Review: 2007 Saturn Aura XR
09-27-06, 07:29 PM
#1
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Review: 2007 Saturn Aura XR
http://www.saturn.com/saturn/vehicle...ver_aura_Aug06
In a Nutshell: Lots of chromey flash, wonderful dealerships, and good noise isolation, but otherwise not very impressive.
After almost 8 years of production of the Opel-derived mid-sized L-models, Saturn has decided to replace them with another Opel-derived mid-sized product.....the Aura XE and XR 4-door sedans. Unfortunately, with the new design also comes the demise of the superb dent-proof and corrosion-proof plastic body panels that Saturn is famous for....the previous L-models had them only on the two side doors and front fender while the rear fenders were steel. The new Aura is all-metal on the outside. As of now, only the Ion, an otherwise inept small car, ( I never had a high opinion of it ) and the VUE, Saturn's compact SUV, still retain the plastic panels....and when they are redesigned, it's good-bye plastic panels for good, and IMO one of the smartest ideas in modern automotive design will be gone.
Well, no use crying over spilled milk...that's water over the dam, and we can't, at least you or I at this level, control what GM's silly marketers decide to do, and of course, the purpose of this review is to deal with the car as it IS rather than what it is NOT, so, on with it.
The Aura, along with its corporate brother, the Pontiac G6, is based quite closely on the new Euro-German Opel Vectra platform, although Saturn offers neither a wagon version like on the former L-models or a 2-door folding-hardtop version like the Pontiac G6. ( Saturn customers who want fun in the sun are courteously shown the literature for the hard-to-get Sky roadster...and the car itself if the dealership is lucky enough to have them if not pre-sold). Neither is an Aura 4-cylinder powerplant nor a manual transmission offered....you want an Aura, you take a V6, automatic and FWD. Strange, considering that the Aura, like most family-oriented mid-size sedans, is marketed directly at the king and queen of the mid-size marketplace...the Camry and Accord. More Camrys and Accords are sold with 4's than V6's, for reasons of both price and fuel economy, so time will tell if this was a smart marketing move on Saturn's part or not.
Yet the Saturn organization itself seems to be the same customer-friendly institution it always was. The salesman I met today was an absloute gem.....courteous, friendly, no B.S., knew what he was talking about, knew that I knew what I was talking about too, and treated me accordingly. He was a pleasure to deal with, and he will surely get some referrals from anybody I know who is interested in a Saturn product. I like salespeople who don't B.S. .....they are hard to find in the B.S.-saturated auto buisness. And Saturn's famous no-haggle list pricing ( since copied by Scion ) and 30-day full money-back guarantee with clear title and no vehicle damage, carry on, fortunately, as before.
Two models of the Aura are presently offered....a lower-trim XE version and a higher-trim XR. The XE comes with a 3.5 L, 224 HP V6 with a four-speed automatic; the XR comes with a 3.6 L, 252 HP six and a six-speed automatic. Several different interior trim packages are offered, and one leather package is offered in an unusual medium Morocco brown color ( unusual because most interiors today are either beige, gray, or black ). XE and XR versons are both offered in cloth or leather and with more than one color.....one of the car's better features ( see the website or brochure for more details ). There is lots of well-applied chrome trim on the outside and and, its rather boring paint colors notwithstanding, the car is quite flashy to look at both outside and inside, but overall, I did not find it a very pleasant car either to sit in or to drive. Even apart from the aforementioned marketing limitations, the car itself has some basic design flaws and goofs. So, let's take a look at the car in detail and see what those strong points and goofs are.
Model Reviewed: 2007 Saturn Aura XR
Base Price: $23,945
Major Options:
Premium Trim $800
Enhanced Convienence Package $425
Sunroof $800
XM Radio $199
Freight $650
Price as reviewed: ( No-Haggle ) $26,919
Drivetrain: FWD, transverse-mouned 3.6L DOHC 24-valve, VVT V6, 252 HP @ 6300 RPM, Torque 251 ft.lbs. @ 3200 RPM, 6-speed automatic transmission
with manual paddle-shift control.
Exterior Color: Black Onyx
Interior: Black Leather with gray / chrome metal trim
PLUSSES:
Traditional Saturn customer-friendliness.
