Saturn Sky
Monday, October 16th, 2006I recently had the opportunity to drive the ‘06 Saturn Sky in the beautiful Napa Valley. This is Saturn’s first attempt at building a sports car and honestly my expectations were low. The Sky is based on the Pontiac Solstice which received mixed reviews when it debuted. Fortunately for Saturn, the Sky is much improved over the teething Solstice. Probably the biggest area of improvement was in the cockpit. The Saturn engineers managed to quiet most of the rattles and squeaks that plagued the Solstice. They also utilized higher quality materials to create an interior that didn’t look chincy or cheap. This may sound trivial, but a peak into the average General Motors car will confirm that this is an amazing achievement.
Suspension tuning was also a notch above the Solstice. Using softer shock absorber ratings the car handle bumps and dips like a modern car should, without shaking your fillings loose. In fact the softer suspension seemed to improve the cars road holding ability even on smooth surfaces.
Probably the best feature on the whole car is exterior styling. The Sky does not look like a Saturn, and that is a good thing. It has a sleek design that uses some bold yet tasteful lines. The design is very fluid and uniform from all angles. Even compared to the bench mark Mazda Miata, I feel that the Sky, without any cheesy, bulbous fender flares, wins out in the styling department.
So it sounds like a winner right? Well compared to the Solstice it is, but when you hunker down into the drivers seat and start to hammer on the gas pedal, the car feels a bit anemic. It is not actually a power problem. The 2.4 liter ecotech motor produces plenty of grunt–in the neighborhood of 170 horsepower. It’s just that the motor feels low revving and buzzy like you would expect in an economy car; it really is a bit of a dog. And while the handling is certainly better than average, the Sky is so wide that you frequently find yourself putting tires off the road or over the center line when you drive briskly on a windy road. Here is where a free-revving tighter-handling car like the Miata outshines the Sky.
The folks at Saturn claim they are not trying to compete head to head with the Miata, but the comparison is inevitable. While the Sky is certainly not a Miata-beater at this point in time, it is undoubtedly a good first effort, even if it is about 18 years too late.
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-Bill Mertz
