For me, one of the saddest parts of thinking about aging is getting to the point where it’s no longer safe to operate a motor vehicle, or in the case of the driver of this 2006 Saturn Ion 2, no longer legal, as Grandma lost her license. One positive thing that sometimes arises from this situation is that a well-cared-for, one-owner auto with low mileage enters the market, with this one having just 27,000 miles on the ticker. If you’ve been looking for a small sedan that’s likely among the nicest left of its kind, this Saturn can be found here on Craigslist in Seekonk, Massachusetts, with our thanks going out to reader Mitchell G. for the tip! After more than three weeks, the asking price of $8,500 hasn’t resulted in a sale, so maybe the seller is ready to hear some offers.
Back in 1993, I looked at and test drove a new S-Series coupe, which is my only time behind the wheel of a Saturn ever. It was nice, and had the 5-speed manual I wanted, but ultimately I opted for a ‘93 Mustang instead, my first-ever brand new car. I seem to remember the SC2 had decent pep, and this 2006 probably also offers an acceptable level of performance, with the middle-of-the-road 2.2-liter engine. With such low mileage, there are likely years of good service left here, and things under the hood appear to be in the same kind of good order as when the car was built.
Granny is said to have always kept her Ion in the garage, so with such little use, it must have spent an extraordinary amount of time stored compared to most. The paint has held up quite nicely overall, but she did scrape or run into a couple of things, as evidenced by the damage on both bumpers. It also looks like one small piece of cosmetic trim between the passenger side headlight and the grille is missing, but other than these minor issues, this Saturn appears to be in top-notch condition outside. If you can find somebody to properly match the paint, it may not be too much of an ordeal to replace the back plastic covering, smooth the front, then respray both components. This might make the entire car look like new again.
The 2006 Ion had an oddly placed instrument cluster, which was located over the console instead of in front of the driver, but it’s sort of an unusual novelty in a car that doesn’t have that many other stand-out design features. The interior still looks excellent for a car nearing twenty years old, and equally good news is that the lengthy Carfax report provided seems to verify the mileage of 27,576 is indeed accurate. I’m curious if any of our readers have owned a Saturn brand vehicle before? Is this one a good deal at $8,500?
If i remember well Car and Driver had one in their long term fleet for the usual 40000 miles. The end result was a reasonably comfy,, economical, dull but uterly reliable car. Sometimes thats all you need.
Economical cars. Good reliability far as the owners I knew.
I don’t know about that, Stan, I read it was one of the top 10 worst cars made, recalled 12 times, and the smoking gun for the downfall of Saturn. I had a ’93 SL, great car, but a friend had the worst luck with one of these. The faulty ignition switch alone was blamed for 13 deaths.
Yikes. That’s awful Howard.
When my mom passed away in ’04 she left me an ’03 Ion, one year old with 4000 miles on it. Given its age and mileage it’s mind-boggling how much stuff broke on it. The brake pedal had a “gritty” feel to its movement that never got fixed, like sand had gotten in the pivot or something. The passenger side outside door lock cylinder fell into the door. The seat fabric stained if you got water on it. The HVAC fan resistor pack died, leaving me with only “Low” speed in a New England winter. The hood release cable detached from the hood latch, leaving me unable to open the hood. The headlamps developed “cataracts” because GM used the wrong bulbs for the DRLs–they were too hot for the plastic of the headlamp assembly lenses so the plastic crazed. And on and on. I dumped it for cheap after having it for two years because I was afraid of what would break when the warranty expired. Awful car. I’m glad my mom got to enjoy it while she had it–it was the first new car she ever got to pick out for herself–but absolutely emblematic of why GM had to be bailed out by the government.
So, you got to experience that “great GM feeling?”
Crazy that a Tupperware econobox from ’06 is on BF. But, I guess at almost twenty years old, it is getting into “classic” territory now. And it is noteworthy that it has only 27k on the odometer. These cars usually racked up miles and were sold burning a quart of oil a week for $800 to a local tweaker who winds up slowly parting the car out for extra cash to both buy meth and finance their real passion, trying to assemble go-karts from various household appliances.
Something I’d want to find out for any 19 year old car—what about parts availability? This is no classic, so driving would be the only way to get any value out of it.
As noted above, and if applicable to this model- Make sure the ignition switch recall work was completed.
I inherited an exact twin to this car when my mom passed. I have owned a 1969 Z-28, a 1970 Boss 302. 1975 Trans Am, and 1976, 1979, 1984 Corvettes, and currently own a 1995 Corvette and the only speeding ticket I have ever gotten was in Mom’s Saturn Ion. The NY State Trooper had a good laugh when I told him it was my mom’s car.
I’ve owned both a 2000 L Series (4 cyl) and a 2005 Ion. Enjoyed them both. Gave the L to friends of ours at church who were experiencing hard times, and the Ion we “inherited” from my brother-in-law when he passed away. We eventually donated the Ion to a local charity (Wheels-4-Hope), where it eventually enjoyed a new owner.
As a profesonal Santa, I’d love to have this Ion as my official “sleigh”!
@LifelongYankeeFan
Santa is a Yankee fan?
I never knew
My mom left me a 2005 Ion. Same color. Has 153k on it and still going strong. This is very tempting as my stepdaughter is going to be getting her license this summer, and she loves driving mine.
The plastic body panels look good almost forever, but be careful of rust in the space frame underneath the plastic, particularly in the rocker panels. This one looks clean and solid, largely because it was garaged and driven sparingly, but others, subjected to road salt and northern winters may not be so fortunate. It sounds like the quality was spotty, some ran forever but others were lemons. Buyer beware!
Utterly boring cars, another example of GM’s failed priorities in their desperate attempts to right the ship and compete with Japan, Inc. If GM had taken the billions of stockholder dollars used to build the Saturn plant and dealer network and used it to invest in their existing products instead, GM’s bankruptcy could have been avoided. Roger Smith’s attempt to copy the Japanese was doomed to fail, simply because the cars weren’t good enough, Case Closed.
My Mom gave her SL1 to her granddaughter before the granddaughter got Grammy’s Honda Fit, the Saturn in turn was given to an old high school friend who had to junk it when the engine finally gave out with close to 200k miles on the clock. It was hard to tell how many miles were actually on it, as the odometer had called it quits several months before that Saturn made its final trip to the junkyard, LOL!
I had a 2004 Saturn Vue SUV. First SUV I owned. It was a fully loaded model with the Honda V6 engine.
It was a nice enough car, a little too small for me, tough engine, couldn’t kill it, but it did have several recalls before me and during me.
Although the engine was reliable, nothing else was. By the time husband #2 totalled it, the a/c didn’t work (an absolute must in Vegas) the CD player didn’t work, the rear window defogger didn’t work, the door locks were iffy and the car was just falling apart. As memory served, and it really doesn’t it had around 90,000 or so on it, maybe even 100,000 but not much more.
Bought the car in 2007 with 30,000 on it as it was a 3 year lease car. I had it in NJ for a few months, then Maine for 2 years, Maryland for 6 years and Nevada for 3 years.
Have an 03 L200 with a sport package? Yep have the window sticker. Car has 200K on it, just put a rebuilt cylinder head on it, timing set etc.. I think the sport got the 16″ wheels anyway the 2.2 looked amazing with the head off, there are hone marks very pronounced still on the cylinder walls. Always ran synthetic oil in it and will. Might go another 200K, not the most exciting car to drive but does it drive better than some cars I have driven.