No-haggle sticker price ( but you WILL bargain on your trade-in and financing, if applicable ).
Good noise isolation......on some road surfaces.
Handsome body lines.
Good fit-and-finish outside and inside with classy looks.
Good interior color choices.
Leather interior trim available in unusual Moroccan Brown color.
Right-now steering response with minimal body roll.
Smooth-shifting 6-speed automatic transmission with manual steering-wheel paddle-shifters.
High-quality exterior hardware and trim.
Better-than-average paint for a GM product.
Front fender-mounted turn-signal indicators for safety.
Well-designed gauges.
Firm brake pedal with good response.
Nice stereo.
On-Star and 911-dial feature available.
Trunk-lid hinges allow full-up position for loading.
No cheap prop-rod...a real strut to hold the hood up.
MINUSES:
Transmission noticeably robs the V6 of power.
Huge plastic engine cover hides access to almost everything except dipsticks.
50-series tires ride too stiffly and are too aggressive for a family sedan.
Hulk Hogan steering effort at low speeds.
Classy interior looks only skin-deep; dime-store plastic trim.
Munchkin-size headroom front and rear.
Difficult entry and exit.
Awkward rear door locks.
Awkward step-on parking brake under the dash.
Cheaply-designed seats with poor quality hardware and, on cloth models, cheap fabric.
Unique Saturn features and plastic body panels gone.
Standard warranty only 3/36 even for the drivetrain.
Exterior paint colors too dull and me-too-ish for my tastes.
I'll start the review, as always, with a description of the exterior. It's definitely mid-sized, and has what in my opinion are rather handsome body lines, without the space-ship-like extremes found on some of today's cars. Both the front and rear ends are well-done style-wise, but the roof is MUCH too low ( more on this later ).
GM really put a lot of chrome on this car by today's standards....somewhat reminiscent of its designs of 40 and 50 years ago. Grille, window frames, door handles, trunk moldings, headlight and tailight surrounds, all of this and more sparkles with chrome and polished metal trim .....and contrary to previous GM " chrome " finishes that were an insult to your intelligence, this chrome is done RIGHT.....classy, even, and with a high-quality look. Ditto for the paint.....although the paint itself is not quite up to the superb Lexus, Audi, or Acura standards, and the color choices are about as interesting as a Bingo game at a retirement home. Still, the base paint and clearcoat are evenly applied, reasonably free from orange peel, and have a good luster. The outside mirrors and their swivel mounts, in complete contrast to most GM cars, actually feel like they are built out of something more solid than chewing gum....and share the same good finish on them the body itself does. A nice little turn-signal indicator on each front fender, just behind each wheel well, gives a little added measure of visibility to other drivers. The trunk was about average-size for this class of car, but the hinges were well-designed and allowed the trunk to open straight up for easy loading.
Open the hood and the lack of a four-cylinder in the rather small ( for a mid-size car ) engine compartment makes itself known. The 3.6 L V6, mounted transversely, itself eats up most of the underhood space, and the BIG idiotic plastic engine cover that so many manufacturers stick on top of the engine hides almost everything that the engine itself doesn't. Fortuntely, you can at least reach the basic dipsticks and filler caps without much trouble. Fortunately the hood had a strut to hold it up instead of a cheaper prop rod.
Get inside ( while you duck your head under the LOW roof ) and more chrome flash greets your eyes.....around the instrument bezels, radio / climate control *****, shift lever housing, vent *****, and brushed-metal on the console and steering wheel spokes. As with the exterior, the interior fit-and-finish is quite good, and the chrome and brushed metal do not look or feel chintzy. A shiny-painted light gray strip runs the whole width of the dash and console-surround in some cars; wood-panel trim in others ( as usual, as with most cars, I much preferred the wood trim ).
