Couple of points. First off, your assessment is right: there's nothing memorable about them (though the SUV or sports car models might be different), but they're low-maintenance and dependable. This means you bought a good, if not particularly sexy, car. Not a loser move.

Second, it's uncertain what will happen with Saturn. GM is possibly looking to sell it off rather than just ditch it. There may well be an interested buyer, as Saturn has been a very successful brand with good PR. So you could be okay there.

Third, even if they do ditch the whole line, there will still be parts and mechanics who will do maintenance for years to come, I promise you. There are already a buttload of aftermarket parts manufacturers for Saturns, and some of them make better quality parts than the stock versions. Fuel pumps, for example, are notoriously weak on Saturns (do NOT ever run out of gas or you'll burn it up), but the aftermarket pumps are better. So as far as maintenance goes, you're good there too.

Plus there's always junkyards for parts. My dad drove a 1986 Ford Aerostar over 300,000 miles before he replaced it, and only then because his mechanic finally laid down the law and refused to keep scouring junkyards for parts.

Final verdict: you bought a car that serves you well and that you'll be able to maintain for years to come. Not a loser, not at all.

I recall hearing good things about the Sky, VUE and Aura. FWIW, I know I don't have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the Saturn brand the way I do to the other GM brands, Ford and Chrysler.

And the warranty programs are likely some of the more valuable pieces to sell off. Plenty of insurance companies (existing or specialty start-ups) love that kind of stuff.

My mom is on her 2nd Saturn in as many decades, and they are damn reliable cars.

I'd be VERY surprised if they completely quit making parts for Saturns, given that there are about a zillion of them on the roads.

I love my 98 Saturn wagon. I bought it new and I'm still driving it. The first time it ever broke down on the road was about two months ago - clutch cable snapped - and for a ten year old car with 170,000 miles on it, that's impressive. However, it's really starting to show its age (the passenger outside door handle just fell off yesterday. One of the lights over the license plate fell out and is dangling.) and I'm beginning to think it's time for a new car, although I can't afford it. It makes me sad, but I'm thinking Toyota or Honda or something instead of a Saturn because of stories like this one.

Genuine, non-snarky question: I've noticed that in the US, ten-year old cars are considered old, whereas I drove my '83 Honda Accord from 1995-2002, and then sold it to my friend (who is *still* driving it) when I moved to the US. Most of my New Zealand friends drove similarly old cars, and thought nothing of it, as long as they ran well - which they did. Why the disparity?

(one possible explanation I thought of in the north-east at least is salt on the roads getting all up in the body of the cars? stupid thought?)

US cars are generally not made to last a long time. That is one of the reasons that the guys are sitting on Capitol Hill as I type, begging.

Salt on the roads may be a problem, but not where I live, and still you don't see many 10 year old cars.

It's just the shitty quality, generally. And a lot of people have buy in to that culture, from labor, management, to customers.

American cars are better than they used to be, but then Asian cars are better than THEY used to be, and still ahead.

I loved my hand-me-down 1996 metallic lavendar 4-door Saturn SL2 so much that I ran it into the ground and had to have it junked (RIP 2004). That car was excellent to me on many a road trip to Otakon and Las Vegas.

Salt can be a huge factor in car longevity -- it's what killed my beloved old Dodge Colt years before its time, back when I lived in Minnesota (where the road salt is freely strewn from November through April). I took it in to my local garage, when it was at around 100,000 miles, and the guy said, "Look, the car's in fine shape, it could go another 100,000, except for the fact that the frame's rusted through, it's about to fall apart, and I'm not gonna let you drive it home, it's going straight to the junkyard."

Now that I live in the (relatively low-sodium) Pacific NW, I can't get over the number of older cars I see on the road. (Most of which, I'll concede, are not US makes.)

My parents still drive 10-year-old cars. Heck, for a long time we drove a 25-year-old truck. But that has more to do with the fact that they're poor.

Also, years on a car don't matter as much as mileage does. Most cities in the US are set up to require a lot of driving.

I have a 2006 Saturn Ion with almost 60,000 miles on it, and no problems so far (knock on wood). It's been very reliable.

Saturn's are pretty good. Don't worry about them going away. Even if they do, the parts will be available for a very long time. I'm sure people are still repairing AMC Pacers.

fwiw, even my import cars have looked like shit at the ten year point. The ONLY way to keep a car looking good for that long in my area (which gets long, brutal winters) is to have a garage where it is kept every night, and to get it washed like once a week to get the road salt off. Now, washing your car when it's below zero out (negative 18 for anyone outside the US) does all sorts of interesting things, like freezing your doors shut with you in the car, so needless to say, there are very few decade old cars that still look good.

Mr Blandings has been driving the same Saturn for almost as long as I've known him--which is since college, which is somewhere around 15 years--and has lived in the southwest, southeast, northeast, midwest, and pacific northwest of the US with it.

The only reason I know how old the car is is because he's rather proud of having only bought/owned one car in his entire adult life. The only reason I know it's a Saturn is because several of my friends (4? 5?) bought Saturns soon after graduation, when you got balloons and a Polaroid picture of the moment you took the keys.

Unless it's a 1970 3500S Rover Sedan, what a person drives never registers with me.

You need to watch more TV! You're a loser if your car is older than your haircut.

I just realized... I have never owned a car made after I got my license. My current car, which is the newest I've ever owned, was made the year I was fifteen.

The newest car I've ever had was 12 when I bought it... but on the up-side, I already knew I was a loser!

I'm always amazed when I go to California when I see all the "old" cars still running around there. You don't see too many cars older than ten years here, the constant rain/sleet/snow and the salt in the winter kill them pretty quickly.