(first posted 8/22/2015) There was one major problem that plagued Saturn. It wasn’t just the fact than when it was released it looked like a Mini-me decontented Cutlass that had costed GM billions of dollars to develop. And that every single aspect that made it distinct and original was eroded until all that was left was a cheap car that didn’t so much competed with the Civic and Corolla as with the bottom feeder (at the time) Koreans. It was that for about half of their life they had a lineup of only one car. And in a time of huge moves in the auto industry (which is any time in the auto industry) that pretty much means that you are dead on the water.
Sure, the S-Series was given some special editions, and it was available as a wagon and a 2-door coupe (as a sucker for pop-up headlights, the first generation of those is the one to get) but it was still a one compact lineup. And at the moment the money was being made in mid-size sedans and full-size SUVs. I’m guessing after the initial expense of getting the brand out to the world it was deemed too much of an investment to develop another bespoke vehicle for the brand. But sometime around 1996 or so they must’ve realized that the S-Series wouldn’t last forever and brand expansion was required.
First came the L-Series, and once again it wasn’t so much competition for the Accord and the Camry as it was for the Optima and Sonata for the “I need a largish car that’s also quite cheap” crowd. Two years later, our subject car came along and…well it’s a bit bland isn’t it?
Yes, it seems that style wasn’t so big a priority when designing the VUE. The end product seems to have been designed by a kid when asked to draw Mommy’s car. But looking at it from another angle, isn’t it refreshing to see a small crossover that’s not overly styled or bloated? The combination of simple styling and those composite body panels also means it has aged better than other crossovers from similar vintage like the Hyundai Santa Fe. And the plain wrappings also hid some interesting technological developments if you knew which model to choose.
For example, the VUE Green Line it was the first vehicle made by GM that had a mild-hybrid system. And brace yourselves, because I’ll try to explain it. Essentially, there’s a powerful electric motor where the alternator is supposed to be and that gives you electric power assistance when you start, regenerative braking when you stop and start/stop functionality for city traffic. This system gave the Green Line massive improvements in fuel economy compared to the conventional-powered model going to 25 MPG city (up from 19) and 32 on the highway (up from 26).
For those that preferred power and handling to saving fuel there was this. The Vue Red Line, a lowered, sportier model with a jewel under the hood. You see, instead of using any of the V6 engines that GM produced at the time, the Red Line (as well as some other V6-powered VUEs) was powered by a 3.5-liter Honda V6 mated to a five-speed manual. This is the same award-winning engine that powered the similar vintage Acura RL flagship, although in that application it was tuned to produce 286 horsepower then compared to the 248 it did on the Saturn. Still, 0-60 in 7.4 seconds and 0.81g thanks to the sports suspension are nothing to scoff at.
That’s not to say that I’d give the VUE a clean bill of health. It was still a Saturn, which meant the lowest of the low in the GM parts department. Horrible, ill-fitting plastics of dubious precedence and quality. And it had a CVT, which I personally find deeply annoying. Still, it managed to become Saturn’s top seller at one point, selling 91,972 units in the U.S on 2005, this was also its best sales year. Unfortunately, the VUE would go downhill from there.
For starters there was the rather unfortunate facelift bestowed on it for the 2006 model year. This is what I was on about the design being generic but aging well on the pre-facelift model. I’m guessing the intention with this was to make it look less generic and trying to make it fit better with the facelifted L-Series. It didn’t make it any less generic, merely switched it to a worse level of generic.
In 2008, the new VUE was released. Now following the new “American Opel” direction that the powers that be had decided for the brand, the VUE was now but a rebadged Opel Antara. The composite panels, like anything that was publicized as being the next big thing when Saturn was released, was now gone. The Saturn brand would be gone just a few years later.
The Saturn VUE was a hit for Saturn, one of the few in its life alongside the ION Red-Line but I’m left wondering what would’ve happened if it had been developed and released earlier. Let’s say in the late ‘90s when the first-gen RAV-4 and CR-V were the ones leading the charge in the newfangled “Compact SUV” market. I don’t think it would’ve ultimately saved Saturn, but would it have been something that would’ve gone toe-to-toe with them and caused an incentive for the higher ups to throw a bit more money into the failing brand? Food for thought.
