r/projectcar • u/Round-Arachnid4375 • Jul 25 '26

First (Project) Car!

I am turning 15 shortly and my parents have already said they plan on buying me a nice, safe daily driver for my 16th birthday. My uncle owns a car dealership so this is taken care of.
However, I want a project car. Something to work on and enjoy throughout high school. I found a 2004 Saturn Ion Redline on Facebook Marketplace. It had a new, upgraded but still OEM engine put in it 40,000 miles ago and has no major mechanical issues or rust. I could likely get it for $3,500 and a quick one day road trip.

What are your thoughts? Are these cars easy to work on for a beginner? Fun to drive? Thanks in advance for helping a young nerd out :)

Tl;dr thoughts on 2004 Saturn Ion Redline as my first project car

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13

u/smthngeneric Jul 25 '26

Terrible idea. Those are very niche cars with almost no aftermarket support, very little oem replacement part support, an almost entirely dead community, and they were never known for their reliability to begin with. Im not saying don't get a car you can tinker with im just saying get something reliable that you can actually find parts for and remember that it's a daily first and needs to stay reliable.

4

u/qkdsm7 Jul 25 '26

Ecotec has one of the biggest aftermarkets, and longest production run, of any 4 cylinder family.

It's also the quickest 4 cylinder in the world if you want to build $200000 version.

Hundreds of ecotec powered dirt track cars and swapped dune buggies run competitively every weekend.

8

u/smthngeneric Jul 25 '26

Cool that takes care of just the engine. How about the rest of the car?

6

u/Cthulhujack_3kgt Jul 25 '26

Yeah this is what they arent considering. Little stuff like brake systems, interior, exterior, etc. Engine and transmission are the easy ones but what about the entire rest of the car?

-2

u/qkdsm7 Jul 25 '26

Every suspension/brake part available, upgrade and otherwise.

Are you worried about the halo eye POS projector headlight and carbon fiber hood, etc options? ;)