Rear passengers are treated to an upscale cupholder that exemplifies how superior even the most minute interior features are in the Vue. There was plenty of headroom and legroom up front and in the backseat. I could never decide if they were too soft or too solid, but, as Goldilocks would say, they weren’t just right, either. The seats were supportive and straddled the line between cushy and firm. That’s right, if you can afford one option I’m recommending leather here - that’s how much it alters the overall feel. That step down in interior opulence is more significant than the leather’s $1,075 option price. I was able to sit in a cloth XR, and while all the other pieces of the cabin were the same as the leather-wrapped model, the cloth door inserts and seats were a noticeable step down. Not only does it best other domestics, like the Ford Escape, it’s also superior to top imports like the Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Santa Fe and Honda CR-V.īut (there’s always a “but” when a review is this glowing), my test model had leather - the color is “Cashmere Leather,” which confused my common sense meter - and not the base XE or XR’s standard cloth. I wasn’t a fan of the fake wood trim on the tan dash, but neither am I fond of the plastic made to look like carbon fiber that replaces the wood trim in the Vue’s other interior choice, gray.Įvery other type of material in the cabin is clearly a step up from current GM products, even other new releases. Personally, I thought the metal on the wheel and interior door handles was a very elegant touch, and just the right amount as to not overwhelm the cabin. This feature was mostly praised by the staff, with the exception of one lone detractor. The first thing I noticed was the rather large steering wheel and its brushed-nickel insert at the bottom. Because the Vue is an American version of a car designed for a global market, there are a few eccentricities, but it has been altered for domestic tastes. There’s a lot to cover with the new Saturn Vue’s interior. The XE comes with body-colored door handles and side mirrors and 16-inch alloy wheels, as well as accent-colored lower body panels. The XR trim level you see in these images features chrome door handles, chrome-tipped dual exhaust and 17-inch alloy wheels. The Saturn Vue comes in base XE and upper-level XR trims. The only angle that isn’t a sure winner is the rear, but it gets a pass because the rest of the Vue is so over-the-top. The large chrome grille and teardrop-shaped headlights are probably the sportiest-looking, most masculine attributes, while the downward-sloping roof, ending in a radically angled rear hatch, exudes European design. Every marketer will tell you that car shoppers are so accustomed to cars being relatively equal as modes of transport that their styling makes a significant difference in the buying decision. Regardless of the color, the Saturn Vue is one of the most aggressively styled SUVs on the road, looking neither too masculine (Dodge Nitro), too boxy (Hummer H3) nor too odd (Honda CR-V). The Deep Blue of the Saturn Vue XR I tested, however, made the stylish SUV look classier than any silver model, that’s for sure. Those may be the most-purchased colors, but they don’t make a car stand out, especially to jaded automotive journalists. You wouldn’t believe how many test cars we get here at that are either silver or gray. The new Vue is stylish, it has fantastic road presence and its interior is arguably the best in the segment. It’s completely changed for 2008, and this version will be the model that revolutionizes the brand, ridding it of the old, domestic-bashing stereotypes. ![]() The Vue, though, is a familiar name that has been a big seller for the brand as one of the least-expensive SUVs on the market. That started to change last year when Saturn introduced three attractive new models: the Sky, the Outlook and the Aura, but those were in segments Saturn loyalists weren’t used to. ![]() It just hasn’t had many models that people wanted to buy. Today, that different little brand no longer has plastic body panels, but it still has one of the highest customer-satisfaction ratings when it comes to the car-buying process. You know, the one that had hard-to-dent plastic body panels and a no-haggle pricing policy. Saturn has always been GM’s “different” brand.
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