(curbside black VUE images by Brendan Saur)
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1992 Saturn SL (GM Deadly Sin)
We dont have Saturns other than the odd stray that has washed up but the 3rd to last photo is eerily familiar, I dont suppose the designs emigrated to Korea and ended up in Daewoos hands by any chance, We get a car SUV thingy from Holden called a Captiva and it looks remarkably like that.
The Opel Antara and Chevrolet/Daewoo/Holden Captiva were blood brothers, both designed and and built in South Korea and visibly so. The Antara didn’t come off as a real Opel and flopped, Daevrolet selling essentially the same car with more space for less not helping. You’d think GM would know better, but nooo…
However, the Korean-built Opel Mokka sells well today.
The Chevy Captiva was also built in Mexico, and sold in the US as a fleet-only vehicle, mostly to rental car companies.
Judging from what we’re seeing in this neck of the woods, some of them have now been sold out of the fleets and are in the hands of private owners. They’ve been turning up on Craigslist every great once in a while for a few months.
Despite what GM had intended by selling the Captiva only to fleets, used Captivas are still mainstays of Chevrolet used lots. I think that the dealers even try hard to find them, and they sell well. It’s like GM built a used car factory for their Chevrolet dealers.
In the US we only got the “short” Captiva, the rest of the world had an extended wheelbase 3-row version. We rented one in Iceland with a diesel last year and it was perfectly competent. Not exciting, but perfectly competent and perfectly sized for us, our three kids and the luggage. Quiet, enough power, and plenty of comfort. I think the 3-row version would have probably done better over here than the one 2-row that we got.
I always thought Captiva was a particularly unfortunate choice of name. I’m sure they were invoking “captivate” but it comes off more like “captive”. As in “I’m a captive in this bland-looking, crappy small SUV!”
GM was probably naming it after the island. Glamorous sounding destinations are popular sources for car names.
There’s an island named Captiva? Learn something new every day…
You have to hand it to them: the square styling maked the Vue look chunky and not very old today… but not very recognisable either. Appears to be right-size though, and the first not-truck-based SUV, or am I mistaken here? Were they related to any other models?
A quick Wiki sweep says that the first-gen Vue was the first car to use the Theta platform, and it was GM’s first and only car-based SUV (crossover) until the Equinox/Torrent.
If you mean in the GM family, yes. But the Honda CR-V, RAV-4, and RX300 all preceded this.
“maked”
I’d forgotten how awful these were. That interior is dreadful, probably the worst in the segment. The Red Line is almost a cruel joke. Pathetic.
To me, this car embodies everything that was so horribly wrong with GM. It was very late to a market segment that had been gaining strength for years. Sold in its own dealers, with “one price,” where bottom feeding competitors could easily undercut it. Touting that it was made of plastic (?!), which I guess implied dent-and-ding-free durability, but also seemed like a Rubbermaid car. And even one of the alleged benefits of a plastic outer body–cheap, frequent styling updates–didn’t happen.
OK, I’ll channel William and try to say one nice thing about this Tupperware turd: the Green Line was a good name and that hybrid vehicle was for once at the leading edge of a trend.
Done correctly plastic gets a bad rap as a body material. On the showroom floor when everything is new and shiny its inferior to metal. Fast foreward 5-10+ years of the typical econobox owners benign neglect and the plastic wins.
Here in the Reno-Tahoe area there are still plenty of late 90s to 00s SL and SC running around that are straight(er) and ding free compared to their metal bodied cohort.
Another case of GM half-a**ing a promising tech.
Citroens had plastic panels on several models in the 80s/90s colour fade in later life makes them more obvious,
My Renault Scenic has plastic front wings. Despite it being a 2003 and exposed to nearly 20 years of NZ sunlight, you can’t tell any difference in colour. Mind you, it is bland silver, which tends not to fade.
I STILL think that the first Vue were as ugly as home-made sin!! 🙂
I prefer my sins to be made in Japan 🙂
The RAV4 was definitely the best of those First Gen CUVs. Nice truck-like styling and decent AWD gear courtesy of the All-Trac.
Saturn Vue was always sort of meh. I drove in a bunch of the circa mid-2000s examples for work, the Playschool grade interiors got very old very quick.
I remember going with my mom to look at these in 2002 when the lease was up on her Grand Cherokee and she was looking for a non-Chrysler replacement. They were quite bad. Very cheap and flimsy feeling all over. The test drive didn’t make things better and we politely left, never to return to a Saturn dealer. Mom ended up buying out the Grand Cherokee, as there wasn’t much in the market that excited her at this time. A year and a half later she traded it in for the 2004 Highlander Limited (whose 2004MY refresh somehow made her like it a lot more than before).
