Why does my 2008 Saturn Astra XR burn oil?

Burning oil normally means the engine was not serviced at recommended intervals, or the engine was beat to h*ll. The oil would be coming up threw the piston rings, or threw the valve guides.

The car manufacture consider it normal for a vehicle to take one quart of oil every 1000 miles.

Must agree with Gene, I did some reading on this, because of engineers trying to get the most gas mileage out the newer cars, they are reducing engine weight and total vehicle weight, designing less friction in the newer engines, that the piston rings and cylinder walls wear out faster now with the use of 5W30 oils, poor materials used, it just goes on and on...bottom line, it is just the way manufactures are making the engines these days.