the one and only saturn we owned blew a piston or dropped a valve at 140K miles...96 saturn SC2 auto tranny. one of the cyl had zero compression and would blow oil all over while running

There are a lot of people on here who swear by their Saturns also. My only experience with them has been what I have seen in junkyards...usually '90s Saturns with 200k+ miles on them. Seem to hold up really well, from what I've seen.

All types of cars have had problems...and I remember a time when a car that went 140k miles before self-destructing would have been considered a really rugged car! I don't recall for sure (I was about eight years old at the time-about 45 years ago), but I don't think our '54 Buick had near that many miles on it when something holed one of the pistons (I do remember the piston with a big hole in the top).
A junkyard piston, and a set of rings and bearings (maybe a valve job while it was apart) and we were on the road again.

I have had disappointing experiences with Corvairs, a Chevy Luv (Isuzu) truck, and Chrysler mini-vans with Mitsubishi engines. That doesn't make them bad cars...(well, maybe the Corvairs), just my bad luck, along with the baggage of their previous owner's treatment, and in a couple cases, my own ineptness or use of a faulty tool.

yea back then a car with 80K miles was considered high...

ive heard of the s-10's going for 200K some 300K + without ever having the head off (known valve cover gasket leak tho but doesnt take more than an hour to replace)

I have over 150,000 on my truck, and I consider it "just broken in". When the dealer checked it over durring the 150,000 mile service they said that they could see no major faults with the truck, and that it ran just as well as a new one.

-Jay

I add another vote or a Cavalier/Sunbird. I just did a best of 40mpg in my 01Cavalier. It is a base model with a 5 speed. I have owned a 99 Saturn SL which would do better mpg but it was not as confortable. I would say that parts for the Cavalier/Sunbird are very inexpensive and very easy to find. There are tons of these cars around so they are cheap to buy also.

I'll second the Mistubishi Mirage as well as the Dodge Colt and Eagle Summit as the sleepers of the bunch. Can't be anything wrong with a car that has gone 256K without a tear down. I should know. i just bought a cherry of a 95 Eagle Summit DL 1.5L. 35mpg isn't anything to scoff at for a car this old.

My Solara is the first Toyota that I have owned. During the first year, the electrical motor on the passenger side window did have a problem and was switched out. The mechanical reliability so far have been excellent.

I am planning to keep this car as long as possible, there are some (actually a lot) people who say Toyota is among the top in reliability, while some say otherwise. I will see for myself with my sexy Lara.

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I can vouch for the reliability of the 95 Civic 1.5L LX auto sedan though, from the year that my family bought it (1995) till the year that we sold it (2003) @160,000 miles, there has not been a single problem with the electrical or mechanical area. The only thing that needed changing was the hub bearing. Great gas milage but small gas tank though.

You're right. Cavaliers (& Chevy parts in general) are cheap to buy. Look at this interesting one I just saw on my local Craigs List...
https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/n...947901922.html

Its a loaded 98 Cavalier Z24 5 speed Convertible with 139,000 miles for $1,200. (And its ScanGauge compatible!) Who says FE can't be cheap & fun?

-Jay

exactly the Z24 has the 2.4L 4 banger that has some getup to it.

i'm just tickled that his top 5 were not...

1 honda crx
2 honda civic vx
3 honda insight
4 honda civic hybrid
5 honda fit