After being ignored for so long, is Saturn now selling GM’s best car?

General Motors is my new favorite car company.

Yes, GM still has huge and dynamic problems and a raft of boring products in North America, where market share continues to drop. But the company is prospering in international markets, investing in technology and generally managing the chaos of becoming a smaller company better than Ford or Chrysler. I’ll tell you what else I like: GM is hungry again. And that brings me to the 2008 Saturn Vue.

Is this the best product in the North American portfolio, with the perennial exception of Corvette? Yes, I think it is.

Handsomely sculpted, generously equipped (particularly in the safety category, where six airbags, antilock brakes/traction/stability control with trailer-sway control and active head restraints are standard) and infinitely more refined than the trucklet it replaces, the 2008 Vue easily clears the bar set by arch competitors Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V. The Vue, a re-badge of the European Opel Antara, has such a sense of consolidated wholeness (tight, well-damped, rattle-free), such a rewarding tactility (upscale interior materials, controls and switches) and such a frisky, road-loving nature, it’s hard to believe it’s made by the same company that so recently offered us all those chintzy plastic penalty boxes.

Then again, I suppose it isn’t.

Higher expectations

The back story: Saturn is now GM’s conduit for Opel products, and vice versa. The well-regarded Aura sedan, for example, is a North American riff on the Opel Vectra. The coming-soon Astra is a bolt-for-bolt clone of the Opel Astra, the best-selling car in Europe. The gate swings both ways too: The American-built Saturn Sky sells in Europe as the Opel GT.

The Vue was developed in Germany for global markets, and it reflects the higher expectations of those markets. Take, for example, its looks: clean, sophisticated, athletic, with a steeply raked windshield, bowed roofline and racy mesh vents behind the front wheel arches. Had this vehicle been designed at another time, I can easily imagine GM product planners insisting on boxier proportions to achieve some irrelevant superiority in interior cargo cubes.

As it is, the low-roofed Vue does give up some interior space to its competitors — 29 cubic-feet of luggage space compared with the RAV4’s 36 — but it’s still plenty big enough (our tester had a well-engineered cargo organizer that locks into slots in the floor). Meanwhile, second-row passengers have ample space to stretch out. Second-row doors also open plenty wide to ease installing and removing child-safety seats.

The test car, a Vue XR with all-wheel drive and 17-inch alloy wheels, was delivered in the official “launch color,” sunburst orange. It looked terrif.

The other eureka moment in the Vue comes when you park yourself behind the wheel. The interior surfaces and materials are all very rewarding: the dense, rubberized covering on the dash top and doors, the faux wood-grain wainscoting and the satiny alloy-like finish on the shifter and steering wheel. Also, the leather on the seats (part of a $1,075 premium trim package) was a supple and fine-grained hide, a major improvement on the old-Nellie leather of the recent past. The handbrake lever is a cool stirrup shape trimmed in leather and alloy finish, matching the shifter and steering wheel. The Vue interior bests the benchmarks in its class.

Loaded for the money

One of GM’s major problems has been the value proposition: Brands like Acura and Toyota/Scion have just offered more gear for the dollar (this phenomenon occurs at the end of a long funnel that begins with GM’s higher labor costs). And yet, our test vehicle was crowded with goodies, including a smart navigation system, satellite radio, a trailer package, audio upgrade and more. This seems like an awful lot of stuff for $31,295.

The base Vue, the front-wheel-drive XE, is powered by a 169-hp 2.4-liter four-cylinder with four-speed automatic, priced at $21,395. This is the same engine/tranny package that will be found in the mild-hybrid Vue Green Line, coming this fall.

The AWD version of the XE is powered by a 222-hp 3.5-liter V-6 paired with a slick six-speed automatic. The XR and Red Line (performance package), in either front- or all-wheel-drive configuration, get a DOHC 3.6-liter V-6 spinning out a smooth and sonorous 257 hp and 248 pound-feet of torque.

Weight affects economy

Maybe this is the biggest surprise of all: The Vue XR is a real pleasure to drive. It’s a tall, five-seat sports tourer, actually. There’s plenty of power, keen and accurate steering, solid brakes and a superbly balanced chassis that treats the compromise between ride quality and road holding as if it were no compromise at all. This is where the Vue’s European provenance really makes itself felt. Five years ago, GM’s chassis wonks would have dumbed down the suspension to the point of incontinence.

So, am I running out and buying one? No — or rather, not yet. For all the Vue’s fine qualities, it has one glaring problem, which is its fuel economy. Our V-6 tester has an EPA rating of 16/22 miles per gallon, but I was averaging only about 18 mpg.

These numbers are the direct result of the Vue’s scale-bending weight — 4,150 pounds — about a quarter-ton heavier than its competitors. This poundage, I suspect, is because of the longer list of features and an overlay of structural reinforcements required for the vehicle to ace safety tests in different global markets.

Fortunately (and at long last), GM is aggressively pursuing its hybrid program. The Vue, we’re promised, will be available as a dual-mode hybrid sometime next year, which will likely double the fuel economy. To which I say: Sold!

There is also the even more tantalizing prospect of a plug-in hybrid, a technology to which GM has hitched its wagon and its credibility. That’ll be worth the wait.

2008 Saturn Vue XR AWD

• Base price: $26,270
• As tested: $31,295
• Type: All-wheel-drive, five-passenger SUV
  
• Drivetrain: 3.6-liter DOHC V-6 producing 257 hp at 6,500 rpm and 248 pound-feet of torque at 4,800 rpm; six-speed automatic transmission
  
• EPA mileage: 16 mpg city, 22 mpg highway
  
• Length: 180.1 in.
• Wheelbase: 106.6 in.
  
• Weight: 4,150 lbs.
• Built in: Mexico
  
• Final thoughts: Rethink American? I’m thinking, I’m thinking ...