First Drive: 2008 Saturn Vue Red Line

A few months ago, I was introduced to the all-new 2008 Saturn Vue and was relatively impressed with the package on my XR tester. It had a nice V-6 engine, a high-quality interior and a utilitarian cargo area. When the Vue Red Line arrived in our fleet I was expecting a car similar to the XR, only better — or at least faster. The only thing better about the Red Line, though, were the seats.

Aesthetically, the Red Line features a huge front bumper and lower grille. Teamed with a lowered suspension, they give the SUV a go-fast look, but Saturn didn’t add any extra horsepower to the Red Line. Why not make it a go-fast SUV in the speed department, too?

The lowered suspension didn’t improve handling in any noticeable manner. The ride was soft and pleasant, but not sporty. I don’t mind a cozy ride in an SUV, but in something that’s supposed to be about performance, I would surely sacrifice a little comfort for more thrills. Unfortunately, the Red Line seemed like a sports car at the pump. The car was so new — 800 miles on the odometer — that no one had reset the trip computer when I received the car, but I could see the gas gauge falling rapidly during my first 60 miles or so. When I did refill the tank a second time after resetting the trip computer, it had 100 miles on it and needed seven gallons of gas. That’s just over 14 mpg in spirited highway and suburban driving with the A/C on. It's rated 16/22 mpg city/highway. I did not take the Vue into downtown Chicago during that streak and hope the car returns better mileage after a break-in period.

What I did love about the Red Line was the interior. The Vue XR with leather has one of the best interiors in the class. The Red Line adds sporty black leather seats with suede inserts and red stitching to the equation. I was in love with those seats. They were supportive and comfortable and hugged the body in turns. Even the fake carbon fiber trim was black — as opposed to gray in the XR — and I found the all-black color scheme so appealing that I think it should be available for the rest of the lineup.

As senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder said, Saturn needs to do more with its Red Line vehicles if it wants them to have the same cache as Chevy’s SS and Cadillac’s V lines. At a price of $2,500 more than the equivalent XR — $27,395 for the Red Line FWD versus $24,895 for the XR FWD — even those snazzy seats don’t do enough to warrant the price bump.

Related
2008 Saturn Vue Expert Review (Cars.com)
Suburban Dad: 2008 Saturn Vue XR (KickingTires)
More 2008 Saturn Vue Photos and Info (KickingTires)
2007 Chicago Auto Show: 2008 Saturn Vue Green Line (KickingTires)
2007 Chicago Auto Show: 2008 Saturn Vue Red Line (KickingTires)

Comments

[Jay]

I love the look of the new VUE in and out. I think Saturn missed a golden opportunity to add something different to the compact SUV class. With the "Red Line" monkier, they could have made it a limited high performance car similar to the WRX STi and Lancer Evo. Saturn should have called it the "VUE Sport" if they weren't going to add any true performance tweaks. Still nice though...

[Lil'Tom]

Dave,
You've got the brokenest link I've ever seen. Clicking on "relatively impressed" will either go to your 1997 Ford Explorer summary or the 2006 Maserati Spyder summary. Each one at the same URL. Weird.

[Brad]

I had a brad new AWD Vue XR as a rental a few weeks back with approximately 450 miles on it when I recieved it. I was impressed with the vehicle and thought the interior was way nicer than any other Saturn, or most any other new car. I was surprised by how bad the fuel economy was though. You could literally watch the fuel gage drop as you went down the road. I have had a FWD Rav4 V6 before and noticed that it had similiarly poor gas mileage, however it's acceleration was much, much faster than the Vue. Being FWD prolly has something to do with that though. Vue also has a nicer, more high quality interior (I like the GM Radio much better as well). But I prefer the RAV4's look on the outside.

[Dave T.]

Thanks LT it's fixed now.

[J]

I wondered does those body panel weigh more than the XR non-sporty ones?

[cody]

The new Vue is overweight to begin with. The only model under 2 tons is the 4-cylinder FWD base. I'm not surprised to see it returning mid-size SUV fuel economy.

They will to have to cut some of that fat if they want to improve fuel economy, and that's not an easy thing to do after a vehicle is in production... or they could offer the diesel engine the Daewoo Winstorm (the vehicle the Vue and Opel version are based on) uses here in Korea, if they could get it to pass US emission standards.

[MikeW]

GM could have shortened the axle ratio to 3.16.
The RAV4 has a small gas tank 15.9 gallon, the VUE has 19.2 for front drive, and 16.7 for 'awd'