Poo on Saturn Dealers

So I stopped by a Saturn dealership today to test out a Redline.

Turns out there is a bit of a waitlist for Redlines, but they did have a regular Sky that I could tool around in a bit.  Fair enough.  Apparently they drive about the same, except for the engine.

But here's the issue:  The guy takes me on a test drive that consists ENTIRELY of straight lines.  The only turns had stopsigns attached.  He found me ONE little bitty s-turn, but that was it.  And then he had the audacity to tell me I was speeding.  As if I didn't know that.

So, having now test driven a Sky, I know that it is underpowered and that it is a pretty comfortable ride for a little sports car, but I know absolutely nothing about how it handles or corners.  Totally useless drive.

Seriously - if you are trying to sell sports cars, shouldn't you have a route planned that has some turns involved?

Grr. 

Well, its a Saturn?

Saturn dissapointed me with the Ion. It is very unreliable. The Sky looks very nice, I just don't know if I could trust it. I would proabably be best off with a Kia.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at LAaaaAWWWW

Great show.

Saturn's are horrible. Don't do it.

why would you ever get a sky? they look good, but like you said, it's a saturn. for roughly the same price as the sky, why not get a v-8 mustang gt? that would kill a sky in performance, looks, sound, the whole 9 yards.

Dye Playa wrote: why would you ever get a sky? they look good, but like you said, it's a saturn. for roughly the same price as the sky, why not get a v-8 mustang gt? that would kill a sky in performance, looks, sound, the whole 9 yards.

A mustang will not corner like the sky. Small 2 seater sports cars are fun to drive, probably more fun than a mustang. Plus, how often do you see a saturn sky compared to a mustang?

My wife and I test drove the Saturn Sky and the Pontiac Solstice (same car, different body panels) almost exactly a year ago. Definitely underpowered. Cornering was ROCK solid... One of the best handling cars I've ever driven.

Then Pontiac came out with the Solstice GXP and Saturn came out with the Redline. There are some differences from what I understand, but both have apparently resolved the underpowered issue.

BE VERY CAREFUL THOUGH... Ask the dealership about the weight limit on the car's frame. When we test drove them, there was a big yellow sticker on the runner panels that said "WARNING: Passenger and cargo weight not to exceed 360 pounds." Apparently they'd shaved weight off the frame to improve performance and the warranty was void if your frame was bent and they could show that you'd exceeded this posted limit. (At the time, I was 270 and my wife was 115, so that pretty much sealed it.)

Most people ignore these warnings, but the cars haven't been out long enough to determine whether this will get them into trouble.

Dye Playa wrote: why would you ever get a sky? they look good, but like you said, it's a saturn. for roughly the same price as the sky, why not get a v-8 mustang gt? that would kill a sky in performance, looks, sound, the whole 9 yards.

We were looking at the Sky / Solstice versus a BMW 325i versus a Mustang GT last July for my wife's new car. We had pretty much decided on the Solstice (only because the Sky's were special order only at the time) before we saw the yellow warning label I talk about in my post above. Because of that, and because the BMW was a sedan, we went with the Mustang GT...

So... Why was the Sky / Solstice in the lead at first? Styling has a lot to do with it. They are sexy cars, whereas the Mustang is a little more ordinary. But gas mileage was a big factor also. The GT requires Premium at $3.45 a gallon, 19 MPG. The Solstice can use Regular at $3.10 a gallon, 30 MPG.

Combine those things with the fact that the Solstice / Sky is smaller and definitely handles a little better than the GT and I can completely understand why someone would go that direction.

I also wasn't initially planning on buying a Saturn, and I was a little turned off by the brand.  But I really like the way the Sky looks, and the performance reviews were consistently good (once the engine issue was resolved), so I figured I would give it a go.

Which is why the test drive was so disappointing - I got no chance to feel the handling.  I drove an SL550 a few months ago in the same neighborhood, and that dealer had no problems finding me an interesting drive.

As to the Mustang - not on the list, will never get on the list.  As Sandman guessed, I am looking for that small-car zippy feeling.  I also want a car with decent mileage, and preferably something fairly unusual.  The Mustang fails on all of those counts, image concerns aside.

But while we've got the car crowd interested - any thoughts on the Z4 or SLK?  Do I surrender my penis by sitting in either of those cars?

That's my feel of the SLK as well...  unnecessarily expensive and a little girly.  The killer on the SLK is that it is almost impossible to get a stick version in the US.

I do like the hardtop, though.  True ragtops still bother me a bit.

The Z4 is looking pretty good, although there are a lot of them on the road.

Haven't driven either one yet, though.  The Sky was the first test drive in this cycle.  We'll see.