![]() You can learn to live with the Sky’s limitations, scanning the roadway for potential disaster as you gather speed, but it’s not exactly what I’d call fun. Then the chassis twists a bit, prompting arm flailing and passenger-side nausea. It kicks out the tail of the car, unsettling the rear tires and eliminating driver confidence. The Sky Red Line’s damping is fine– initially. (The base car is a handful in the wet she’ll swap ends faster than a boomerang.) Later, in the dry, I discovered that the more powerful Red Line Sky makes tire-shredding mid-corner drifts so easy you’ll start to think your last name is Millen. This is from someone who used to drive a rusty Dodge Caravan without complaint.Īs I mentioned, my first day with the Saturn Sky Red Line was wet, wet, wet (and too cold to play ball), so I left the traction control alone and did nothing at all. In fact, my girlfriend refused to drive the car. Nor will she be pleased with how low you sit inside its carcass. Women who achieve high Fahrenheit readings will not be pleased by the lack of a vanity mirror in the Saturn Red Line’s sun visor. I believe a convertible’s cool factor is measured in direct proportion to the hotness of the woman next to you. My normal airplane carry-on wouldn’t fit into the trunk. Step 3: Slam (and I mean SLAM!) the boot lid down, making sure it’s sealed on either side of the car. When you think it’s down, give it a nice shove in the middle ‘til it’s nestled snugly. With both hands, pull the top backward into the trunk. Crack open the glovebox and hit the trunk release. Step 1: Open the windows and unlatch the top from the top of the windshield. So I dropped the thoroughly ridiculous piece of barnyard engineering known as the Saturn Sky’s roof. Not because of the way it looked, sounded or drove because the roof leaked. Still, who cares? I admit that my pants were wet when I got behind the wheel of the Sky Red Line. Meanwhile, twin antennas– an OnStar/XM killer whale and an analog radio whip– continue to mar the roadster’s pitch perfect lines. OK, the brake cooling vents and the larger mesh in the lower grille add a bit of aggression, but the cosmetic changes to the basic Sky are about as thrilling as Pamela Anderson’s fourth breast op. The headlights’ black bezels, chromed exhausts tips and 18” wheels are nice, but they do little to project the requisite menace. The Red Line’s chromed hood vents are fake. While the Saturn Sky Red Line’s basic shape and proportions remain top shelf eye candy– a modern take on the original Corvette– God is not in the details. With the advent of the Saturn Sky Red Line, GM’s different kind of sports car gets a chance to redeem itself amongst die-hard pistonheads, to whom the drop-dead gorgeous base model failed to provide the necessary automotive intercourse. In fact, the Sky is the most physically appealing GM car has produced since Harley Earl last prowled the halls of The General’s design department. But the Sky knocks the ball out of the park in the style department. Not because it’s a great car the lack of any appreciable trunk space and the model’s less than intoxicating driving dynamics make it a toy with limited play value. They were discontinued in the Spring of 2009 due to General Motors' bankrupcy.The Saturn Sky has been a tremendous success. One last thing - only 35,000 were ever produced between the years of 20. The trunk is just big enough to hold a large purse when the top is down, but with the top up, you can store several bags of groceries (yeah, the trunk is very small.) It also handles suprisingly well on snow and ice when equipped with proper snow tires. But that is just one more reason to put the top down as often as possible. The only negative I can think of is that there are fairly large blind spots when driving with the top up. Also the top provides good sound dampening and keeps the heat in (or out) suprisingly well. The top is a manually operated top, but it is quite easy to operate. It's so much fun to drive, in rain or sun. The Redline will easily out perform the base model of both the new Camaro and Mustang, but it can't quite keep up with the SS or GT. The Redline is incredibly powerful and gets good fuel economy. Not a day goes by that I don't hear "That's a Saturn?!"Īt 25-35K the car looks and performs like a vehicle that is twice as expensive. This is by far the best car that you've never heard of.
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