With Saturn moving up market, it would seem to make Pontiac and Buick more and more redundant.

The Vue is better received by the media ???????

I see a heck of a lot more Escapes vs Vues on the road.

I smell Payola going on here, write it and people will belive it……. even if it is an outright lie.

I believe John Davis of Motorweek described it as “… one fine ride…”. Of course, that is how John Davis describes every vehicle they review.

The Vue is leaps better this generation, so I don’t really see a problem with the price jump. Saturn is remodeling itself into a mid-class european-styled division rather than the budget junk of yesteryear. Hopefully they will be successful and GM will finally decide to retire Buick and continue with Pontiac’s revitalization into a performance brand, thus sorting out a lot of GM’s overlap problems.

PrimeGTP – no doubt it is leaps better, but there will still be the perception problem that GM has. Perhaps GM should be following the Hyundai model: keep prices low until you gain respect, then they can move prices up with much less skepticism.

Christ. I think homeboy needs a life if he stalks every GM post and spews trash talk over them non stop. The only thing that is garbage here is you.

A good point, there is still a significant part of the consumer market that have bad perceptions of GM from the early 90s up until around 2004, and also people who simply see Saturn as being cheap crap. I think a big problem is GM’s complete lack of interest in advertising. Saturn’s turnaround was completely reliant on the Aura, and that called for a huge marketing campaign that never happened, and so while the Aura is successful it’s not doing nearly as well as it could’ve. Now that GM’s missed the advertising train, they need to either heavily market the Vue and Astra, or hope that word-of-mouth eventually spreads about Saturn’s new core line-up.

Looks better than the CR-V and RAV4 to me. If the interior isn’t crappy, they may have a hit.

As someone who had the joys of experiencing GM’s woeful lack of quality, I’m certainly skeptical. And, though the Aura is much better that the LS it replaced, it is still not best in class. Car and Driver did a comparo, and the Aura came in 4th (of six vehicles), beaten out by the 5 year old Accord. GM’s advertising (at least in television) seems to revolve around the new Lambda’s and the trucks. Makes sense as they are two large profit centres.

buenos is right. With Saturn moving more upmarket, it takes away from one of GM’s other 52 brands. Saturn started out like Scion is doing today (albeit not as hip). They need to define their brands a little better. I’m surprised at all of the Saturn hype too. Since when did they lead anything?! If they are going against the Rav4 and CRV, then they are going to have a tough time.

Car and Driver has always been virulently anti-American and anti-GM, though. And GM’s trucks and Lambda’s will only take them so far, especially as the SUV bubble is busted and mid-sized and compact cars are more important than ever. If they took the money they spent on rebadging Lambda vehicles 20,000 times and spent it on marketing for their mid-sized offerings, I think there’d be a big sales difference. Nobody’s going to go into your showrooms to see your new cars if they don’t know those new cars exist.

Vue looks good.. i’ve seen one at an expo in nashville. the price increase is because it has more stuff on it standard. you would have to add options to the 07 to get to a base model 08. and to buenos ‘not best in class’… NORTH AMERICAN CAR OF THE YEAR. which is voted on by editors across america and not JUST the editors of car and driver. mags are biased to who puts money in their pockets.

Snore…

Sounds like ‘Cash Back’ the dealer will offer in 6mos.

“Car and Driver” = “Road and Track” = Jokes

These magazine just care about how fast a car is, NOTHING about quality or long term ownership.

I canceled them after years of them praising junk.

Saturn doesn’t have the positive rep to price their stuff like the class leaders. No way would I buy a VUE over a new RAV-4 or CR-V. I’d buy a Mazda Tribute or Escape as well.

I don’t think Saturn has made a dime in their existence. Just like SAAB, Saturn has actually been a “money pit” rather than a money maker. My first car was an SC2 coupe back in 1996. The Automatic transmission had to be replaced at 40 thousand miles and the dashboard started smoking on me at about 75,000 miles so I dumped it for a Toyota Camry Solara coupe. That car, a 1999 lasted me till about 160 thousand miles when I traded it for a Trailblazer (Biggest POS I have eva owned!). GM’s track record ain’t so hot in my experience.

My mom had an LS? 2004 model (the big Saturn car) which spent a month in the shop to fix Anti-lock brakes problems, a broken sunroof and a faulty power seat. Thankfully, it was right before the warranty was up so it was fixed for nothing, but still

Better machine sadly equals higher cost. Oh well.

The 90s were baaaadddd for GM. And yea, anything Saturn prior to the Ion was pure crap, and even the Ion is questionable at best.

