Thanks for the reply marx404,

>DOHC had some consumption issues, but not all, ask the orig. owner.

I could use a bit more information here. If the engine had issues I
assume they are not the fault of the owner. Is the oil consumption
issue a problem that, if it strikes, will occur early in the engine's
life and if one buy's a good SW2 then one can expect normal oil
consumption through the life of the engine? I'll be looking at cars
with > 50Kmi [of course this all assumes specified maintenance
throughout the life of the engine] Problems occuring in such a manner
could be due to a quality control problem. Or are you saying that SW2s
have a design flaw which causes a higher than normal oil control
failure rate and that any SW2 will have a higher than normal chance for
developing a problem at some time regardless of maintenance? Or will
above normal maintenance prevent the problem from occuring at all? For
example, certain Toyota's have a problem with the development with
sludge in the oil (even when precsribed oil changes are followed),
however 5Kmi change intervals with synthetic motor can prevent the
sludge problem.

Is that too many questions in one question? Oh well, you get the gist
of what I'm trying to ask.

I thought by going for something made in 1997 or later that oil problem
would have been rectified. It seems that Saturn has done many things
well and I am somewhat stunned that they couldn't (or chose not to)
engineer the problem out. I have heard that changes were made in model
year 2000, do you know if the problem was ever fixed?

Maybe an SW1 is a better choice.

Thanks again,

Mike