That extra mass makes the Vue the fat kid of the small-SUV class, a class occupied and dominated by the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, and RAV4-all of which are hundreds of pounds lighter than the Vue. Making the weight gain even more startling is the fact that the new Vue is nearly the exact size as the outgoing Vue and rides on the same 106.6-inch wheelbase. The quiet solidity is no illusion as the '08 Vue comes in at a staggering 4146 pounds, nearly 400 more pounds than the last Vue V-6 AWD we tested and about 500 pounds heavier than a principal competitor, the Toyota RAV4 V-6 with all-wheel drive. According to chief engineer Steve Valentine, only a few floor stampings carry over from the previous generation. That sense of solidity comes courtesy of a modified version of the old Vue's Theta platform. Coupled with a solid structure that exhibits nary a quiver and low amounts of road noise, the Vue now behaves as if it were competing against BMW. On six-cylinder models, hydraulic-power-assisted steering replaces the previous generation's electric assist-four-cylinder models continue with electronic power steering, which we did not have a chance to test drive-and the weight, directness, on-center accuracy, and feedback from the steering wheel is sports-sedan caliber. Steering feel, a theoretical concept in the previous Vue, is, after a long wait, now a reality. Wheel motions are quickly damped without any hint of abruptness, and the whole chassis works silently and without the cymbal-like crashes that accompany lesser suspensions-the Aura wishes it had this ride. Saturn claims that all Vues, from the four-cylinder base model to our top-dog XR test vehicle seen here, will have the Opel-dictated chassis feel. We haven't driven an Antara, but it's apparent from the first turn of the Vue's wheel that the tuning of the strut-front and multilink-rear suspension was done by a student of German cars-in fact, chassis engineers at Opel. Better yet, the Vue and the Antara are supposed to drive identically. Largely developed in Germany by Opel, the 2008 Vue and the Opel Antara are almost indistinguishable. We're told that future vehicles for both brands will be more of a collaboration than are the Aura, Sky, and Astra and more like the global effort that has yielded this latest-generation Saturn Vue and its clone, the Opel Antara. The program ranges from the Aura, which uses the Opel Vectra platform fitted with Opel-like sheetmetal but screwed together in America, to the built-in-Belgium Saturn Astra that is a rebadged Opel Astra and will be sold at Saturn stores by the end of this year.Īnalogous to the Astra program is the Saturn Sky, which was wholly developed in the States and is shared and exported to Europe as the Opel GT. "Look share" is the awkward term used to describe the partnership between Saturn and GM's European automaker Opel. To borrow from one of the few hits sung by Ringo while he was a Beatle, Saturn has lately been "getting by with a little help from its friends." As part of an effort that the Saturn folks are calling "Opel look share," the entire Saturn showroom has completely turned over in less than 18 months.
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