Is it normal for a saturn to use a lot of oil

Also park car on clean spot, leave overnite, than move car where you were parked, any oil spots? Look to make sure your not leaking as opposed to using.

You might have to replace your valve cover gasket they've been known to have weak gaskets and leak oil. It also could be due to high mileage they do use more oil when older.

The 1.9L SOHC and DOHC are both known to use oil. I have a 1998 SL1 with 101K miles on it and it uses about 1/4 of a quart between regular 3k mile oil changes. I run synthetic in it since I also owned a 1994 SL1 that had 292K on it and used about the same amount. As a Saturn owner for many years the best advice I can give you is this, check the oil each time you fill the tank up for gas. This is increasingly important as the car ages, and during heavy usage or under extreme conditions (stop and go traffic in the middle of a hot summer). If you keep an eye on the levels, you should be good. A leaky valve cover gasket can be one of many issues that cause an oil leak so unless someone has actually looked at your car specifically, I would be hesitant to simply take their advice as they would have NO WAY of knowing whether it is a leak, or it's boring oil, or there is another problem. My SL burns the oil, it doesn't leak, as you can see no drops or leaks on the garage floor. I would follow the advice above of placing a piece of plastic or cardboard under to oil pan at night to see if it is leaking. The thing about these cars is this. Our SL1 is 18 years old, it gets 36mpg in town. We blacked out the windows so no one can see in. The A/C and everything works flawlessly. It is not a luxury car, but it's reliable, VERY inexpensive to insure, and will last another 150k at least. Just maintain it, and care for it, and it will last for many years to come! Like I said this is our 2nd SL and our fifth Saturn (we have gifted others and L200 and an L300 as well as an SL2 to our siblings children. Best of luck! I hope this helps!

It depends on how much oil - a quart every 3000K miles or more than a quart? Is it blowing black smoke out the exhaust? Are you noticing any oil spots?

GM admitted the flaw of Saturns using a lot of oil. So don't try to blame the problem on other things. The company said the problem was corrected on later engines, I don't know if they did correct the problem. The problem was around the number four piston. It was just their mistake. We do a lot of repair work. But the company was honest about the mistake. Jim Little