The Saturn Vue were replaced actually by the Chevrolet Captiva which was and continually available in Canada or for rental and governmental fleets since GM figured that the Chevrolet Equinox was adequate enough for this size range for general public use. In addition, not having to compete against each other products for the same brand like having the Captiva and the Equinox in the same line up and size category.
If I recall correctly the Captiva was what was originally intended to be the Vue replacement until the elimination of the Saturn brand scuppered that plan.
Chevrolet people probably thought that the Equinox was adequate for that size range and price so the Captiva only became an afterthought. Chevrolet is becoming more geared towards fleet and rental owners because they felt that adding other models such as the Captiva, Orlando, Cruze 5 Door Hatchback and Wagon and Caprice meant for Law Enforcement Services would be like duplicating the other model in their line up such as the Equinox (since there were no exact duplicates for the Orlando, Cruze 5 Door Hatchback and Wagon), SS and Impala (for the Caprice). Although the RWD SS is much more closer in size to the unrelated FWD Malibu. In addition, Chevrolet also finds way in marketing the older versions of the Malibu and Impala by adding a “LIMITED” name after their nameplates. But once again they are geared more towards Rental and Fleet Companies with the older designs of course.
And remember the teaser “Vue-ick”?
The Captiva WAS the 08 Saturn VUE with Chevrolet badging built solely for fleets and now a used car bargain. Same vehicle, different badge.
The Captiva is sold in the U.S. as a Chevy, but you can not buy one new. The last time I looked, it did not show up on the official Chevy website
Aren’t these built in Mexico?
It’s hugely ironic, but the Saturn brand was supposed to be a brand new way to sell cars….at least in the U.S. Unfortunately, the most “interesting” aspect of the whole Saturn brand was the purchase.
“We’re using plastic body panels, one of the advantages of these panels is the ability to make changes to the car easier”. Yet, they didn’t really ever change the car’s appearance. If Saturn had been more “creative” with the styling and MASSIVELY improved the quality of the parts and their assembly quality…..maybe they could have carried on. In the beginning Saturn had an almost cult following that was expanding.
The Vue: there are 2 or 3 of the Redline Vues within a few blocks of where I live, a silver one (or 2, not sure) and a blue one. I have seen a few Green Lines over the years. I didn’t know that part of the Green Line was the “start stop” capability.
BTW, problems with the CVT meant it wound up in very few Vues, finding one, still driveable would be a rarity.
The Captiva has just recently been discontinued, leaving a hole in Chevy’s CUV lineup. The new Trax is supposed to replace it, but it’s a subcompact. Word on the street is that the midsize Equinox will be downsized to a compact, then a new midsize CUV will slot in between the compact Equinox and the fullsize Traverse.
The Captiva was fleet-only, so you couldn’t buy one new even before they were dropped, but Enterprise Car Rental could.
Nicknamed Craptiva here due to dubious reliability.
That CVT went into many VUEs and ION quad coupes and it was a nightmare of unreliability.
Many have been converted to the Aisin 5 speed automatic offered in the 03-05 ION [page after page of advice and how to tips on SaturnFans]. It was dropped for 05 and replaced with GM’s corporate 4 speed automatic.
Paul F.
The Vue, the 2nd generation WAS sold for a least 2 years. Saturn was transitioning to Opel designs for all their vehicles by about 2006-2007.
Pedro,
many of the products you list are not sold in the U.S. because buyers don’t really want them and/or the volume doesn’t justify the effort. I thought I wanted a Cruze wagon until I did some research and found that the Cruze is a real landmine waiting to go off as a vehicle.
The Impala PPV, also sold as the Impala SS, while not a huge sales success in either form does not overlap a Malibu in any way.
And no, Chevy is not becoming more geared to fleet or rental buyers any more than Ford or Chrysler are moving to large fleet customers.
Howard,
you meant the Caprice PPV which was basically a longer version of the Chevrolet SS since both models were RWD almost the same as the Camaro’s RWD chassis which were entirely different to the current or last generation Impalas and Malibus since they and continued to be FWD. The Impala Limited and the Malibu Limited were carryover older designs from the newer models.
The Chevy SS and Caprice PPV are rebadged Holdens out of Aussie, the same platform is reskinned as the Camaro they bear no relationship to previous US Chevy cars except for the powertrain.