The gauges themselves are quite well-designed, with clear, round faces, easy-to-read figures, Lexus-style backlit illumination, and white markings with orange trim rings. The steering wheel has standard manual tilt and telescope features, and power-adjustable pedals are included with some interior option packages. The stereo has the typical GM round ***** with chrome rings and sounds quite nice. A microphone built into the molding around the inside mirror allows one to press the optional red and white cross-marked button and call 911 in an emergency without dragging out a cell phone ( That's one LESS excuse now for cell-phone yakking while driving ). OnSTAR is also offered, as with many other GM products. In the back seat, separate controls and jacks on the back of the console allow rear-seat passengers with headphones to provide their own entertainment independent of the stereo. The stereo itself has the by-now-common IPod and MP3 capabilities ( my particular car also had the optional XM ).
There are three major problems with the interior....one of them quite serious. The first of them is the WalMart clearance-sale plastics used for the trim and hardware. While the chrome, wood-trim, and painted-metal surface finishes are well-done, the plastics under them, in typical GM fashion, are NOT. GM has done a lot of advertising touting improved quality interiors, but the ONLY vehicles in their lineup that I've seen any real evidence of this on are the new full-size SUV's....Tahoe, Suburban, Denali, Escalade, etc....( see my review of the new Tahoe last spring )......and even then it was mostly on the dash. only on those vehicles there does seem to be real improvement in the dash quality itself, and not just flashy trim put on to mask cheap parts underneath. Which brings us to the second major interior flaw.....CHEAP seats. I've seen better seats in Accents and Rios for $10,000. Saturn ( and possibly Opel, the main source for this car ), obviously did some cost-cutting in the design of the seats. The seat frame, hardware, adjusters, and especially the fabric, had a cheap, poorly-designed feel to it. The leather was not quite so cheap-feeling, but like many smooth leather seats, was slippery and the flat cushions ( fortunately wide enough for my big you-know-what ) allowed you to slide all over the place. These seats need a major upgrade in material quality ASAP.
The third major interior problem is quite serious, especially for big and tall people like me. The roofline is much, and I mean MUCH, too low, and I'm not exaggerating. Even without the sunroof, which naturally makes the headroom even worse, it's clear that the designers simply did not take anyone over about 5'8" or so into consideration....in fact, I had less trouble with headroom ( with the top up ) in the notoriously cramped Mazda Miata. Getting in and out of the front seat under the Munchkin-level roof is like doing the Limbo down in Jamaica...the rear seat, even worse. Even taking off my traditional baseball cap did not help matters any....the roofline over the rear seat came down to about my shoulders...I absolutely could NOT sit in back, period, without jamming my chin forward on my neck. Front-sat headroom was only marginally better, even without the sunroof and with the seat cushion lowered all the way down. I just wonder if GM President Bob Lutz himself ever bothered to sit in this car during its design stages.....he's a big boy like me, over 6 feet.
Fortunately, legroom up front was much better than headroom. While not vast, it was at least adequate.......rear-seat legroom less so. This is obvously not a car for large adults, nor is really a family car per se, in my opinion, despite its advertising and marketing to the contrary. I would say two medium-size adults and two children at most. Two other minor complaints inside.....First, the inside door lock buttons for both rear seats are located on the BACK of the doors, just forward of the panel behind the seats, instead of on the front of the doors like most cars. This, of course, combined with the low rear roofline and the rear shoulder-belt holders, makes them awkward to reach sitting in the rear seat. The car's automatic door locks, though, which go on and off with the car's startup from rest, help this to some degree. Second, the parking brake handle, instead of a convienent pull-up type on the console, is an awkward step-on type under the dash...again a problem for tall people and big legs.
On the road, the V6 was smooth and quiet, but the ultra-smooth-shifting transmission's silky characteristics sapped a noticeable amount of its power, particularly with the A/C on. Shifts were extremely smooth, in typical GM fashion, even bordering on the unnoticeable, but the delay caused by that smooth slippage is not conducive to performance. Manual shifts with the steering-wheel-mounted paddles were usually smooth, but were sometimes noticeable downshifting in the lower gears.
