I never really intended to buy a Saturn.

I mean, really. I was looking for a truck. I had a $5000 down payment burning a hole in my pocket, and I was sure I was going to get a truck.

Then I found out how much trucks really are. Even after you buy the thing, you have to figure in running costs. They're gas hogs. The tires are expensive. They get stolen a lot. But… I still wanted a truck.

In fact, my dad and I were on our way to the Toyota dealership to purchase the Tacoma I'd been looking at earlier, when we passed the Saturn dealership. "Want to take a look?" he asked.

Minutes later I was seated at a desk with a sales associate named Kim. My dad (who was acting as advisor for the car buying virgin - me) said, "Ok. We're looking for something that's a 1996 or newer, with less than 35,000 miles on it. She wants a stick shift. It has to be under $10,000. What do you have?"

Without missing a beat, Kim said, "I'll see what we have," and disappeared. I looked around the sales floor, watching other prospective Saturn owners. I was particularly fascinated by the cut-away model they had sitting in the middle of the showroom. All the car's safety features were highlighted in yellow, and you could even take a mallet to the car's body to test the "no dent" plastic.

About ten minutes later, Kim returned. "I have a 1996 SL1 with 35,500 miles on it. It has a manual transmission, and it's listed at $9550. Are you interested?"

I was. I gave it a test drive. I bought it - and I haven't regretted the decision.

I've put 19,000 miles on the car since I bought it in April 1999. In that time, I've only had to do regular services on it. Saturn recommends regular oil changes every 3,000 miles or three months, because the timing chain is steel. I would prefer to do my own oil changes, but the car seems designed to foil the backyard mechanic: the oil filter is tucked up underneath the axle, and it's too easy to drip oil all over the right axle boot. I'm stuck taking my car to someplace with a lift so that they can remove the oil filter and change the oil.

When I bought the car, Kim showed me a list of all the services that had been performed on my automobile. Since it had previously been a leased car, all the services and repairs had been done at the dealership. One of Saturn's great advantages is their network of dealerships. No matter where the car is taken, they know what's been done to the car, and they can make that information available to the buyer. Inspecting the list, the only red flags I could see was that the driver's mirror had been knocked off while pulling into a garage. The repair was flawlessly done; you can't tell the mirror has been replaced by looking at it.

This past winter, I was able to drive the car in snow for the first time. The snow got rather deep this winter, and I was very happy for the manual transmission. I needed that extra advantage in the snow. While the car doesn't handle terribly, it doesn't handle great, either. The front wheel drive keeps the car from fishtailing too badly, but I really had to watch when going around corners. The car's plastic exterior doesn't give it much weight for traction, and since it's front wheel drive I couldn't put sand to the trunk for extra weight.

But speaking of weight, the car gets excellent gas mileage. I drove the car from Ohio to Wisconsin this past winter, and I averaged about 30 miles per gallon. When I drove to Pennsylvania last summer with the air conditioner on, the gas mileage dropped to about 22 miles per gallon - which is still excellent, in my opinion. (City mileage varies depending on how much driving I do on which sort of roads, so I haven't figured that out.) I believe that the light mass of the car helps with the mileage, so I suppose that the snow handling problems balance out… Especially considering the current price of gas! (Two dollars a gallon? Egad!)

One gripe I do have is the price of tires. The car takes some strange narrow-walled tire that no one in this area seems to carry - expect for the Saturn dealer, of course. Saturn quoted me about $350 to replace all four tires, but I found a place that sold them to me for $230, with free rotations every 5000 miles. (Price gouging by the dealer, anyone?)

It's a great car to drive. It has great pickup, especially with the extra control I have using the stick shift. It corners well, it brakes nicely, and it's never fails to start in the morning. Plus, with Saturn's reputation for safety, you're likely to get a break on your insurance.

I'm sure I'll have my little green Saturn for quite a few more years… And I would have nothing against buying another one.