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I opened the door to my 2007 Saturn Aura XR and did a double-take. Could this be the interior of an American car? The matte-finished, black- plastic- and- Morocco- brown "leather-appointed" seats reeked of Old Europe, with the ambiance of a gentlemen’s club.
The XR is the upscale trim of the new Aura, but is still affordable at $26,820, as tested with $2,200 in options (including $800 for the leather). For that price, you get a very presentable front-wheel-drive sports sedan powered by a 252-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6 engine (the larger of two options) that shares the Epsilon platform with the Pontiac G6 and the ugly Chevrolet Malibu Maxx. The Saab 9-3 is also a close cousin — maybe there was some styling input from the Swedes?
GM needs this Saturn to be a hit, and I hope it is. The Aura replaces the bland L-Series sedans and vastly improves on them for the mid-sized buyer. I’m looking forward to the forthcoming hybrid Green Line version of the Aura, which will carry a 2.4-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine and resemble the Vue hybrid that was recently the subject of a positive test. In 2007, GM plans to build 2,000 of the hybrid Auras at its Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan., according to a report on KMBC-TV.
The Aura’s styling is pleasantly understated. Even loaded with the bigger V-6, the Aura XR gets respectable fuel economy: 20 in town, 28 on the highway. (The 224-horsepower V-6 gives only a one-mpg advantage, and both use regular fuel.) Equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission, which can be shifted manually through steering wheel paddles, it has a bit too much hesitation to feel like a sports car. But handling is nice and crisp, thanks to sports suspension (and standard traction control).
I found the Saturn a comfortable drive, though I’d change a few details. There’s no grab handle for front-seat passengers and the seat-heater controls are awkwardly placed and need to be reset every time the car is turned off. If you want a warm bottom, can’t you just leave the darned things on? The auto-start feature was neat, though wasteful of fuel, and why do the doors have to be locked first?
Starting the car from my kitchen window also got me wondering if this electronic feature is hackable. It would be pretty easy to steal a car if it can be started with the push of a button.
Other cool digital features include an auxiliary input for an MP3 player and separate rear-seat audio controls with wireless headphones. Both are standard (as is the OnStar service).
Along those lines, I’ve noted Xenarc makes an in-dash "carputer" that, among other things, has a 15-gig hard drive capable of storing several thousand songs (and videos, too, of course). Isn’t that the next step beyond hooking up an iPod? I think our cars will soon have the same computing power as our homes. Our audio collections will be able to go along for the ride, even without a handheld digital device.
