It’s a good thing our 2008 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid is painted a pleasant pastel Sea Mist Green because it’s a very, oh, mild color. Which fits in nicely with saying the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid is what’s known as a “mild hybrid.”

In today’s hybrid world there are several types of hybrids. There’s the “full hybrid” of the Toyota school—also used by Ford—that can run under electric power, gasoline engine power or a combination of both.

And then there’s the “mild hybrid,” pioneered by Honda, that uses an electric motor to give an occasional power boost to a smaller than usual gasoline engine for economy without sacrificing performance.

The Saturn Vue Hybrid is one of the latter. But instead of the Honda system which integrates the electric motor into the driveline, the hybrid system on the Vue has a “hang-on” electric motor/generator.

In many ways the Vue Hybrid is similar to the base Saturn Vue. It has the same 2.4-liter Ecotec in-line four-cylinder engine that produces by itself 169 horsepower. In 2007, the base engine for the Saturn Vue was an anemic 2.2-liter four. But by adding an electric motor to the 2.4, Saturn boosts output to a rated 172 horsepower and 167 lb-ft of torque.

But will “born to be mild” enough wild enough with the arrival of hyper hybrids, such as GM’s own “2 Mode” hybrid, which will be arriving in ever increasing numbers, and other fuel sippers, hybrid and others? Read our take on the 2008 Saturn Hybrid and tell what you think.

Posted in Green Line, Saturn, Vue, car review, hybrid, road test by admin on June 3rd, 2008

We didn’t go to Germany’s Black Forest to road test the 2008 Saturn Astra 5-door XR but it would have made perfect sense. The Saturn Astra is an Opel Astra imported and fitted with a Saturn badge.
It’s legitimate, as such things go. Opel is General Motor’s European subsidiary…has been since the ‘30s actually…and going the other way, Opel gets its own version of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, dubbed the Opel GT (which should stir a few automotive enthusiasts who were around in the early seventies).

But the Astra is an interesting combination, a true automotive polyglot. The car’s final assembly in Belgium, its engine is made in Hungary and the automatic transmission in our tester made in Japan. As Walt Disney said, it’s a small world after all.

Is it a big enough place, however, for this automobile that made its visit to the melting pot before, as Neil Diamond might say, comging to America?

See what we have to say by reading our review of the 2008 Saturn Astra 5-door XR, and don’t forget the carbuzzard.com RoadSkill Report from our new and evolving video department.

Posted in Astra, Saturn by admin on May 10th, 2008

Once upon a time, Saturns were goofy little cars with plastic bodies whackable with a baseball bat, an interior that buzzed when the engine was revved, an uncomfortable ride… Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.

No doubt you have. It’s being told a lot because Saturn is in the process of being reinvented and everyone wants to take a swipe at the old Saturn before tallying up the advances of the new Saturn. And the 2008 Saturn Vue is just one of them. Nota bene the new model 2007 Saturn Sky sports car, the new model 2007 Saturn Aura sedan, the all-new-for-’08 Saturn Outlook, the new model 2008 Saturn Astra and now the all-new-for-2008 Saturn Vue.

 Read the rest of our Vue review then come back and tell us what you think.

Posted in SUV review, Saturn, Vue, car review, crossover, truck review by admin on December 13th, 2007

Do you know what it’s like to sit down to a warm wedge of homemade apple pie like grandma used to make, if grandma was the kind of grandma that frozen pies picture on the outside of box without matching grandma’s best inside? You know what it’s like to slide your fork through the flakey crust, into the fully baked yet firm slices of homegrown apples, releasing that faint whiff of cinnamon, and…WHAT? Grandma, there are raisins in my apple pie!

That, exactly, was the feeling of sliding into the driver’s seat of a 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line and seeing the handle of an automatic transmission poking through the center console. Argh! Whose idea what that?

We recently drove a 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line equipped with GM’s five-speed automatic transmission and found it more exasperating than one might think. How so? Read our Saturn Sky Red Line new car review to find out. Then come back and tell us what you think.

Posted in Red Line, Saturn, Sky, car review, convertible, road test by admin on September 10th, 2007