Brakes were well-designed, with good stopping power and a nice FIRM pedal ( no spongy feel here ). Handling, due to the fairly aggressive tires and firm suspension, gave a RIGHT-NOW steering response that was more like a sports car than a family sedan and almost completely devoid of body roll. In fact, that was, in my opinion, a negative. The 50-series tires, again in my opinion, are simply too low-profile and aggressive for a family sedan...this car is not meant to corner-carve with BMW's, yet does so very well. While the engineers have done a good job controlling road and wind noise even with the firm-riding tires ( the car is quiet as a tomb at low speeds on asphalt surfaces.....less so on concrete) the suspension and tires are clearly not set up for comfort. My advice to the factory....keep this present version as an Aura Sport model and put out a regular model with 60 or 65-series tires and slightly softer suspension.
Most cars that I test-drive have what I consider to be too-soft over-boosted power steering, but this car takes it to the opposite extreme.....the power steering pump, at low speeds, takes a WWF Pro Wrestler to turn it. Even with my good-sized arms, working the wheel was a chore.....driving it felt like somewhere between no power assist at all and driving a Winston Cup machine. Again, this could be partly the design of the tires....that sometimes contributes to road feel and steering effort. Put the effort into turning the wheel, though, and as mentioned before, the car responds almost like a Mazda RX-8.
OK.....the verdict?
By now, most of you have guessed, correctly, that I was not exactly thrilled with this car, despite its classy good looks, good fit-and-finish, low noise level, sharp steering and brakes, well-done exterior, nice gauges, and smooth, quiet drivetrain. It has major problems with the too-low roof, cheap seats, flimsy interior plastic, awkward inside rear door locks, overly stiff ride for a family sedan, and stuffed-sardine engine compartment. It is NOT a car for those under about 5' 8" or so, want a boulevard ride, have arthiritis or other problems with hands, arms, and shoulders, need well-designed seats, or want to bargain for the lowest possible purchase price. But for those who can live with its shortcomings, it offers the well-known benefits of being a Saturn customer and its excellent dealer service.
In a Nutshell: Lots of chromey flash, wonderful dealerships, and good noise isolation, but otherwise not very impressive.
After almost 8 years of production of the Opel-derived mid-sized L-models, Saturn has decided to replace them with another Opel-derived mid-sized product.....the Aura XE and XR 4-door sedans. Unfortunately, with the new design also comes the demise of the superb dent-proof and corrosion-proof plastic body panels that Saturn is famous for....the previous L-models had them only on the two side doors and front fender while the rear fenders were steel. The new Aura is all-metal on the outside. As of now, only the Ion, an otherwise inept small car, ( I never had a high opinion of it ) and the VUE, Saturn's compact SUV, still retain the plastic panels....and when they are redesigned, it's good-bye plastic panels for good, and IMO one of the smartest ideas in modern automotive design will be gone.
Well, no use crying over spilled milk...that's water over the dam, and we can't, at least you or I at this level, control what GM's silly marketers decide to do, and of course, the purpose of this review is to deal with the car as it IS rather than what it is NOT, so, on with it.
The Aura, along with its corporate brother, the Pontiac G6, is based quite closely on the new Euro-German Opel Vectra platform, although Saturn offers neither a wagon version like on the former L-models or a 2-door folding-hardtop version like the Pontiac G6. ( Saturn customers who want fun in the sun are courteously shown the literature for the hard-to-get Sky roadster...and the car itself if the dealership is lucky enough to have them if not pre-sold). Neither is an Aura 4-cylinder powerplant nor a manual transmission offered....you want an Aura, you take a V6, automatic and FWD. Strange, considering that the Aura, like most family-oriented mid-size sedans, is marketed directly at the king and queen of the mid-size marketplace...the Camry and Accord. More Camrys and Accords are sold with 4's than V6's, for reasons of both price and fuel economy, so time will tell if this was a smart marketing move on Saturn's part or not.
Yet the Saturn organization itself seems to be the same customer-friendly institution it always was. The salesman I met today was an absloute gem.....courteous, friendly, no B.S., knew what he was talking about, knew that I knew what I was talking about too, and treated me accordingly. He was a pleasure to deal with, and he will surely get some referrals from anybody I know who is interested in a Saturn product. I like salespeople who don't B.S. .....they are hard to find in the B.S.-saturated auto buisness. And Saturn's famous no-haggle list pricing ( since copied by Scion ) and 30-day full money-back guarantee with clear title and no vehicle damage, carry on, fortunately, as before.
