about the body panels looking “respectable” brought back some memories. When I was shopping for my first car in 1967 I was interested in a 10 year old Volvo 544. My mother thought it was so ugly that she said she would not let me park it in the driveway. I don’t think she was really serious, but I ended up with a much newer Austin 1800. The Volvo would probably have been a better buy.
We had an OK experience with our kids’ driving instructor, the same one with a two year gap. But I suspect the quality has gone down, or at least is less consistent, than when it was the gym teacher at the high school. Or if you were lucky, the auto shop teacher. I don’t think either of our kids had to do parallel parking on their tests, and definitely not hill parking as the DMV was in the flat valley part of Silicon Valley.
But the best part of your story for me was seeing the Value Village store in the background of the opening photo. That brought back a flood of memories, none good, of shopping in a store of that name. Could it be the same – in the San Francisco Bay Area, not Alberta? A quick trip to their website shows that Value Village, with that same graphics, started in the Bay Area in the ‘50’s, though it was originally Thrift Village. But by the time I was in HS it was definitely Value Village.
I grew up about 8 miles north of the Saturn factory in Spring Hill TN. These were EVERYWHERE in the 90s/00s. In fact my buddy had a yellow 3 door SC when we were in college, loaded with black leather seats. I know his parents spent a good chunk of change on that car cause it was maybe a couple years old.
I thought these were a HUGE step up over a Cavalier or junky ass Dodge Neon(yes even in the early 00s Neons were considered a trailer trash pos) Still not in the same league as a Civic or Celica though. I drove my buddies yellow sc(automatic) and found it VERY SLOW and boring. Of course I was driving an LS1 Camaro at the time. Otherwise it was okay, not as useful as the hatchback Camaro either.
But the OG Saturns were good, reliable cars for the time, no major GOTCHA mechanically(Neon headgasket) Every once in a while I still see one, usually a 2nd gen car like this though.
Timely topic, since I’m taking my daughter for her learner’s permit test this coming Tuesday. I’ll be living the life of teaching a new driver soon too.
It’s interesting to read about the rules and requirements for drivers license test in different places. Here in Virginia, things are done a bit oddly. New drivers can get their permits at age 15-and-a-half, but need to be 16 and 3 months to take the actual license test. Most of that nine months is required to be practice with parents.
After 40 hours of (self-logged) time with parents, the kid will need to hire a private company for driver’s education. That seems backwards because, like you noted, parents will pass on poor habits before the Drivers Ed folks get a chance to teach. But the oddest part is that there’s no official State License Test. The “test” is really the final Drivers Ed lesson. And just about everyone passes, because it’s not in the company’s financial interest to fail anyone. Anyway, I’m looking forward to teaching my daughter, and fortunately she’s looking forward to the process.
As for cars, we have two minivans – I’ll be teaching her mostly on our 2010 Odyssey, which is smoother to drive than our newer 2018 Sedona. We also still have our 1995 Thunderbird, but it’s been suffering from a few maladies that my mechanic can’t seem to rectify, and I’m losing patience with spending money on that car. I wouldn’t mind using it as a daily driver for myself, but sadly my wife and I are considering just getting rid of it and buying another (cheap) car. I’d rather that not happen since cheap cars come with cheap car problems, but the T-bird doesn’t seem a good fit for us right now.
Anyway, I’m glad to read about your Saturn, and about your son successfully passing his test. Seems like a good buy, and I hope it serves him well!
Well, that’s a complicated start, and a seemingly better result so far, it’s highly annoying when a formerly trustworthy supplier becomes less so.
My son is also a disinterested driver, he protested mightily against being forced to learn a manual transmission. This caused me to use one of my best parenting lines “If you put as much effort into learning this as you’re putting into telling me you can’t do it, you’d be quite good by now!”
Earlier this year I was surprised to hear him bemoaning that once it comes time for a newer vehicle he will probably be stuck with an automatic, because he likes driving standard! So there is hope.
This reminds me of our experience with a 97 SL2 sedan. We also had a radiator leak, which led to an epic drive home from the dump stopping to refill it several times, then hitching a ride to Autozone for a replacement. Oddly our car seemed to hace a separate automatic transmission cooler since I have no recollection of disconnecting transmission lines. We did service the transmission anyway since our car developed the typical “reverse slam” where a buildup in the valve body caused the car to hesitate and then engage reverse abruptly. The quick fix for this is a drain and fill with additive, the less quick is a rebuilt valve body.
Regardless of these foibles this the car our son learned to drive in and passed his test in, and also the car he got stuck in the snow and learned about using floor mats as traction aids. Our son is a car enthusiast with a small fleet, including an old Corolla bought specifically because it had a manual transmission. His sister has proved to be reluctant, only passing here test at age 21.
Sadly the Saturn did not last beyond that as another Saturn S series weakness grenaded the transaxle so after 15 years of service we scrapped it. There is a pin in the differential that occasionally falls out, which breaks the transaxle housing. With no space and no desire to spend more than the car was worth we got our first new car in almost 25 years
I had a ’96 twin cam SL2. Loved that car. Automatic, got it from the original owner with 78K on the clock. Drove it 10 years, racking up 280K trouble free miles. Did have to replace the starter once, It came with a French made Paris-Rhone starter, not a Delco. And the spin on trans filter is a nice touch. (there is also a filter inside the trans too)
Had a SL2 for eight years. Good choice for new drivers.
Excellent choice! Here in Ontario, this SC1 would be considered an exotic. I do appreciate their styling more now, as they are exceptionally rare. The last Saturn I recall spotting, was an L-Series sedan last summer. And an Ion, a couple months earlier. Of course their exteriors, generally age well.
You are always a great storyteller. I enjoyed this, thank you! I hope this unique auto, continues to grow on your son.