Isn’t the Zeta Platform going away? I was under the impression that the next Gen Camaro is going to Sigma.
Two separate Unibody RWD midsize car platforms make absolutely no sense…
I always thought, by the standards of a modern small SUV, that the 1st gen VUE looked pretty smart and distinctive, with it’s creased lines and three lamp headlights. Certainly better than the jelly bean on wheels that the RAV4 was.
Second gen looks decent too, although I’ll agree that the 3rd gen is generic without a single interesting line.
The interiors are disgusting though up to the newest (Opel) ones which weren’t half bad.
I should add that I’m no general fanboi by any stretch.
I had literally never seen a 2002-2005 VUE interior until now – wow, that looks like the love child of a Crown Victoria and a Dodge Caravan! Yuck. The 2006-2007 interior was nothing special, but at least inoffensive.
The 2008 was better, but by the time it became a Captiva Sport, it was getting old.
Actually,in person looking at the vue from the inside wasn’t bad, much more open than the escape, looked and felt much larger inside than it was.
From GM’s mission to defeat Honda, to buying Honda engines. Sad.
I’ve always wondered how that went down, both in execution and in business partnership.
“So we want to do a more powerful Vue. What do we put in it?”
“I know! Let’s buy a V6 from Honda!”
“Hello, Honda? This is GM. Yes, we’d like to buy your 3.5 V6. For what? Oh, a small SUV. You don’t offer it in the CR-V, so that’s cool, right? Great! Yes, we know we can’t use it anywhere else.”
It’s a great engine. It’s just a very weird case of technology transplant, as GM and Honda have never had any sort of partnership. I mean, was there nothing else suitable in any of their divisions?
I don’t have the details but apparently GM did some favors for Honda in the realm of diesel power. Through Isuzu IIRC. That Honda diesel power never made it here. I put 90k on a 2007 (not a red line) with no trouble at all.
Ah, Isuzu. That’s the link. GM and Isuzu had an intermittent partnership going all the way back to the T-car and ending with the Ascender/I-series trucks. Honda and Isuzu had the tie-up that produced the Isuzu-badged Odyssey (what was that thing called? Shuttle?), the Honda Passport, and whatever alphabet soup name the Acura version of the Trooper carried.
It gets really weird in the case of the Isuzu Rodeo (Wizard). That one, designed solely by Isuzu, also ended up being badge-engineered as a Honda *and* a Opel/Vauxhall/Holden/Chevy. Different markets, but still unusual.
Actually Honda and GM had a partnership car via Isuzu with Honda rebadging the Isuzu Trooper and MU and even claiming via a decal the DOHC V6 in the Horizon/Trooper was theirs but looking under the bonnet/hood showed it was the Isuzu engine unless Isuzu borrowed that from Honda who knows.
We have owned a 2005 Saturn Vue for over 6 years now, my wife loves it just as much today as she did when we got it. Ours is equipped with the 2.2L four and a 5 speed manual and other than needing the original shifter cable replaced at 80,000 km (yes, apparently this was a common issue), it has been a very reliable, fuel efficient grocery hauler. I have done the usual oil/fluid/filter changes and changed both the front brakes and the tires twice now, but other than that, it’s never asked for anything more.
Certainly, not the most amazing vehicle on the road, but it has stood up well, and you can’t really ask for much more than that when you’re on a budget!
I guess it’s fashionable to be part of the intelligentsia who continually badmouth things from a distance. Most folks I hear badmouthing Saturn never owned one. My wife and I had two of the SL models. Plain Jane, I know but they were reliable, economical, and tough. Freeway driving normally returned 40mpg or greater and I do not recall anything being below 30.
I owned a 2002 Saturn Vue. We bought it just before summer vacation in 2002 and put almost 10k miles on it before it was 2 months old. We drove to Vancouver for a trip to Alaska. Loaded it up with more miles when my mother in law was dying at the med center (80 mile commute). If this picture loads it is the 2004 trip from Texas to the great lakes for a month of camping. The great lakes is great in the summer when Texas is almost burning. In 2007 I inherited it for my DD. I had felt it was starting to become unreliable and didn’t want to put my wife in it. We bought a 2007 Vue with the Honda V6 for her.
You can sometimes keep something too long. We had replaced the transmission, clutch slave cylinder (expensive by design), an AC compressor and later thanks to the mechanics not telling us of the wear we replaced a similarly expensive clutch. We had also replaced two computers. I thought it was probably good to go but I was wrong.
