Saturn (GM)

yearofthenick

yearofthenick

Active Member
Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/2945051
I don't trust a chevy motor besides the 5.7 350 and the 3800 series.
The 3800 series was crap. I once had a firebird with a 3800 series 2 that blew on 79k miles. No, I didn't drive the hell out of it. AND the 3800 series was not designed to do any major work wile still inside the vehicle. If I wanted to change a head gasket, I'd have to remove the entire engine from the car because half of the bolts I needed to unscrew were deep within the back of the engine, crammed up against the firewall. I remember one bolt in particular... man it made me so mad.
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2945069
The 3800 series was crap. I once had a firebird with a 3800 series 2 that blew on 79k miles. No, I didn't drive the hell out of it. AND the 3800 series was not designed to do any major work wile still inside the vehicle. If I wanted to change a head gasket, I'd have to remove the entire engine from the car because half of the bolts I needed to unscrew were deep within the back of the engine, crammed up against the firewall. I remember one bolt in particular... man it made me so mad.
Really, except for that plastic manifold, I never saw one break down. We drove ours 300k with no engine work whatsoever, we totaled it. (albeit at that point totalling it was about 2k) The one my wife had, we never had to mess with the engine (except a water pump) for 200k until we got a new car.
I sold car parts too, and every single person I sold spark plugs, coil packs or oil filter to would say the same thing.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Originally Posted by DragonZim
http:///forum/post/2944683
And you're saying that is going to be a better vehicle than a civic or accord? Can't be...
How would we ever know? Even if it was the best car ever produced, all we'd get is a bunch of hackneyed comments about terrible some 1992 Cavalier was...
At least this is for sure, the Cruze is a looker, and won't make you gag the way the Civic and Accord are horribly styled these days...
Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/2945051
In all seriousness, it looks ok, I'm pretty prejudgice after climbing into a civic vs a small or midsided chevy. And then looking at them after 5 - 7 years.
The problem is, I don't trust a chevy motor besides the 5.7 350 and the 3800 series. I'm not going to trust a powerplant that they sold in a saturn.
How many times are they going to produce a pos midsize before they get it right? Seriously?
Then these is this whole thing, where they are blurring the lines of where they do things. If you really want to buy american, taking a risk on a new model of car vs buying a tried and true Honda, buying a car designed in Korea and engineered in Germany even with the bowtie kind of defeats the purpose. Heck the Civic is designed over seas and built here too...
I take it you've never been in GM with a Northstar? Or an EcoTec, or any of GM's new high-feature V6's?
GM has always made decent motors (sans maybe the 3.1L IronDuke). The problem has always been the bottom dollar suppliers they've chosen to buy components from that's possible forever tarshed their image.
 
yearofthenick

yearofthenick

Active Member
Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/2945072
Really, except for that plastic manifold, I never saw one break down. We drove ours 300k with no engine work whatsoever, we totaled it. (albeit at that point totalling it was about 2k) The one my wife had, we never had to mess with the engine (except a water pump) for 200k until we got a new car.
I sold car parts too, and every single person I sold spark plugs, coil packs or oil filter to would say the same thing.
Well mine was made in Canada... maybe that explains it.
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
The saturn we got the wife is the one with the Caddy V6 and the 6 speed auto Ford and GM partnered on.
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by AquaKnight
http:///forum/post/2945076
I take it you've never been in GM with a Northstar? Or an EcoTec, or any of GM's new high-feature V6's?
GM has always made decent motors (sans maybe the 3.1L IronDuke). The problem has always been the bottom dollar suppliers they've chosen to buy components from that's possible forever tarshed their image.
we have COMPLETELY different tastes.
Dude, the last thing I want in my car is some thing flashy, fancy and electric. (that means it will break and be really expensive to fix) imo, a good car (or vehicle) is something that ******** wise is comfortable, simple and doesn't feel like it will break (the utmost brilliance of an ******** is the King Ranch edition F series trucks). A motor that will outlast the frame of the car, easy to work on, and is fast (or powerful if it is a truck or jeep). Oh and I needs a huellava AC unit.
Seriously if I won the lotto, I'd pick up a CJ-7 with 33's or so, a military issue hummer (and put a massive AC unit in it), an f-250 king ranch (with the 7.3) double cab (as the every day driver), than some sort of sports car for putting around town if I don't feel like driving around a huge truck like an SI.
If some company came out with the "simple car" you know just the basics, but was well designed so it was easy to work on. Then just had a carb, none of that emissions garbage, or computer/vacuum controlled crap. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Heck with the northstar, or whatever fords version is with microsoft, high featured stuff in dash nav or whatever. I want a car that rumbles, I can drive anywhere or pulls just about anything.
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Yea, it's apparent we have different tastes. If won the lotto, I would have two garages, a race car garage (C6-R, couple of old ISMA cars, Australian TC), and my street cars, mostly sports cars and sedans that wished they were sports cars. Corvette ZR1, SL65 Black Series, F430 Scuderia, Caddy STS-V, CLS63. Definitely would have some asinine tow rig, GMC TopKick, decked out like Ironside (which could pull all your rigs
). Oh and definitely a twin turbo V8 sand rail for the trips out west...
I think you missed the point of that post though. You said you only trusted 2 GM motors. I pointed out 3 GM engines are world class. Definitely don't know what a 'Northstar' is,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Prem...gine#Northstar It a DOHC V8 engine that put Mercedes for a bit, and BMW for a while, in their respective places (based on power figures). And has quite the racing pedigree. I've had two, first my Oldsmobile Aurora, and now my Caddy STS. There are plenty of owners with over 200,000, and a few with over 300,000 miles.
The Ecotec is nearly bulletproof. There never has been an engine that has been so thorougly designed from the racetrack to the street.
http://www.gm.com/experience/technol...tec_racing.jsp
 
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