By Marcal Eilenstein
For your Wagon Wendesday enjoyment, I present you the venerable Saturn SW. If there was ever a car with all kinds of possibilities, it’s a Saturn wagon. Plus, it’s (kinda) brown!
The second-generation SW was produced for four years, and like the sedan and coupe lines, earned a reputation for dependable performance and good build quality. Saturn has always attracted a sort of cult following, even moreso now that GM axed the brand.
The seller doesn’t offer much detail here, but let’s see what we can surmise:
1997 Saturn Wagon – not running, motor seized. Good parts car or throw a motor in it. Body mostly straight, drive train good shape except motor, seats & interior good, missing headliner, clean title. $300 OBO. Act soon, it’s going to the crusher next week if no decent offers a bit above scrap price. Will deliver in Springfield area.
Typically dirty beige interior is dirty.
Drivetrain in excellent shape except for the motor. Well yes, in the same way that the interior is clean except for the dirt. Semantics, I suppose.
But no matter: for $300, you could tow this to the scrapyard and make a profit. Better yet, put a $500 engine in it and sell the whole thing for a couple grand. Great success!
When it comes to motors, the world is your oyster. How about an LS4 5.8 swap?
Saturn always made cars that you hated to love, but you did anyway. They were/are dependable as the day is long, run for decades, and always get you where you going, even today. GM did the world a favor by spinning Saturn off as its own brand back in 1985, proving that American cars can be as dependable, economical, and reliable as anything from Asia or Europe.
This post is dedicated to my old man, who has been keeping SL’s on the road for 15 years.
[Source: Springfield Craigslist]
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski
“Mostly straight” could be a character reference from Regular Car Reviews. ..
Did Saturn do the GM trick of selling it on other continents under other badges, so non-US folks could enjoy US reliability? (I’m not being smirky about that, I believe what I read on the Internet)
Nope, the S-series managed to survive its entire lifespan being neither badge engineered from, nor to any other product.
LeMons is calling. Keep with the Saturn theme by surrounding it with a ring as wide as the track.
“seats & interior good, missing headliner” How does one go about misplacing the headliner? It’s not small and easily misplaced among the tools and old jars of screws on your workbench.
Probably got sick of the fabric hanging down on their head and obstructing the rear view mirror, and just ripped it all down.
He must have forgotten to keep oil in it. I have a similar vintage SL2 sedan and as long as you stay on top of oil consumption the engines last a long time. Also the interior plastics for that color are definitely brown, and the headliners do fail in hot climates, my car came from Florida and when we go ti the fabric was hanging down,
Second gen Saturns were so ugly, it’s no wonder GM had to kill the brand. That said, they did come out with a couple of nicer, new models just before Saturn got axed. Re-badged Opels? There was the Astra, and that larger model. But those SW and SL models, and the larger one were hideous.
these look really cool slammed
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8380/8672889093_40c543fc2e_c.jpg
Make a profit? I guess you haven’t checked scrap metal prices
lately, McCoy is $90 a ton and CMC shows $110 a ton.
Too bad it’s not an RHD mail delivery car. At least it would have some novelty.
I want it! I’ve been wanting to turn one of these into a Houston Art Car for years, except I have no workspace for it. It could probably be made to toot its way through a parade on a lawnmower engine, right?
I always wanted a wagon like that.