Two models of the Aura are presently offered....a lower-trim XE version and a higher-trim XR. The XE comes with a 3.5 L, 224 HP V6 with a four-speed automatic; the XR comes with a 3.6 L, 252 HP six and a six-speed automatic. Several different interior trim packages are offered, and one leather package is offered in an unusual medium Morocco brown color ( unusual because most interiors today are either beige, gray, or black ). XE and XR versons are both offered in cloth or leather and with more than one color.....one of the car's better features ( see the website or brochure for more details ). There is lots of well-applied chrome trim on the outside and and, its rather boring paint colors notwithstanding, the car is quite flashy to look at both outside and inside, but overall, I did not find it a very pleasant car either to sit in or to drive. Even apart from the aforementioned marketing limitations, the car itself has some basic design flaws and goofs. So, let's take a look at the car in detail and see what those strong points and goofs are.
Model Reviewed: 2007 Saturn Aura XR
Base Price: $23,945
Major Options:
Premium Trim $800
Enhanced Convienence Package $425
Sunroof $800
XM Radio $199
Freight $650
Price as reviewed: ( No-Haggle ) $26,919
Drivetrain: FWD, transverse-mouned 3.6L DOHC 24-valve, VVT V6, 252 HP @ 6300 RPM, Torque 251 ft.lbs. @ 3200 RPM, 6-speed automatic transmission
with manual paddle-shift control.
Exterior Color: Black Onyx
Interior: Black Leather with gray / chrome metal trim
PLUSSES:
Traditional Saturn customer-friendliness.
No-haggle sticker price ( but you WILL bargain on your trade-in and financing, if applicable ).
Good noise isolation......on some road surfaces.
Handsome body lines.
Good fit-and-finish outside and inside with classy looks.
Good interior color choices.
Leather interior trim available in unusual Moroccan Brown color.
Right-now steering response with minimal body roll.
Smooth-shifting 6-speed automatic transmission with manual steering-wheel paddle-shifters.
High-quality exterior hardware and trim.
Better-than-average paint for a GM product.
Front fender-mounted turn-signal indicators for safety.
Well-designed gauges.
Firm brake pedal with good response.
Nice stereo.
On-Star and 911-dial feature available.
Trunk-lid hinges allow full-up position for loading.
No cheap prop-rod...a real strut to hold the hood up.
MINUSES:
Transmission noticeably robs the V6 of power.
Huge plastic engine cover hides access to almost everything except dipsticks.
50-series tires ride too stiffly and are too aggressive for a family sedan.
Hulk Hogan steering effort at low speeds.
Classy interior looks only skin-deep; dime-store plastic trim.
Munchkin-size headroom front and rear.
Difficult entry and exit.
Awkward rear door locks.
Awkward step-on parking brake under the dash.
Cheaply-designed seats with poor quality hardware and, on cloth models, cheap fabric.
Unique Saturn features and plastic body panels gone.
Standard warranty only 3/36 even for the drivetrain.
Exterior paint colors too dull and me-too-ish for my tastes.
I'll start the review, as always, with a description of the exterior. It's definitely mid-sized, and has what in my opinion are rather handsome body lines, without the space-ship-like extremes found on some of today's cars. Both the front and rear ends are well-done style-wise, but the roof is MUCH too low ( more on this later ).
GM really put a lot of chrome on this car by today's standards....somewhat reminiscent of its designs of 40 and 50 years ago. Grille, window frames, door handles, trunk moldings, headlight and tailight surrounds, all of this and more sparkles with chrome and polished metal trim .....and contrary to previous GM " chrome " finishes that were an insult to your intelligence, this chrome is done RIGHT.....classy, even, and with a high-quality look. Ditto for the paint.....although the paint itself is not quite up to the superb Lexus, Audi, or Acura standards, and the color choices are about as interesting as a Bingo game at a retirement home. Still, the base paint and clearcoat are evenly applied, reasonably free from orange peel, and have a good luster. The outside mirrors and their swivel mounts, in complete contrast to most GM cars, actually feel like they are built out of something more solid than chewing gum....and share the same good finish on them the body itself does. A nice little turn-signal indicator on each front fender, just behind each wheel well, gives a little added measure of visibility to other drivers. The trunk was about average-size for this class of car, but the hinges were well-designed and allowed the trunk to open straight up for easy loading.
