Auto Trends

 *Photo Courtesy of CarandDriver.com

The new Saturn Sky is more than just a resemblance to the power hungry Chevrolet Corvette. It actually has a little bit of bite to go with its growl. Well, maybe not exactly a growl, as it is still a 4-cylinder, but she does hiss a bit when the turbo on the optional 2.0 liter releases excess pressure.

Anytime that you have a new car that looks as aggressive as the new Saturn Sky, the question comes up what kind of punch it has under the hood. In this case, as many manufacturers are doing these days, you have two options.

Option A- Enough to get you where you want to go.

Or

Option B- Get you where you want and have some fun doing it.

The 2.4 liter, 16 valve 4 cylinder with 173 horsepower feels a little like the Volkswagens Turbo S back in the days when the “bug” had a steroid injected 1.8 liter turbo to choose from. Or as many of you might be more familiar with (or at least pretend to be)… the Audi TT.

This will definitely get you from A to B in style and you are not going to have to much of a quarrel when you press the accelerator. The Sky will get up and go in under 16 seconds in the quarter mile and that is not too bad for a base engine and a weight of just under 3,000 lbs.

Now imagine what you could do with 260 horsepower.

The Sky Line Red, as it will be called, will be the performance upgrade to the new Saturn and is currently gracing the Saturn showrooms at a price tag of around $30,000.

The base Saturn can find its way onto your driveway for under $24,000… and with good auto finance loan rates, you could be talking just over $300 a month to own and of course a good bit less to lease.

The only real drawbacks that Car and Driver  has uncovered are a lack of trunk space (5 cubic feet of it to be exact), but it is a convertible, so that should not be too surprising.

There is also complaints of the top being a bit of a spoiled three-year-old to get it to do what you want, like sit down on the frame without a bit of a battle. But kids will be kids and nobody is ever perfect, especially for under $30,000.

But going back to the introduction, this car has some beautiful style cues of the new Corvette and for the money, you could buy two of these for the cost of a Vette and still have some money left over to buy a gallon or two of gas to get them home!