As my DD I wound up replacing another computer and the straw that broke the camels back was when the timing chain snapped with no obvious warning at 185k miles. This was a wonderful car for the first 75 thousand miles. Then it slowly (?) started turning to garbage. Even the sunroof and the trim decided to add to the capitulation to misery. I liked it much better than the 4Runner I drive today when it was running.Then it would break. It would always break.
The 2007 shared most of the things I liked with the 2002 but up to 90k miles nothing broke. The SUV was much better for what I do than a single cab truck. It took me a while to get back to something I like. The 4runner I drive is ponderous and gets about 21 mpg versus nearly 30 for the vue. It is also tough and at 200k plus is seemingly in better shape than the vue was at 100k. Time will tell but I think I have something that is a keeper. The vue was not.
We got rid of both vues simply because I couldn’t stand looking at either one. We are on our second Nissan cube without having a single repair to either. Please don’t bother telling me how you feel about the looks of the cube. If you ever had a girl you really cared for that shafted you at every opportunity, you will understand the complex feeling I have for the saturn vue. I think the stylists got it right and the function was wonderful but….qc was apparently terrible that first year. I had friends who had 2004 model years or later that ate up the miles without complaint. First year blues? Love it or hate it I do not agree that you can dismiss it as the author and several commenters have done. The skin was great and both looked good the day I sold them. Shopping carts held no terror but the gaps were bigger. I think GM should be commended for trying this and IMO perhaps shot for the actual product.
Thanks for sharing your firsthand insight with the VUE. It’s refreshing to hear something positive.
Good and bad things can really be said about any car, but I think sometimes we only see that negative and gang up on a particular car, loosing sight of the fact that many people actually have positive ownership experiences with that car. I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of it.
Brendan, I do the same thing. Just always depends on whose ox is being gored.
It is my understanding that every single first gen CVT has failed. Yes, every single one.
Even on VUEs that sit unused in underground garages, the CVT has still somehow managed to fail. 😀
Your understanding is correct. And early 2.2s in Ls, VUEs and IONs would trash their timing chains because of an oiling defect corrected some time in 04.
There are still some poor souls finding and buying the CVT driven Saturns out there that have managed to keep running. My nephew bought one and had to almost immediately replace it. They were a $5000 or so repair that was guaranteed to blow again not too far down the road.
One of GM’s collaborations with Fiat during their brief hook up IIRC.
When I bought mine I told the salesman that a CVT was a deal killer. That vue in the picture above had the 2.2 and a 5 speed manual. Within a year or two it seemed, Saturn quit offering the CVT.
My cube has one and at 70k miles it still runs like new. Of course I drive like an old man (since I am one) but still have some apprehension about it. My SIL bought an 04 or 05 with the 2.2 and the regular automatic. Very dependable.
I never ran across anybody who maintained their Vue like I maintained ours and suffered this type of breakdown frequency. I think I had a lemon and probably would do better if I tried again. However, I looked at owning that car in much the same way as hitting oneself in the head with a hammer. It feels so good when you stop.
I had an ’04 Vue that I bought used for an even 7k in late 2007. The mileage was around 50k and it was a stick shift. The dealer said it had sat on the lot since early that summer and everyone that showed up wanted it in automatic; so anyways I bought it and two weeks later the body would squeak every time I went around the corner, I had my mechanic lube things up several times when finally he said he didn’t know how to correct it and this squeak would be there eternal, and it was getting worst. I ended up trading it in a few months later towards a brand new ’08 Kia Rondo. It had an extra space in seating for our new baby on the way and the Kia dealer gave me 5k on the trade so it seemed fair. I can still hear that squeak.
You just reminded me, that was the other repair I had to do to our 2005 Vue when I first got it… shifter cable and the sway bar links… those are notorious for wear… and that causes the squeaky front end noise going over bumps and what not… I replaced the set on mine in the driveway shortly after bringing it home (they are very inexpensive parts and simple to change) and it has been good ever since. Over 100,000 km since and still quiet.
I know a little bit about repairing cars and my father in law was clueless as to what was causing the squeak so you’d think the “expert” would know and he charged me like $75 and he lubed things three times for that price. We were living in Amsterdam, NY and salt was more common then water there so I chalked another loss to the salt. Don’t even ask about my rotting doors on my ’02 Focus (in ’07 mind you).
