1997 Saturn Sc1 Base Coupe 2-door 1.9l on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2004 Saturn Vue with manual transmission

GM's Saturn Division has been gone since the final 2010 Auras, Outlooks, Skies, and Vues slunk apologetically out of the showrooms, and I'm doing my best to document the more interesting models from The General's once-revolutionary brand. Some of the later Saturns began life as Opel designs, but the Vue actually was the first vehicle to go on the all-new GM Theta platform; the Opel Antara was thus a Saturn copy, a fact that Saturn fans no doubt trot out when they get shamed by Opel zealots over the Astra. Today's Junkyard Gem is a most unusual Vue, in the sense that its original purchaser was fine with both the base manual transmission and the leather-upholstery upgrade. Sure, the cheapest way to buy a new Vue— which was sold here for the 2002-2007 model years— was to get it with the base transmission: a five-speed manual. You can still buy a new car with a five-on-the-floor manual right now, but only in a handful of cheapmobiles; by the middle 2000s, a tiny-and-ever-shrinking subset of American car shoppers would even consider a three-pedal commuter vehicle. Really, there were only two reasons an American new-car buyer would have considered a non-enthusiast vehicle with a manual transmission in 2004: either an eccentric preference for the good ol' stickshift or just plain penny-pinching. The cheapest possible '04 Vue was the version with four-cylinder 2.2-liter engine, front-wheel-drive, and five-speed manual transmission, and it started at $17,025 (about $26,080 in 2022 dollars). That's what we're looking at here. The optional CVT automatic transmission cost an additional $2,095 ($3,210 today), so it made sense to get the manual if you wanted to save serious money on your Vue. However, this car is loaded to the gunwales with nice equipment upgrades, to the tune of at least the Leather Appointments Package ($755) and the Sports Plus II Package ($1,300) and probably a lot more.  So, a buyer who didn't care about power (so no V6 engine), didn't want all-wheel-drive, liked driving a manual transmission Â… but insisted on power everything and a full-zoot comfy leather interior Â… in a cheap small SUV sold by a fast-fading brand. The conversations with the Saturn salesmen about this thing must have been interesting. Built in Tennessee, sold new in Denver, will be crushed near Pikes Peak.

GM calling in 56k Saturn Aura sedans over shift cables

General Motors may have made a few mistakes when it came to the whole ignition-switch debacle, and it will likely be dealing with the consequences for some time to come. But you have to hand it to Mary Barra and her team, because they're determined to clean house and avoid the same mistakes. That's why the biggest of the Big Three automakers in Detroit has been issuing recalls left, right and Renaissance Center. Aside from those vehicles fitted with the faulty ignition switches, GM has recalled over 50,000 Cadillac SRXs, another 50 heavy-duty pickups and some 51,000 full-size crossovers. There are bound to be more to come, and now it's issued another 50k-unit recall over faulty shift cables in the transmission.
The recall affects 2007 and 2008 Saturn Auras fitted with the four-speed automatic transmission manufactured between April 24, 2006, and October 31, 2007. The recall doesn't affect models equipped with the six-speed automatic, or for that matter any of the Aura's Epsilon platform-mates like the Chevy Malibu, Pontiac G6, Opel Signum and Vectra, Saab 9-3 or - carrying over from Fiat's aborted partnership with GM - the Fiat Croma, although many of those models used the same 4T40 transmission employed in the Aura.
In the affected vehicles, the shift cable might fracture while in motion, preventing the transmission from shifting into Park or the ignition from switching off, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures could lead to the car rolling away. Hence the recall of 56,214 units in the United States, owners of which can expect to hear from their dealership in due course to have the necessary components replaced.

GM nixes fleet-only Chevy Captiva Sport

Well, guys, it looks like Saturn is finally dead in the United States once and for all. According to Automotive News, Chevrolet has discontinued production of its fleet-only Captiva Sport - a rebadged Saturn Vue - after three years on the market. The very last US-spec Captiva Sport was built in Mexico in August. GM will still produce the vehicle for sale in the Mexican market, as well as for export.
GM initially offered the Captiva Sport for rental fleets as a way to free up capacity for the sightly larger Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers, which, according to AN, had been in short supply. The Captiva Sport also did a nice job protecting the resale values of its other similar-sized CUVs because they didn't have to play in the fleet market. But with Chevrolet preparing to launch its subcompact Trax CUV in the US, the automaker will soon have a clear, three-tier crossover lineup without the Captiva Sport. The Trax fills out the bottom end, followed by the Equinox and the seven-passenger Traverse.
For now, renters seeking a taste of 'Classic GM' will have to whet their appetites with the fullsize Impala Limited.