Open the hood and the lack of a four-cylinder in the rather small ( for a mid-size car ) engine compartment makes itself known. The 3.6 L V6, mounted transversely, itself eats up most of the underhood space, and the BIG idiotic plastic engine cover that so many manufacturers stick on top of the engine hides almost everything that the engine itself doesn't. Fortuntely, you can at least reach the basic dipsticks and filler caps without much trouble. Fortunately the hood had a strut to hold it up instead of a cheaper prop rod.
Get inside ( while you duck your head under the LOW roof ) and more chrome flash greets your eyes.....around the instrument bezels, radio / climate control *****, shift lever housing, vent *****, and brushed-metal on the console and steering wheel spokes. As with the exterior, the interior fit-and-finish is quite good, and the chrome and brushed metal do not look or feel chintzy. A shiny-painted light gray strip runs the whole width of the dash and console-surround in some cars; wood-panel trim in others ( as usual, as with most cars, I much preferred the wood trim ).
The gauges themselves are quite well-designed, with clear, round faces, easy-to-read figures, Lexus-style backlit illumination, and white markings with orange trim rings. The steering wheel has standard manual tilt and telescope features, and power-adjustable pedals are included with some interior option packages. The stereo has the typical GM round ***** with chrome rings and sounds quite nice. A microphone built into the molding around the inside mirror allows one to press the optional red and white cross-marked button and call 911 in an emergency without dragging out a cell phone ( That's one LESS excuse now for cell-phone yakking while driving ). OnSTAR is also offered, as with many other GM products. In the back seat, separate controls and jacks on the back of the console allow rear-seat passengers with headphones to provide their own entertainment independent of the stereo. The stereo itself has the by-now-common IPod and MP3 capabilities ( my particular car also had the optional XM ).
There are three major problems with the interior....one of them quite serious. The first of them is the WalMart clearance-sale plastics used for the trim and hardware. While the chrome, wood-trim, and painted-metal surface finishes are well-done, the plastics under them, in typical GM fashion, are NOT. GM has done a lot of advertising touting improved quality interiors, but the ONLY vehicles in their lineup that I've seen any real evidence of this on are the new full-size SUV's....Tahoe, Suburban, Denali, Escalade, etc....( see my review of the new Tahoe last spring )......and even then it was mostly on the dash. only on those vehicles there does seem to be real improvement in the dash quality itself, and not just flashy trim put on to mask cheap parts underneath. Which brings us to the second major interior flaw.....CHEAP seats. I've seen better seats in Accents and Rios for $10,000. Saturn ( and possibly Opel, the main source for this car ), obviously did some cost-cutting in the design of the seats. The seat frame, hardware, adjusters, and especially the fabric, had a cheap, poorly-designed feel to it. The leather was not quite so cheap-feeling, but like many smooth leather seats, was slippery and the flat cushions ( fortunately wide enough for my big you-know-what ) allowed you to slide all over the place. These seats need a major upgrade in material quality ASAP.
The third major interior problem is quite serious, especially for big and tall people like me. The roofline is much, and I mean MUCH, too low, and I'm not exaggerating. Even without the sunroof, which naturally makes the headroom even worse, it's clear that the designers simply did not take anyone over about 5'8" or so into consideration....in fact, I had less trouble with headroom ( with the top up ) in the notoriously cramped Mazda Miata. Getting in and out of the front seat under the Munchkin-level roof is like doing the Limbo down in Jamaica...the rear seat, even worse. Even taking off my traditional baseball cap did not help matters any....the roofline over the rear seat came down to about my shoulders...I absolutely could NOT sit in back, period, without jamming my chin forward on my neck. Front-sat headroom was only marginally better, even without the sunroof and with the seat cushion lowered all the way down. I just wonder if GM President Bob Lutz himself ever bothered to sit in this car during its design stages.....he's a big boy like me, over 6 feet.
