The new VUE does not have a lot of room but uses a lot of gas. It is attractive where the Honda CRV is ugly, but the Honda is more pratical. The CX7 gets crappy mileage also, as does the Murano, the Rav4 is disgusting, and the Escape is old-tech.

no offense mayer ray, but I feel this is the uglies SUV ever made, even uglier than the CRV, if it were painted brown it would actually look like a rolling turd, they should have kept the first design, which was actually successful. Why is it that suv’s keep getting uglier? the only ones with style seem to be the Mazdas and the ridiculously priced bimmers, audis, and porsches

The new Saturn models look good on the outside, but they are still a step or 2 behind the competition and they wonder why they aren’t selling?

The Vue boggles my mind…a friend of mine bought a FWD 4-cylinder base model Vue. I admit it looks nice on the outside and the interior isn’t even that bad for a base model. But this thing weighs more than my 7 passenger Subaru Tribeca w/ 6-cylinder engine, has less interior space, is smaller on the outside and gets WORSE gas mileage even with the 4-banger and FWD! That’s just not economical for a “cute-ute”.

The view is the best cute-ute evr

ever

I think the CRV or the Tiguan are the best cute utes.
Isn’t the Saturn Vue made in Korea by Daewoo?

I’m starting to see more of the new Vue on the road.

But I sat in both the cloth and leather versions and the seats are so AWFUL, I would never consider this vehicle. The front seats are too short and have absolutely no support… like sitting on mush.
The back seat is too low and short, just like the old Vue. And the front seats in the Redline were lumpy. And it’s over 4000 lbs…. huh?

The Astra comes in only a few run of the mill colors and the interior is depressing all dark grey and they should have the diesel version here. Otherwise it is nice and the seats are good.
But a sporty car should be a little more exciting. Kill myself all-grey interior and boring exterior colors don’t help.

The Aura: first thing I notice is the center console armrest is so loosely put together it looks broken (not a good first appearance) and the back seat again is too low and short.

I even emailed Saturn what I thought. Let’s see if they get a clue.

Just a few years ago when you walked into a Saturn store you were faced with the Vue, the Ion and the L-Series. Just how many of those buyers do they really think are going to come back? So after that debacle it was, in effect, like starting from scratch. They’re lucky to be selling as many vehicles as they are.

The Escape/Mariner may be old tech… but you know what… they are pretty comfortable compared to the rest. That new Rogue is comfortable and everyone raves that they are getting great gas mileage. So there are other choices.

‘CaCaLover’, there is nothing “cute” about the CRV … it is THE UGLIEST vehicle in its class. This is rungs above it in aesthetics.

I’d need to be able to dicker with the sticker before I bought a Saturn. The Traverse is way better looking than the Outlook and cheaper

Johnnycanuck hits it on the nose. Saturn is a small case study as to why Ford, GM, and Chrysler are imploding now. A good portion of the pple who bought their cars in the 80’s and 90’s may have been turned off and may never go back despite their recent impressive models.

The Astra comes in only a few run of the mill colors and the interior is depressing all dark grey-tastyorange

All European cars come in that depressing dark grey.

All I know if it’s bad now, it will be worse when the Traverse hits the market. I’ve always thought that a 3 lambdas were a stretch, and a 4th is not going to do GM any favors re total sales.

Maybe marketing has something to do with the poor Aura sales–it’s not a bad car after all. But I also think that the Malibu has been getting all the attention now, and that probably has hurt the Aura.

The Aura is way better than the G6

I think this CUV looks pretty good. I’ve been seeing those Rogues on the street though, and the owners seem to like them.

Lga life: I think there should’ve been 2 lambdas. First the Enclave, then a downmarket version sold as a Chevy or Saturn

FYI, Aura sales have been up the last few months so the theory that the car is doing worse due to the Malibu being out is wrong.

The primary reason Saturn is having trouble is that people arent used to buyng 7 passenger SUVs and family sedans from Saturn. They dont look to Saturn for that type of vehicle and Saturn’s ad budget is too small to really make a serious impact. That said, Vue and Aura sales have been trendng upward this year and I would be shocked if they dont exceed last years total in a down market. In my area the Aura is selling fine because we have plenty of dealers. I see them all the time.

sj79, when Saturn was conceived people could not possible buy 7 passenger anything from Honda or Toyota. Both companies were making smallish cars. If it is in fact public perception of Saturn, then Saturn(GM) has no one to thank for it but itself. Vue is 7 passenger SUV just like RAV-4. I haven’t seen RAV-4 commercials, and my guess is it is selling very well alongside CR-V.
Compare stats on RAV-4 and Vue (I am using RAV-4 for argument sake ’cause RAB & VUE can be mis-characterized as 7 passengers). With 4 cyl engine RAV-4 tips scale at 3500 LBS with AWD. FWD VUE is 4200 lbs. Do we need to look at mileage charts or this enough? Do we assume that stars and stripes waving public stupid enough not to realize that Opel made VUE is as American as American build RAV and CR-V?

One thing Saturn can put in their ads to steal away sales from the chevy and pontiac brands is to say our SUV’s come with Japanese built Honda engines, not Chinese built engines found in the other guys SUV’s

“Compare stats on RAV-4 and Vue (I am using RAV-4 for argument sake ’cause RAB & VUE can be mis-characterized as 7 passengers). With 4 cyl engine RAV-4 tips scale at 3500 LBS with AWD. FWD VUE is 4200 lbs. Do we need to look at mileage charts or this enough? Do we assume that stars and stripes waving public stupid enough not to realize that Opel made VUE is as American as American build RAV and CR-V?”

First of all the Vue doesnt seat 7. secondly, it has one of the best interiors in any small SUV. The RAV4 is going to sell far more because Toyota is a much larger brand but the Saturn whips the RAV4 in interior quality and offers features like nav which the Toyota lacks.

The Vue isnt made by Opel, its made by GM. In case you missed it Opel and Saturn are GM brands.

Toyota has been selling trucks and SUVs much longer than GM. The first RAV4 came out in 1996 while the Vue came out in 2001. Until 2006 Saturn never sold a vehicle larger than the Vue. Toyota has been making 4Runners for quite some time.

get your facts straight.

“One thing Saturn can put in their ads to steal away sales from the chevy and pontiac brands is to say our SUV’s come with Japanese built Honda engines, not Chinese built engines found in the other guys SUV’s”

How stupid are you? The Honda engine was in the LAST Vue. the current Vue has the same 3.6L engine used in many GM products.

BTW, BMW uses GM transmissions in its vehicles. Since you know so much I’m sure that isnt news to you. Just like Toyota and Honda GM builds components at facilities all over the world. No one cares where Toyota engines are transmissions are built but I assure you most of them arent assembled in the US.

Personally as far as “cute” utes go. The VW Tiguan has my preference although it’s one of the most expensive in this class. I think the new CRV looks better but I hated the old one and I still don’t care for the CRV. I’ve always liked the RAV4 for some reason and if I was in this market for a vehicle I’d look into that first. Although the RAV4 can get pricey. I think the new Saturn VUE looks a lot better then the first gen VUE. (It’s also now a rebadged Opel) Vue’s can get pricey as well. The V6 AWD models just like the others. As far as gas mileage goes with the VUE I heard the V6 isn’t the best in the class but let me tell you my mom leased a FWD 4 cylinder 5spd manual 04 Saturn Vue. The thing was the slowest thing I ever drove, but had amazing gas mileage for something its size. My parents drove it one weekend from Detroit to Indianapolis and back for a wedding and it didn’t even use half a tank.