How many miles do you think a Saturn SW2 wagon will last?
Sorry should have added its a 1994
That depends mostly on how it has been maintained over the last 15 years and If you live in an area with road salt.
Agree with oldtimer; past maintenance will largely determine how many more miles or years you will get.
Since Saturn is no more by the end of the year, the parts supply will gradually dry up. The question really is how long can you ECONOMICALLY keep it going. How many miles on the car now? If the mileage is not too high and you can get parts, it could go another 5 years before the floor rusts out, or you have a major engine problem like head gasket or cracked head. With meticulous maintenance, these do not need to occur.
Not knowing the maintenance history of the vehicle, we can only give conditional answers. If it was poorly maintained, it may only last another year before something really expensive happens that would not be worth fixing.
You’re competing with scrap value for the car. Now is the time for the subsystems to need tending to. I wouldn’t worry about parts too much. They’ve been in the after market for a bit now. GM/Saturn hasn’t produced a part for that in some time. One of the bigger rackets going is the selling of OEM assembly line patents to OEM aftermarket patents.
Isn’t this a plastic panel car? It’s OBDI so it’s not quite as easy to diagnose electronic engine management issues …or rather it’s not as generic; more proprietary.
Any chassis, assuming no design flaw in the hard chassis parts, will last 300k+. The time frame will wrap around that in the difference between drivetrain health and chassis fatigue. High mileage in a short span? The engine is probably very healthy. The suspension may not be and environmental insults will take more of a toll.
Southern Californian car?
Northern Minnesota?
Cape Cod?
Phoenix?
The life expectancy of a 15 year old car with unknown odometer mileage and an unknown maintenance record is about as much of an unknown as exists. Virtually any mechanical device will continue to operate as long as someone is willing to keep spending money on its upkeep and repair, but the essential part of the equation is–How much money does the owner want to keep spending on the vehicle over the years?
There are people who still drive 35 year old cars daily, but of course those cars have been superbly maintained. And, those cars clearly have a good availability of parts for the inevitable repair issues that will arise.
Given the lack of specifics here, all I can say is that, while the best years of this car are surely behind it, the car can last as long as the OP’s money holds out and as long as the supply of parts holds out.
Cars last indefinitely as long as the owner has the stomach to put money into the vehicle for repairs or as Honda/Toyota owners say “maintenance”. The same is true for MB, BMW, Volvo’s, they last but owners have stomach, income usually, delusions of grandeur to make it happen.
Seriously though it is pure luck of the draw past 10 years/150k miles for economical ownership irregardless of Brand.
My 97 has 227,000 on it now, and she’s still going strong. Rust in the entry way both back doors, but not too bad yet. Those plastic door plates held the moisture, and I didn’t catch it until a friend with the same model asked me about it.