One problem related to transmission not go into gear has been reported for the 1996 Saturn SL1. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Manual transmission will not shift into gear, at times it must be shoved to go in to and out of reverse, first, and third gears. This problem is becoming worse and is at least remotely dangerous because it can take as much as 30 seconds or so to shift gears. This problem does not seem to be affected by any external source.