I’m happy to hear you got over 100k on yours. I honestly thought I made a honest and good decision purchasing that Vue.
Front sway bar end links were notorious, changed a couple myself,easy repair!
As a past owner of a first gen RAV-4 I got to say its the vehicle that put the biggest smile on my face—-as the guy who bought it drove it away.I’m 5′ 10″ and I always felt cramped in that thing–then add a coat in the winter. The back seat had so little room my 3 year old could kick the drivers seat from his car seat. The dash was filled with blanked out holes showing us what options we didn’t get–and we had the top of the line 4 door. Merging on a highway required a lot of foresite–I bought the thing for my wife to drive to work and have 4wd but during the 3 years we had it our area had very mild winters so that wasn’t a plus.
I think the 1st generation VUE is a much better looking vehicle but I when I think of Saturn I just wonder WTF were they thinking?
I wouldn’t classify the S series Saturns as a failure. I’m always surprised at the number of early 1st generation cars plying the streets here. Far more than similar generation cars from almost any other manufacturer other than Toyota and Honda. They must have done something right. And I’m certainly no GM apologist.
As far as the Vue with a CVT, wasn’t there a settlement of some sort which allowed owners a credit toward a new GM vehicle if there was a problem with the CVT? I knew a neighbor that bailed on her 2002 Vue with 60K miles because the CVT failed, and GM gave her $5K towards a new Cruze. Some deal.
Lots of old Saturn SL and SC’s on the roads here too. Not as many as Honda/Toyota of the same vintage, but more than Escort or other GM compacts.
I owned a 1992 Saturn SC for about 3 years. Paid $675.00 for it. It still looked nice, no dents or dings due to the plastic panels. Interior was a bit worn but not torn up. It ran and drove nice, also very dependable. The only thing I had to replace was the starter. Since my son & daughter were still living at home, we had 4 cars in the driveway, all early 90’s models. The others were a Chevrolet Cavalier, a Dodge Lancer and a Ford Escort. In a ranking of these cars in my opinion the Saturn is first, then the Escort, then the Caviler and last the Lancer. This is just my opinion based on my experiences with these cars.
2008 Saturn Vue as Opel Antara means basicly a Daewoo Winstorm. But which one of these!? Opel/Vauxhall Antara (what we have on our european an british soil) is manufactured by former GM Daewoo now GM Korea. A buddy of mine has had an Opel Antara as a company car. We took a look at the visible markings on the parts, windshields…it is all Daewoo. The Antara / Winstorm has also the reputation to become Chevrolet/Holden Captiva (5) on the global market. But the original Daewoo Winstorm / Chevrolet Captiva is such a different thing and has nothing in common with the Antara. The most chaotic is the use of the Captiva badge on both of these different vehicles…like the Captiva 5 (Antara/Vue design) and the original Winstorm/Captiva to become Captiva 7 (1st + 2nd gen Winstorm/Captiva)…
My wanted a Saturn vue, we brought home an all wheel drive with the Opel 3.0 6 cylinder and no options, this was not a base car, the trans was the aisin 5 spd auto, my grand daughter just traded it off after many years and only 130,000 miles, very few normal repairs were made, was a good value. Model year 2002
Bought a new VUE with a V6 in 2002 for my wife to haul our newborn son around. We loved that orange pumpkin for the first 100,000 miles! She might still be driving if it didn’t have that crappy Opel engine. I maintained it very well and still the engine developed a mystery coolant leak. Gauge needle would start to climb unexpectedly Shop replaced the thermostat and replaced the plugs. Ran great for about a week and the leak reappeared. Pressure test held for 24 hours both hot and cold. Drove it home and every morning, a drip. Kept an eye on it till a 2006 Equinox came available in my company’s fleet in 09. Sold it to neighbors’ niece, told them repeatedly to keep an eye on the coolant level tank, gauge and warning light. Two months later that friendship ended when the head gasket blew on a car with 124,000 miles . Clearly my fault.
The Red Line was an interesting exercise. The body tweaks actually worked well with the styling, in my opinion. A couple who lived on the same block as me in my previous neighborhood had one, and I felt it still looked good today. Though I still have no idea why they needed the Honda engine. Did they not have *any* V6 that could make decent power at the time and fit the packaging? I suppose a supercharged 3800 probably wouldn’t have physically fit into the bay, but if they didn’t have anything smaller that could make 240+ HP, that’s not good. Heck, you’d think that for what they probably had to pay Honda to get the 3.5, they could have just used the CTS’s 3.6 instead. Maybe using a Cadillac engine in a lowly Saturn would be considered brand dilution, but if it was only available as the Red Line sports model, I think it could have worked.
