Used 2008 Saturn Astra XE for Sale near Salt Lake City, UT

I owned this car for 5 1/2 years. My daughter drove it for two years in the middle. It was not fully safety rated when I bought it, but it had side curtain airbags front and rear and I wanted a car that would protect my daughter / her passengers / my younger son - whoever was in back. Front crash safety is rated better than the back, but back is better than 99% of 2008 cars sold in US. Son of Mr. Goodwrench teacher, I bought the car due to discounts and that I wanted to buy a GM - if it was reliable. In Europe, these are sold as OPEL / VAUXHALL in droves, and compete with Civics and Corollas and VW well. It delivered in spades - we had ONE maintenance issue which took awhile to fix with a fuel sending unit - the second attempt was bungled and it took several tries for Saturn around the world to figure that out. NO other issues. Relatives had a stick coupe and it was more fun than the automatic for sure. This is a solid car with a definite European feel to it. Heated outside mirrors, good sound insulation, tough interior. NOT a throw away car. Mileage with automatic was around 27 mpg with a short commute and lots of highway over 63000 miles. Highest mpg ever on a trip? I remember one was 38, 500 miles with mostly highway, per the trip info center, not just me guessing. Handling and grip were very good from the start - I live in moderate snow winter mid Ohio. There is a winter start setting on the automatic which helps you get started in 3rd i think, which I rarely remembered to use - didn't need it. Stock Eagle LS2 tires are poorly rated compared to many on market but did last almost 50,000 miles. Replaced mine with General Altimax RT 43's which have been excellent and were highly recommended on Tire Rack. Cornering is a breeze, I never felt this car say to me I'm going too fast and that curve is too tight. And I do like to push limits... The radio / info system / maintenance indicator. (I have the lower level radio of the two which are very similar.) OMG. If you are just turning on the radio and saving stations or playing the CD, good to go. Adjusting the time is a pain. Resetting the maintenance miles (mostly an oil change thing) is insanely difficult, mechanics at Saturn had trouble doing it. It does have several nice features, trip odo's, mileage RIGHT NOW, mileage this trip, miles in tank at this rate (very helpful), temp, etc. Overall you hope to get it where you want it and to be able to leave it alone! I was able to load almost anything in this car, including things that I did not want to put in my wife's nicer / spotless vehicles (Santa Fe and XC60) - or could not get in them. Regularly loaded 20 2x4s and whatever else I wanted from hardware stores. Drop seat half, push front seat forward, take head rest off front, throw blanket over seat, load it up. Rarely used both seats down, but that adds some space as well. I took several long trips, and seats always outperformed my 2006 Honda Civic. Interior is dark, which makes finding dark things you've dropped on the floor interesting at night. Overall, if I knew then what I know now, I would have bought three of these and given one to both kids and kept one for me!

Great little car that's fun to drive. Solid build quality and safe. Upscale interior compared to Kia, Hyundai and the Japanese cars. OnStar is awesome. Reliability has been great. Gas and go and oil changes were the only expenses. I wish Saturn still made cars.

My first new car is economical, fun to drive, well-built, and Euro-stylish. I absolutely love it. While the lack of easily accessible cupholders and an Mp3 jack would have been nice, this car is awesome, and I thoroughly enjoy every time I'm behind the wheel.

Handles great, utility of a hatchback, looks good (a lot people ask "that's a Saturn?"), small but not too small, not the most powerful engine but the handling makes it a fun drive and gets very good gas mileage (at 9,500 miles now, my lowest mileage on a tank was 29.7, average around 32 mpg). Not a top notch interior, it's simple but functional. No aux jack and no front cupholders are the usual complaints, but it doesn't bother me. Good on-board computer setup despite 80's style screen.