Saturn throw-out bearing

[Fourthbean]

There are a few saturn drivers on this board, if I was looking at buying a car with a potentially bad throw-out bearing how big of a deal is this? I have worked on my car before (Put a new short block in), but have not worked on anything this new or front wheel drive. Would this be something I could do within a weekend? Would I need to pull the whole engine to get to the transmission?

Any general info on this would be great, as I am looking at buying a 500-1500 dollar car. Having some knowledge of how hard they are to work on would be great.

Thanks!