Road Test
After initial success offering a "different kind of car" from a "different kind of company," Saturn slipped into automotive oblivion as people realized what the products actually were under those smack-proof skins: cheap. And no amount of cartwheels and balloons could mask the fact that most of its competitors could run rings, so to speak, around Saturn in terms of quality and character.
Enter the Aura, the newest and best Saturn product yet. With thinly veiled European roots, the Aura—along with the sexy Sky roadster—portends good things to come from a planet that's being reborn as you read this. The Aura is the first of Saturn's new family of European-based or Euro-influenced products that drive and look nothing like the plebian Saturns of yore.
Saturn Aura Euro Roots
Based on the Epsilon platform that underpins the Saab 9-3, the Kansas-City-built Aura has a 7.0-inch longer wheelbase and 7.5 inches of added length, but only about an inch of additional width. But whereas the Saab is considered a compact, the stem-to-stern stretch puts the Aura into the mid-size and bestows it with an appreciable rear legroom advantage. However, three butts in back is snug—a telltale sign that this car was intended primarily for European consumption.
That said, the Aura's Euro roots serve to its advantage in the driving department. On our preview drive, we found the hydraulic power steering to be nicely weighted and surprisingly quick off-center. The Aura's long wheelbase combines with relatively firm shock/spring tuning to strike a good balance of ride smoothness and crisp handling, even with the 18-inch wheels that come standard with the uplevel XR. Brakes appeared more than up to the task of bringing the 3647-lb sedan to a quick halt, though at no point during our afternoon drive with the car did we get them terribly hot to measure fade.