That being said, I always try to approach new strategies from automakers with an open mind, and I would buy a Saturn these days if the styling was a little more my taste.

mlm, that may be true, though I think some of the comments in th C and D article had merit. The chassis relentlessly understeers, and the finish of some of the interior pieces was not best in class i.e. ragged mold lines, etc. I went to a dealer to check an Aura out, and found the same thing, as well as ill-fitting trim pieces. Certainly not every other car in the segment is perfect either.

truck girl, i’ve had 2 GM cars get me over 200k miles and the one i have now just rolled 146k. no major problems (i.e. new brakes, O2sensor, etc..). my sister had a toyota solara that fell apart on her.. what you would call a piece of s$#t. she got about 60k out of it. perception is different. you can get bad in any brand. As for Saturn, the majority of people get good use out of them. I personally know a guy that has 410,000 on an older model.. original engine and trans.

buenos, just saying one mags opinion is not what to base ending judgement on. i’ve seen the AURA also, i thought the fit and finish was good. but i might not the best judge of it.

I will admit the price increase has me (and everyone else) here at Saturn a little worried. Although the price increase is some what justified. The 2008 Vue has been rebuilt from the ground up. It now has the same motor and trans as the Outlook and Aura, plus a lot more and I mean a lot more standard features. But only time will tell how the public will percieve the increase in price

Makes sense, as the last one was a thin tin can on wheels, while this one is a thicker tin can.

mlm1703: Save your breath, son. You can pull as many little “personal experiences” out of your ass as you’d like, you can recite tale after tale of glorious GM car after glorious GM car, of Toyota’s your family have owned bursting into flames, blah blah blah, it’s all bull****. Because no matter what sort of personal experiences you may (or may not) have had with those makes, that doesn’t change the OVERALL statistics on the matter, which indicate that GM’s vehicles are far, far less reliable than those made by Toyota or Honda. Say what you want, but those numbers still ring true, and you’re still wrong.

The point of my orginal post is that it may be a little ambitious for Saturn to immediately position the price of the new Vue against the Rav4 and CRV out of the gate, rather than taking Hyundai’s approach of lower price to get models out in the public’s hands. If the response is positive, add some features and up the price.

Hey homeboy jealous much?

didnt saturn just stop using honda motors?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_L66_engine,
so if the view engine was so bad then isnt honda part of the equasion?

The L66 is an OEM V6 engine built by Honda but sold by General Motors in the Saturn VUE SUV. The L66 was acquired as part of a swap with Honda, who received the Circle L 1.7 L Diesel straight-4 for use in European Civics.

It is a 3.5 L (3471 cc) SOHC V6 with VTEC Variable Valve Timing and is made by Honda in Marysville, Ohio. The same engine, the J35A3 is used in Honda’s Acura MDX SUV. It is built at Honda’s Anna, Ohio engine plant. It is interesting to note that the parts content sticker on the 3.5 L VUE states the country of origin to be Japan for both the engine and transmission.

In the VUE, the engine produces 250 hp (186 kW) and 242 ft·lbf (328 N·m).

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_L66_engine”

Wow! I’ve always looked at LLN on Streetfire and seen HomeGirl’s comments, so I just had to get in on the action. This kid is awesome!Why do all UK people hate America so much? Jealousy most likely…. Or maybe they are just pissed off that the only cool UK person is James Bond and he isnt even real!!? O well, this kid is pretty much a 15 year old Jeremey Clarkson.

The Vue IMO is ugly and slow, but it fits the people in its market well, so w/e.

(EDITED FOR LANGUAGE)

^^lmao^^:)

I’m going to have to agree with BaggedHemi22.

I just read an early article on another website on this vehicle before reading this one. It does seem like they added some features but not enough to justify $3,300.

From what it sounds like it seems GM is pricing this vehicle Higher to get away from budget image. Not sure why they would start with Saturn when they could start with Buick, Pontiac and/or Chevy brands more appropriate for that trend.

I agree with earlier comments. It would have been better for GM to build the image first then slowly start raising prices. If you build quality that brings customers, then you can price higher.

lamborghiniZ.. my experiences w/ GM have been good, nothing bull**** about them. so, i guess one can have good things to say about asian imports and it’s okay to express that.. but if anyone has that w/ american cars, you get hate comments. i stated there are good and bad in all brands.. different perspectives from different people. and please, don’t call me son. exactly what is your age… twelve?

This pricing info is not correct. For a simiular 2008 the price increase is $1520, not $3300. There is not a manual 4cly at launch which is no big deal, manual Vue is less than 5% of sales. Before posting a huge headline you should do your homework.

roar

imo the Vue’s are pretty nice with the exception of the cheap interior. oh that and id only buy the ones with the 3.5L Honda theyre fast.

The new Vue’s NEEDED the $3,300 price hike, between import costs of the OPEL and build quality compared to the last gen, $3,300 isnt very much.

