99 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
11 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
08 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
37 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
19 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
60 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
06 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
02 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
09 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
14 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
17 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
18 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
24 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
26 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
27 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
30 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
31 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
32 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
33 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
35 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
38 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
40 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
42 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
43 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
45 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
47 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
51 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
54 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
20 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
55 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
57 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
59 – 1999 Saturn SL Sawzall Roadster in Colorado junkyard – photo by Murilee Martin
Every summer, it happens many times in America: Someone has an old car with resale value hovering around scrap levels on one side of the garage … and cutting tools on the other side of the garage. Next thing you know, that car has had a roof-ectomy, becoming what is known as a Sawzall roadster. Today’s Junkyard Gem is one of those machines, found in a Denver-area self-service yard recently.
This is the absolute cheapest new Saturn available for the 1999 model year: an SL sedan, with an MSRP of $10,595 (about $19,563 in 2023 dollars). 1999 was the final year for the second-generation S-Series Saturns.
Higher-end 1999 Saturns could be bought with DOHC engines, but this car has the base 1.9-liter SOHC four-cylinder, rated at 100 horsepower and 115 pound-feet.
If you bought an SL1 or SL2 in 1999, you could get an optional automatic transmission. Not so with the SL, which had this mandatory five-on-the-floor manual.
So, resale value on a 24-year-old cheap car with too many pedals, faded paint and a worn-out interior was quite low. Its final owner broke out the saw and got to cutting. Here you can see how complex the layers of metal are in modern unibody vehicles.
The B pillars in a four-door sedan are critical structural components, but such concerns go out the window when a car is being hacked up for a few weeks of summer hoonage.
When you slice off the roof of a vehicle this way, particularly on a unibody car, structural solidity goes away and the chassis flexes and flops around in most dangerous fashion. In this case, the Saturn’s plastic body panels began cracking and shattering as the car bent in unplanned directions. I know of just a single homemade roadster that doesn’t have this problem, but that’s because its owner welded heavy reinforcing to the car’s frame (so that its interior could be lined with a big tarp and filled with water).
In addition to enhanced danger from unpredictable chassis flex and zero rollover protection, the sharp metal edges of the cut-off areas can slice up occupants.
The expended shotgun shells, Red Bull cans and cigar butts indicate that this car’s final days were full of excitement.
Dent-proof plastic body panels, cheap lease deals. What more did anyone need in 1999?
