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[Tanner Lovelace <lovelace AT wayfarer.org>]

On Thu, 2002-06-27 at 09:51, David R. Matusiak wrote:
> quick addendum:
> 
> much like the "if you have to buy korean, go with hyundai," i would say "if 
> you 
> *HAVE* to buy american, go with saturn." the best feature of the saturn is 
> that 
> they are the only dealerships that train their sales people NOT to be 
> annoying.
> dave ;)

Hi Dave and everyone else,

While my Honda evidence may be anecdotal (and, btw, I've written
to my friend asking him to respond personally about that), I 
owned a saturn for 7 years and believe I can speak with some
authority about Saturns.

Buying a Saturn is an absolute pleasure.  You end up paying more
than you will for many other cars (Saturns have some of the highest
margins in the business), but in return you don't have to deal
with "sleazy" salespeople (like the Toyota guy that wouldn't
let me get more than 5 feet away from him while I walked over 
the entire lot looking at cars!).  

The cars, themselves, however, I have a few nitpicks with.  Saturn
has had problems with their brakes and rotors rusting.  I believe they
have fixed it by now, but I was personally bit by this several times.
They also have problems with the motor mounts causing the
motor to vibrate excessively and make a horrible noise.
There are also a few other small problems, with the biggest being
that you absolutely have to follow the maintenance schedule 
religiously (almost no margin for error).

Am I glad I bought a Saturn?  Yes.  Even with all it's faults,
it was the best domestic built car at the time.  Would I buy
another one?  Probably not.  I don't particularly care for their
new body style and the entire culture at the main plant that
allowed them to design good cars in the first place has been
thrown out and made just like all the other GM plants. :-(

So, I would definitely say buy a foreign car (yes, Dave, I agree
the German ones are the best) but, if you absolutely must buy an
American car, go with Saturn.

Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace AT wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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