Back in 2007, a 14-year-old me booted up a satin white Xbox 360 for the first time and inserted its first game: Test Drive Unlimited. One of my first cars in the game would be one that I ended up driving quite a lot. It was a yellow Saturn Sky and over the course of a couple of years or so I racked up thousands of virtual miles taking digital road trips around Oahu, Hawai'i.
Growing up, my dream cars were often cars that I had Matchbox diecasts of and played with in videogames. Another notable example is the first-generation Audi TT Quattro. I made the Audi a reality in 2020 and now yesterday a little yellow Saturn followed me home.
It's a Sky Red Line. Under the hood is a 2-liter four making 260 hp and 260 tq, driving the rear wheels through a manual. Yeah, it's a fast little Satty! But my favorite part is the torque. Want to pass some slow traffic while climbing through the Ozarks? Yeah, it'll do that without even requiring a downshift.
It isn't perfect; it will need some paint retouching in the back and probably a new front bumper, but at $8k, I'm not really complaining. Most Red Line asking prices are like $11k+ right now.
We drove some 600 miles southwest to pick it up in Branson, Missouri. I drove most of the way back top-down. And yeah, it came with matching shades!
It drove flawlessly on the way home and the dash doesn't even have a warning light on. I even scored around 28 mpg going a sustained 85 mph.
Of course, bad news has a tendency to follow me and this time is no exception. Sheryl's Prius began giving an intermittent oil pressure light. It usually came on while stopping or while trying to keep up with me on the highway.
The oil level is full and it's clean on the dipstick (she got an oil change 3k ago). It also tastes like good ol' synthetic. I'm hoping it's just the oil pressure sensor dying in an intermittent manner???????? Annoyingly, doing a pressure test requires getting the car up on jack stands. And if I'm doing that I might as well replace the sensor while I'm under there.
Another explanation could be an electrical gremlin. The car's been acting weird lately with the clocks changing themselves, traction control system giving random warnings, and more. Maybe I'll start by replacing the old 12V battery in back.
Anyway, Saturn Sky Red Line: It's the coolest car to ever wear the rings of Saturn on it.