CamaroZ28.Com Message Board - Drove the Aura

I have been a frequent critic of GM's strategy of pumping up Saturn with Opel products while essentially starving Pontiac. On Friday I test drove the Aura, an experience that both dissolved my critisms and made them more acute than ever.

The car is terrific. That is an entirely subjective statement so I'll try to qualify it a bit. I have driven the Epsilon in every U.S. configeration save the Aura's predessecor. The Aura feels more planted and agile than the Saab 9-3, more spacious than a Malibu Maxx, quicker in the straightline than both the Saab and last year's G6 GTP.

When you sit in the driver's seat, you know something is different. Everywhere you touch, there is soft plastic. The seats, soft yet fully supportive. The fit and finish is there. The door panels, as noted in other reviews, are dissapointing, but not enough to distract from the wonderfulness of the rest of the inside. This car was an XR with no optional equipment. It still had the keyfob starter, heated power seats, and lumbar adjustment.

As far as driving goes, it is possibly the most unperturbable front wheel drive car I have ever driven. Want to stop hard? No problem - the brakes grip much better than my Grand Prix's brand new Hawk HPS pads. Gonna floor it? I did that and came to the disconcerting realization that I was going 85 mph in a 45 zone. It moves, without much ruckus. The handling was planted, balanced. The road made its way to the steering wheel, but only enough to be communicative, and only through the wheel - not the dash or floor boards.

This experience contrasts most sharply with the G6 GTP I drove last year with the 3.9L engine. That car felt like a Malibu with... well nothing. It accelerated slightly faster than the other G6's, but was rather unimpressive and my butt-ometer told me it was no quicker than the 2000 Grand Prix GTP I drive. Handling was numb. It didn't get you into trouble, but was not entertaining and did not invite you to push it. The G6 was what Pontiac and GM have been releasing for years to dissapointment.

The Aura is the real deal. It doesn't just compete with the Accord I tested a while back. It humiliates it. It makes it feel like, well like a Malibu. Granted, the Honda is at the end of its life-cycle, but that has not mattered in the past. The Aura, even if for this brief moment in time, is the benchmark.

So now the question of "why Saturn"? I still do not know why, but I have some answers. The dealer was very friendly, very un-GM feeling. It was small, the salesman was informal, he let me take the car out alone because he was the only guy there. Of course, that also alights on Saturn's weakness - they have a dealer network equipped to sell a small number of cars to people who don't seem to care about the vehicle itself. There is one Saturn dealer in my area. There are about five or six Pontiac dealers.

That said, the car itself was a strong enough statement on its own. It is a car that GM needed to release, even if it was badged a Deawoo. The car is here, and it will do well, because it is an unaplogetically good car. I suppose that is a step forward, even if I wish that this step had left an Arrowhead foot print.