Turbo Boosts Saturn Sky’s Fun Factor

There are a variety of ways to tell the difference between a standard Saturn Sky and its turbocharged Red Line edition stablemate. You can, for example, compare the front fascias, which are slightly different, with the turbo getting a black surround that nicely sets off the headlights. Or you can check out the tail where you find a couple of impressively sized rectangular exhausts poking out on the Red Line edition. Scan the interiors and you will see leather covering the Red Line edition s steering wheel, metallic sill covers and metal plates on the pedals. And of course the Red Line edition also has some discretely placed Turbo identifiers inside and outside. But the best way to appreciate the difference between the pedestrian Sky and the Red Line Sky is to get behind the turbo car s steering wheel, fire up the blown 2.0 liter powerplant and point the two-seater down the road as you mash way down on the go pedal. The Red Line edition Sky is fast, ripping from zero to 60 mph in 5.39 seconds. It s also a sweet handler of corner apexes, thanks to slightly stiffer suspension pieces and those big fat doughnuts mounted on 18-inch alloy wheels. It also helps to have GMs StabiliTrak with a competition mode. Put it all together in a sleek roadster exterior that has a distinctly Corvette-ish look to it and what you have is the sexiest product ever to come off a Saturn assembly line, even if it is in Wilmington, Delaware, instead of Spring Hill, Tennessee and is shared with the Pontiac Solstice. In case you wonder, yes, the Sky is three inches longer between the front and rear wheels. Considering parade of mediocrities that represented Saturn for a decade, the appearance of the Sky and especially its Red Line edition, as well as the North American Car of the Year winning Aura sedan, restores hope that GM s once-celebrated division can survive and flourish. The Saturn Sky Red Line does have some flaws such as seats that don t provide the kind of side support that is required for really exuberant driving, but that is a small price to pay when the price of the fun that is made possible by the rest of the vehicle is so small, compared to its competition. Saturn Sky Saturn Cars Car reviews