I always thought the styling was clean and attractive, if somewhat unmemorable. However, I have a very bad Vue association, as unexpectedly encountering a green one that had pulled out into my path caused the demise of my Mark VIII back in 2006.
Speaking of the plastic panels, my sister had a ’93 Saturn sedan until 2 years ago. She parked under a pecan tree the first few years (and also seized the engine from not changing the oil). The roof was metal and looked like a bad case of acne scars.
My reaction when I first saw pictures of the Vue in 2001: “A Saturn SUV? Looks like an SW on stilts from the front…I guess that’s OK. Let’s take a look at the back…wait. What the hell, GM? *Red* turn signals…on a *Saturn*? Are you freaking kidding me?”
The Vue was the first Saturn model since the make’s inception not to have internationally-compliant amber turn signal lenses in the back. And although this may have been a hair-splitting detail to get worked up over, this *was* the straw that convinced me that GM was losing the plot for the make.
At one point, they offered very jazzy cloth seats on the Vue, I suppose to distract from the cheap plastic. What I remember from car shows is that the rear seat back is nearly vertical, which wouldn’t be too comfortable on a long trip.
I don’t care about any of that, yet I would still be a Saturn owner today if they were still around. Kvetch all you want about the vehicles, my wife and I knew that our Saturn vehicles were not top of the line – that didn’t matter. What you non-Saturn lovers never caught on is that for the first time in our lives, my wife and I had a team of professionals keeping us in affordable transportation.
We didn’t have to worry about a thing. Anything that went wrong in our Saturn cars were taken care of by our friends at Saturn. For all five of our vehicles, we had the same team of people, selling, maintaining, trading and repairing our Saturn cars. They knew us and we knew them. By the time we had the Saturn SW2 and the RELAY 3 vehicles, we had a solid relationship with our Saturn dealer.
When we had a problem, we phoned a friend. She arranged for any scheduled repairs, arranged for a loaner, drove to our home when we needed a ride, dropped us off at work, did everything and including any errands if we asked. We knew these folks for over ten years. We still send our favorite Saturn person a Christmas car and letter and keep her up to date on how we are doing.
That was the secret to Saturn. The cars were just cars. They were just GM appliances. They ran, wore out, broke, and we traded them in. A couple of time, my wife and I came in just to visit and they would let us tool around in one of the newest vehicles for the day. At a time Saturn did these services for us, no one else was. Our Honda dealer was a rich jerk who buyers were crazy enough to pay his markups and deal with his horrible services and rudeness. The Nissan dealer had zero interest in us once we walked away. The Chevy dealer was OK – but those cars were not as good as a Saturn.
We felt terrible when the dealership closed. Our friends were able to find work at other dealerships, happily. We switched to Ford and the Ford dealer was across the street from Saturn, and had picked up all of the niceties they saw working at Saturn. So, our experience at Ford has been very good too. Not as nice as Saturn, but a lot better than at other dealers.
We had a VUE, just like the one at the top photo. Black. Sunroof. It was a gift I bought my wife, as a suggestion by our Saturn dealer. They made us a good trade and the VUE was a favorite. It was a handsome ride, if a little loud and plasticky, but it did the job until we overfilled it with kids. That’s when we were told that Saturn had a RELAY 3 they couldn’t sell, and knew we needed a minivan. That was another very nice vehicle at a very affordable price.
If you guys never experienced the Saturn experience, then you just wouldn’t understand how to really report on any Curbside Classic Saturn.
I agree concerning the Saturn experience. We had a couple SLs before I went with the Vue (2002). I felt like we were being used as beta testers because we replaced the transaxle, clutch system and finlly junked it with a broken timing chain. We found out that there was a chain oiling prooblem with the 2002/3 4 cylinder engines. Hole too small or something like that. Still thought it a great looking and great running SUVl
Despite the 2002 Vue I have to rate the experience as great. Before they became imported opens I found them to have a tough, reliable, and easily maintained car. GM snatched defeat from the very jaws of victory.
I believe that when Saturn ended, all the vehicles were rebadged European or Asian cars and the plastic bodies were gone. The whole Saturn concept was gone and it was just another GM brand.