Fortunately, legroom up front was much better than headroom. While not vast, it was at least adequate.......rear-seat legroom less so. This is obvously not a car for large adults, nor is really a family car per se, in my opinion, despite its advertising and marketing to the contrary. I would say two medium-size adults and two children at most. Two other minor complaints inside.....First, the inside door lock buttons for both rear seats are located on the BACK of the doors, just forward of the panel behind the seats, instead of on the front of the doors like most cars. This, of course, combined with the low rear roofline and the rear shoulder-belt holders, makes them awkward to reach sitting in the rear seat. The car's automatic door locks, though, which go on and off with the car's startup from rest, help this to some degree. Second, the parking brake handle, instead of a convienent pull-up type on the console, is an awkward step-on type under the dash...again a problem for tall people and big legs.
On the road, the V6 was smooth and quiet, but the ultra-smooth-shifting transmission's silky characteristics sapped a noticeable amount of its power, particularly with the A/C on. Shifts were extremely smooth, in typical GM fashion, even bordering on the unnoticeable, but the delay caused by that smooth slippage is not conducive to performance. Manual shifts with the steering-wheel-mounted paddles were usually smooth, but were sometimes noticeable downshifting in the lower gears.
Brakes were well-designed, with good stopping power and a nice FIRM pedal ( no spongy feel here ). Handling, due to the fairly aggressive tires and firm suspension, gave a RIGHT-NOW steering response that was more like a sports car than a family sedan and almost completely devoid of body roll. In fact, that was, in my opinion, a negative. The 50-series tires, again in my opinion, are simply too low-profile and aggressive for a family sedan...this car is not meant to corner-carve with BMW's, yet does so very well. While the engineers have done a good job controlling road and wind noise even with the firm-riding tires ( the car is quiet as a tomb at low speeds on asphalt surfaces.....less so on concrete) the suspension and tires are clearly not set up for comfort. My advice to the factory....keep this present version as an Aura Sport model and put out a regular model with 60 or 65-series tires and slightly softer suspension.
Most cars that I test-drive have what I consider to be too-soft over-boosted power steering, but this car takes it to the opposite extreme.....the power steering pump, at low speeds, takes a WWF Pro Wrestler to turn it. Even with my good-sized arms, working the wheel was a chore.....driving it felt like somewhere between no power assist at all and driving a Winston Cup machine. Again, this could be partly the design of the tires....that sometimes contributes to road feel and steering effort. Put the effort into turning the wheel, though, and as mentioned before, the car responds almost like a Mazda RX-8.
OK.....the verdict?
By now, most of you have guessed, correctly, that I was not exactly thrilled with this car, despite its classy good looks, good fit-and-finish, low noise level, sharp steering and brakes, well-done exterior, nice gauges, and smooth, quiet drivetrain. It has major problems with the too-low roof, cheap seats, flimsy interior plastic, awkward inside rear door locks, overly stiff ride for a family sedan, and stuffed-sardine engine compartment. It is NOT a car for those under about 5' 8" or so, want a boulevard ride, have arthiritis or other problems with hands, arms, and shoulders, need well-designed seats, or want to bargain for the lowest possible purchase price. But for those who can live with its shortcomings, it offers the well-known benefits of being a Saturn customer and its excellent dealer service.
Last edited by mmarshall; 09-27-06 at 08:38 PM.
09-28-06, 03:25 AM
#3
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Thanks. The Aura is is not an appliancelike, Jack-of-all-Trades car like the Camry or Accord that does just about everything at least fairly well or better.
It has, in my opinion, a distinct personality, with marked good and bad features.....something that the auto press, in general, doesn't seem to be quite grasping. For example, I read in ROAD and TRACK last night ( after my own write-up ), a " First Drive" article on an Aura XR just like the one I drove except for brown Moroccan leather. I thought it was too rosy.......they correctly noted the car's well-done exterior, good fit-and-finish, low noise level, attention to interior detail, smooth drivetrain, and quick steering response, but failed to note its stiff ride, tight engine fit, Gremlin-level headroom, WWF steering, cheaply made seats, and the bargain-basement interior plastic underneath that nicely finished surface.
