Okay, everyone can stop bashing the poor Saturn. :p I work for Saturn and owned two before purchasing my Contour. Saturn makes a SOHC (100hp) and DOHC (125hp)1.9L motor. The S-cam is used in the "1" model cars (i.e. SC1), the twin-cam got dropped into the "2" cars (SC2).
I owned a SOHC 5 speed 4-door at first, then upgraded to an SL2 (twin cam, 5 speed). The DOHC is a big improvement over the base motor and pulls much more willingly. Factor in that the car's weight is only about 2100 lbs and you have a nice power/weight ratio.
Granted, Saturn's ATX is crap. Yes, worse than the CD4E believe it or not. Anyway, just wanted to spring in here and defend the poor under rated Saturns.
There will be some cool stuff rolling off their floors very soon.
Understand that Saturn's original intent was to sell good-looking cheap cars using a new methods of everything from building to selling to servicing. They accomplished that and can now look ahead to things like tuners and spirited driving (The L-Series V6s are very fun to drive). In fact, our individual dealership purchased about $3000 in aftermarket parts from SPS and fitted them to an SC2 in house. The puppy screamed, but someone bought it after being in the showroom for only 2 days.
By the way, I drove both my cars past the 200K mile mark with nothing more than routine maintenance. Can't say that for the Nissan, Dodges, or Fords I've owned. In fact, only my Mercedes has outlasted the Saturns in mileage (267K when the odometer stopped).