Saturn started out as GM’s answer to Japanese rivals. It wasn’t meant to be hip like Scion to begin with. Their target was not gen-x or y but more towards women in general and focus on dealership experience as well. I like the new VUE comparing to the old one. Seeing one at an autoshow, I think the interior has more quality. The focus should not be on the $3300 price increase, but on the $21k price tag which I think is reasonable. What kind of warranty does it come with is my next question. 5 year/100k?

Now that Saturn is selling more product from Opel, I don’t think it conflicts with Pontiac or Buick at all. Pontiac is meant to be a sportier alternatives to Chevy. Buick is a near luxury brand marketed to a different crowd. I doubt people will cross shop between Saturn and Buick. Saturn is still doing its job to be the Japanese rival, except it is getting some help from the European in general. Nothing wrong with that. Now Ford and Mercury, that’s a different story for tommorrow.

And Saturn expects no price haggling with this increase?

The Saturn Vue looks like a decent GM suv because it is mainly designed by Opel in Europe. I just don’t see anything like it in GM’s American stables.

I personally like the fact GM raised the price $3300. Ford brought the price down on the 2008 Escape’s by an average of 1400 or so.

homeboy, really?? asshole huh? shakiiiiraaaaa….one more and my name WILL have you pictre and people will definitey ignore you…go ahead you know they will.

hahaha im not on crack, but you need a girlfriend..desperate times huh?

Everyone goes on to say european cars are better, saturn is pretty much all european including this model. This car will do fine. Why there is all this bull**** on here i dont know.

The only person who had said any real facts on this subject is “roar” . Saturn is not making a manual trans in 2008 there fore the price increase from a 2007 automatic to a 2008 automatic is approx $1550.00, then you include all the standard features on the 2008 compared to 2007 and the price increase really doesn’t amount to much.

My friend had a Saturn, it caught fire.

Maximus: My friend had a Toyota, it caught fire. True story!

(edited for content)

“The 90s were baaaadddd for GM. And yea, anything Saturn prior to the Ion was pure crap, and even the Ion is questionable at best.”

I owned one of the very first Saturns in NY. A 1991 SL2 from Long Island City in January of 1992. Got 120,000 miles only the alternator replaced. No dents because the body was polymer. The mirrors broke off easily though. Handled exceptionally well. Too low to the ground (normal in that era). Good Car.

If Saturn had kept up and improved the S series instead of replacing it with that ION beast, they would have done ok. BUT they didn’t. They watered it down and let it die, like most American car companies do over the years to their models. BTW, the ION could have been so much better. I rented one and it was a dream compared to the Cavalier… but still could have been better.

As far as car magazines being biased… I DON’T believe it. If they like something, they will let you know. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Car magazines are biased, especially Motor Trend and Car and Driver. Whenever a comparo is done, often times they do in fact praise the one domestic they will have in there 5 to 6 car comparo. The car will perform and handle better and it is still 5th or 6th place. It’s all about money. If I hear Motor Trend refer to the big 3 needing to get back to the design trends of there gloried past I will certainly be done with mainstream media car magazines. So Motor Trend wants big fins and full wheel steel hubcaps again?
Oh Lamborgini Z had a negative domestic comment, what a shocker.

Maybe Homeboy234 is just jealous because we in the USA have modern amenities such as Dentist, bars of soap and all things modern.
It must be his love for all those current British car makers.

homeboy234. I’m sorry I insulted your intelligence.
Yo Dude , why do you talk like that. American Urban slang and the homeboy stuff.
Oh yea, just like the rest of the world, everyone wants to hate America but wants to be like America.
I think your Mommy is calling.

is it just me… or is homeboy telling someone to grow up hypocrisy at it’s very finest?

I did not say everyone wants to be American , I said like America as in using urban slang like yourself as you are unable to speak on a mature level.
Bomb blast is not a good idea on the web as it can be taken as a threat from one country to another. But your too stupid and young to know that
I did not realize what a fad starter the UK was with those flashy clothes, really bad cars(the British made ones)and the fact the UK is still stuck in some other century along time ago, a Queen? This is 2007.
But enough of that , my issue is with your uneducated ignorance not the UK. It is a beautiful country with alot to offer unfortunatly people like you are there. I have been to Europe three times for vacation, been to the U.S.A? Or do you just stereotype on hearsay like most ingnorant people like yourself regardless of what country they are from. I doubt you have been here as you don’t strike me as a person that has afforded to venture out too far from home.
By the way the term “homeboy” is from black American culture from two decades ago and is no longer used.
You may want to update your name with a new American Urban culture term.
EuroIdiot234 would be good for you. Yes, go ahead , respond back with your stupidity which only makes you look even less intelligent then you are.
Last time I checked the closest thing to being bombed in America was 9-11. Now the UK has had more then it’s share of terrorists attacks as well as the raids of both WW1 and WW2.