Now, of course, I don't claim to know more than the professional auto testers and journalists in the auto magazine buisness ( they, of course, do it for a living ), They also, unlike me, push a vehicle to its limits.......and they have sometimes wrecked cars doing that. Sometimes their articles are too short for them to go into everything in detail. As you pointed out, though, I try and be as fair and objective as I can. I don't praise a car's features unless I am genuinely impressed with them, and I don't criticize features unless I honestly feel that the car's designers or marketers could have, for their asking price, done better....remember that most vehicles are designed and built to a budget.
It has, in my opinion, a distinct personality, with marked good and bad features.....something that the auto press, in general, doesn't seem to be quite grasping. For example, I read in ROAD and TRACK last night ( after my own write-up ), a " First Drive" article on an Aura XR just like the one I drove except for brown Moroccan leather. I thought it was too rosy.......they correctly noted the car's well-done exterior, good fit-and-finish, low noise level, attention to interior detail, smooth drivetrain, and quick steering response, but failed to note its stiff ride, tight engine fit, Gremlin-level headroom, WWF steering, cheaply made seats, and the bargain-basement interior plastic underneath that nicely finished surface.
Now, of course, I don't claim to know more than the professional auto testers and journalists in the auto magazine buisness ( they, of course, do it for a living ), They also, unlike me, push a vehicle to its limits.......and they have sometimes wrecked cars doing that. Sometimes their articles are too short for them to go into everything in detail. As you pointed out, though, I try and be as fair and objective as I can. I don't praise a car's features unless I am genuinely impressed with them, and I don't criticize features unless I honestly feel that the car's designers or marketers could have, for their asking price, done better....remember that most vehicles are designed and built to a budget.
Last edited by mmarshall; 09-28-06 at 03:57 AM.
09-29-06, 03:40 AM
#4
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Just out of curiosity, has anyone in CL driven or bought an Aura? I'd like to get some other opinions on this car....besides the auto press.
09-29-06, 09:57 AM
#5
Super Moderator
I have driven the Vectra down here which is close. It really does not speak Chevrolet or Saturn at all and seems like a step between Saturn and Cadillac. Very nice interior...the engine does have pick up. It seems to me from your review they Americanized this vehicle and did not keep a good part of the European aspect that the Vectra was known for down here.
I would be interested in seeing what American reaction is after a year.
I would be interested in seeing what American reaction is after a year.
10-01-06, 04:42 PM
#6
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
I have driven the Vectra down here which is close. It really does not speak Chevrolet or Saturn at all and seems like a step between Saturn and Cadillac. Very nice interior...the engine does have pick up. It seems to me from your review they Americanized this vehicle and did not keep a good part of the European aspect that the Vectra was known for down here.
I would be interested in seeing what American reaction is after a year.
I would be interested in seeing what American reaction is after a year.
I didn't know that Opels are sold in Mexico....or was that a gray-market car?
10-01-06, 04:58 PM
#7
Super Moderator
Unless it was just a power-steering defect in the pump or rack itself ( I always check underhood fluids before I test-drive ) they did keep heavy, German-type power steering in the Americanized Aura....perhaps too much so. I found this particular vehicle had a very stiff steering wheel at low speeds....too much so for comfortable driving.
I didn't know that Opels are sold in Mexico....or was that a gray-market car?
I didn't know that Opels are sold in Mexico....or was that a gray-market car?
http://mx.autos.yahoo.com/newcars/ch...l_overview.php
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10-01-06, 05:26 PM
#8
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
One of the sad facts down here is that anything considered an Opel elsewhere is rebadged under the Chevrolet nameplate here. We even have Hyundais badged as Dodges.
http://mx.autos.yahoo.com/newcars/ch...l_overview.php
http://mx.autos.yahoo.com/newcars/ch...l_overview.php
I guess you noticed the low roof and the cramped headroom....unless you are short enough that it doesn't bother you. That was another big problem with the Aura I reviewed.
Hyundais rebadged as Dodges? Not surprising, although we don't see that here in the U.S. I would take almost any Hyundai product, quality-wise, over almost any U.S.-market Dodge, though I admit the Dodge Hemis are fun to drive. ( I did a review on the Magnum 340 HP Hemi )
Last edited by mmarshall; 10-01-06 at 05:30 PM.
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