The grumblings coming out of the Windy City this auto show season have been clear. The GMC Acadia is aged and is barely getting a facelift after 6 model years on the market. But look closer folks. That large crossover you see with the gleaming red GMC badge is hardly an Acadia. No, that my friend, is a facelifted Saturn Outlook. Read more…
Today is the 2010 Brown City Days Car Cruise and as such your AT faithful are out burning petroleum by the barrel driving around in a 1967 Rambler Ambassador convertible. We’ll be bringing you pictures from the show later today, but pictured above is the pair of boulevard brawlers we managed to pull together for the 2006 BC Car Cruise. Yeah they are a bit mismatched, but they sure caught everyone’s attention. The Saturn Sky won the beauty contest that day while the Mazdaspeed6 fascinated onlookers with its hidden talents (namely a turbocharged 2.3L).
The 2007 Saturn Sky was nothing short of brilliant. Not only was this Kappa platform roadster drop jaw gorgeous, the Sky and its Pontiac Solstice twin could carve corners with the best of them. Yet the base vehicle with the 2.4L Ecotec and its automatic gearbox left us wanting. Enter the Redline you see pictured above. Under the hood is a 2.0L turbocharged and direct injected four-cylinder with 260-hp and 260 lb-ft of torque on tap, coupled to a proper manual gearbox feeding the rear wheels. But alas the glory would be short lived as the economic crisis of swapped partial derivatives and the like would force these cars onto the pages of history just as things were getting exciting.
When GM revealed the Saturn Aura Concept sedan at the 2005 NAIAS with it rolled out a new vision for the brand that didn’t include plastic body work with huge panel gaps and placid shapes. Combined with the stellar reputation Saturn’s dealer network carried it looked as though the General finally had a winning game plan for the brand. Unfortunately the economic melt down of 2008 would unravel all the hard work and leave Saturns destined to be display items for orphan car shows.
The 2007 Saturn Outlook arrived on the crossover scene in a big way! With seating for eight or room for 116.9 cubic of stuff, this Lambda platformed crossover will perform nearly every task a typical family would ask of a Chevrolet Suburban or GMC Yukon XL and get better fuel mileage doing it.
Journalists look on as the Saturn Curve is moved from its stage debut to its show display stand at the 2004 NAIAS.
And Then There Were Two
It’s hard to believe but there are now two good-looking Saturns on the road. The first was the Sky, which debuted last year to a collective, “That’s a Saturn?” by the automotive press. The suits promised there would be more to come from the reinvigorated brand. Apparently the GM guys just dropped off the “more to come” part because the type of descriptive words that keep coming to mind for the car I’m looking at include handsome, European, taut, expensive looking and refined. Excuse me if I am a little excited, but these are not words I’ve been able to use lately when talking about GM cars—let alone the Playskool-cars-for-grownups Saturn brand. But there it is, the midsize Saturn Aura and its tasteful chrome trim sparkling like jewelry on the Midnight Blue steel body. The days of the function-before-form Saturns are over. From now on, Saturns are going to be stylish. Read more…
GM’s Sexy Twins Get Some Spunk
The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky are gorgeous vehicles, and if you don’t agree you must work for Mazda. So, considering their perfect proportions and confident handling, producing a follow-up to the uber-successful roadsters can mean only one thing: more power. And GM was happy to provide lots of it. Read more…
GM Arrives On The Crossover Scene In A Big Way
In case you’ve been out of the new vehicle market for the past few years, allow us to catch you up. SUVs are dying; sent to their graves by rising gas prices and fickle consumers who demand better ride and handling quality than the big, lumbering body-on-frame workhorses can ever hope to provide. Read more…
Anti-Sticker Shock
Either way you slice it, the Sky is drop dead gorgeous. Those are just about the last words I ever expected to utter about a Saturn. But then again, the Sky isn’t exactly my girlfriend’s Saturn. Though I wouldn’t mind if it was.
I had my doubts when GM announced that it was going to develop this bargain priced roadster platform dubbed Kappa. I believe stunning was one of the words used to describe the concept, but we all had our doubts. Especially when they announced that Saturn would be getting a version of said platform. And while they tried to prepare us our stubbornness held until the moment that cover came off and our jaws hit the pavement. How do you change the image of a dwindling unexciting car company? One fantastic car at a time! Read more…
