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Junkyard Gem: 1996 Saturn SC1

Before the Saturn marque got locked into a downward spiral of muddled brand image and billion-dollar Opel badge engineering, American car shoppers loved Saturns' plastic bodies and fixed-price buying experience. The original SC coupe looked a bit like the Isuzu-built Geo Storm but was a Michigan design and had a smaller price tag, and it sold well. Here's a final-model-year first-generation SC1, languishing in a Denver-area wrecking yard with nearly 300k on the clock. Saturn S-Series cars were simple machines, and many examples held together for the long haul. This one reached the kind of mileage figure you'd expect to see on a Camry or Civic from the same era. I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but I suspect that the car's final owner performed a bit of spray-foam-and-Bondo bodywork when the rear plastic body panels got munched in a crash. The twin-cam Saturn engines made respectable power, but this car has the 100-horse single-cam under the hood. The car weighed a mere 2,282 pounds, though, so it had about the same power-to-weight ratio as the slightly heavier Honda Del Sol, with a much lower price tag ($12,195 for the SC1 versus $15,250 for the Del Sol). With a manual transmission, which this car has, the SC1 was a lot more fun to drive than most frugal commuter cars of its era. It's no Saturn Ion Redline (an example of which I found nearby in the very same wrecking yard), but still an interesting chapter from the tale of the rise and fall of Saturn. When you want a two-door with some spunk, sleep on it first. Yeah, we're puzzled by this ad, too. Featured Gallery Junked 1996 Saturn SC1 View 14 Photos Auto News Saturn Automotive History Coupe

Before Chevrolet's Redline, there was the Saturn Red Line

While Chevy rolls out Redline special editions across more of the lineup at this year's Chicago Auto Show, we've been eating some 'member berries and started thinking about the last time GM used the term. Back in 2004, Saturn rolled out Red Line (two words) editions of the Ion and Vue. The lineup was joined by the Sky Red Line in 2007, and the second-generation Vue kept the tradition going in 2008. This was in the heady days of the mid-2000s, before the financial crisis and GM's bankruptcy reorganization that saw the end of Saturn. The press release headline for the 2008 Sky is now cringe-worthy: "Hot-selling Sky helps drive Saturn product renaissance." Performance lineups were the hot new thing, as automakers attempted to cash in on the tuner trend popularized by The Fast and the Furious. Chevy had SS models, Pontiac had GXP, and Saturn had Red Line. Across the Detroit Metro area, Dodge had a slew of SRT models, and Ford's Special Vehicle Team brought us the SVT Lightning pickup, the SVT Focus, and a smattering of hopped-up Mustangs. The performance cred of Red Line models varied from car to car. The Ion Red Line shared the same engine as the original Chevy Cobalt SS, a 205-horsepower supercharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, 65 hp more than stock. Car and Driver tested one with a 0-to-60-mph time of 6.1 seconds and said the Ion "tears down the wall that has separated enthusiasts from the Saturn brand for so long." The Vue Red Line, meanwhile, came with the same optional Honda-sourced 3.5-liter V6 you could get in the regular Vue, and added a stiffer, lower suspension, bigger wheels with more aggressive rubber, and recalibrated steering assist. When the Vue was redesigned for the 2008 model year, the Vue Red Line was a similar proposition. The engine was now from GM, and up 7 horsepower to 257, but you could get it in both Red Line and XE trim. Aside from the tire and suspension upgrades, Red Line models now came with a unique front fascia and rear exhaust cutouts. The most exciting Red Line, of course, was the high-performance version of the Sky roadster, which shared underpinnings with its Pontiac Solstice twin. This model came with GM's hot 2.0-liter Ecotec Turbo, good for 260 horsepower. The extra power was crucial in covering up the Sky's unfortunate manual gearbox ratios, which left the non-turbo model aching for torque in lower gears. As we all know, Saturn was taken by the grim reaper in 2009 after an attempt to sell the brand to the Penske Group.

Junkyard Gem: 2008 Saturn Astra XR 3-Door Hatchback

GM's Saturn brand spent the first part of the 2000s shifting over to vehicles on global corporate platforms, then spent the second half of the decade increasingly flailing for relevance as The General itself struggled to stay upright. By 2008, prospects for Saturn— and the American economy in general— didn't look so great, but that was the first model year for the Saturn-badged Opel Astra in North America. The announcement that the axe would be falling on Saturn came the following year, soon after GM declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and so 2009 became the final year for the Saturn Astra. Some MY2010 Saturns were sold (the Sky, Outlook, and Aura), but the Astra shares the dubious honor of the shortest Saturn sales run with the long-forgotten Saturn Relay minivan. For this reason, I keep my junkyard eye open for discarded Astras, and finally found this very clean '08 three-door in a Denver self-service yard last week. The Astra could be purchased with three doors or five, in two very similar trim levels. This car is the three-door, which was available only in semi-high-zoot XR trim. I'm not sure if the Opel Astra got these GM "Mark of Excellence" fender badges, but all American-market 2005-2009 GM vehicles have them (not counting stuff bearing the crypto-GM Suzuki badge). I've got dozens of these badges glued to my garage wall, because why not? Just one engine was available in the Saturn Astra: a 1.8-liter Ecotec four rated at 138 horsepower. The Ecotec has proven to be an unusually reliable engine, but I suspect that this one died in some expensive manner (because the rest of the car looks so nice) and that's why the car is here now. The base transmission in the Astra was a five-on-the-floor manual, and that's what this car has. The four-speed automatic cost an extra $1,325 on an $18,375 car (that's about  $1,765 on a $24,475 car in 2022 dollars), so either the original purchaser of this car preferred three-pedal driving or was just a cheapskate. I haven't seen enough junkyard Astras to know if the manual transmission is very rare in these cars; the five-door I found a few years back had the automatic. Presumably, an American car shopper looking for the European-style driving experience of an Opel might prefer the manual. Built in Antwerp, Belgium! As this was just a rebadged Opel, the Astra did not have the standard GM radio faceplate found in everything from the Chevrolet Equinox to the Saab 9-3.