A blue green Saturn S-Series SL sedan, seen inside a compound in Shunyi District in north Beijing in 2016. The good old Saturn was sadly in a pretty poor shape and was apparently abandoned a very long time ago. The paint was heavily damaged in places and the side mirror had almost broken off.
This license plate was once black, and issued in Tianjin.
The black license plate indicates that it once belonged to a foreign-owned company, which in the 1980’s and 1990’s were allowed to import their own cars. These cars, and any cars they bought locally, got black license plates starting with an ‘A’ for ‘Alien’. This particular Tianjin car has A·02714, and that is a very early number, so it likely arrived in the early 1990’s.
The first generation Saturn S-Series was made from 1991 until 1995. There were three kinds: the SL ‘Sedan Level’ sedan, the SC ‘Sports Coupe’ two-door coupe, and the SW ‘Sedan Wagon’ wagon. The front-wheel drive S-Series was based on GM’s Z-platform, which was exclusively developed for the Saturn brand.
The Saturn badge depicts planet Saturn with the famous rings around. The Saturn brand was launched by General Motors in 1985 and discontinued in 2010.
The vehicle was parked into a hedge, so this is the best I could do for the back. Panoramic rear windshield was very modern in the 1990’s. Alloys and rear spoiler are factory original. The side panels were made dent-resistant polymer plastic and are therefore free of rust.
The interior didn’t look that bad. Seats were in good shape and everything seemed original. But the door panels were dirty the upholstery of the sunroof had come down. Fortunately the buttons and the gear lever looked okay. Note the oddly short handbrake lever.
The owner’s handbook was on the passenger seat!, with an old parking card on it. The photo shows the SL, the SC, and the SW in front.
Cool period window sticker for the alarm system. Prolock was an American firm making all sorts of car security systems. They are not around anymore but you can still buy some of their stuff on eBay.
The S-Series SL Sedan was available with two 1.9 liter four-cylinder petrol engines: an 85hp SOHC and a 124hp DOHC (Twin Cam), mated to a four-speed automatic or a five-speed manual.
Sticker says ‘Be kind to smokers. We haven’t got much time left!’. Good warning. I smoked like crazy in the 1990’s and 2000’s but 9 years ago I quit, and this leaves me more time to discuss weird old cars on this website. But sometimes I still miss my heavy Honghe smokers…
The Saturn brand was never sold in China so these cars are incredibly rare. Over my 16 years in China I have only seen a handful. Let’s hope S-Series SL sedan is somewhere safe now.