![]() ![]() It gets four stars for rollover, but we've yet to see a car score five stars in that category. In NHTSA testing, the Aura does very well, scoring five stars for front and side impacts. A tire pressure monitor is also standard. The Aura also has anti-lock brakes on its four disc brakes, and stability control comes as part of the StabiliTrak system.Īir bag coverage is nicely complete, with standard front, front side, and curtain air bags around the cabin. ![]() We were surprised to find the off switch for traction control mounted on the front of the console hatch, where a stray elbow could disengage it. Traction control is provided by GM's StabiliTrak system. Over rough pavement, we felt the jolts but they were quickly damped out. The car's heavy feel inspires confidence in corners, and the wheels didn't break loose when we pushed it a little. The car does have traction control, but it's not enough to keep the engine in line, as our various fast starts lit up a "Low Traction" message on the instrument cluster display.įor a roomy sedan, the Aura handles well, helped along by stabilizer bars in the front and rear. ![]() But it's not necessarily engineered well for the car, as we could get extensive front-wheel spin from a standing start. We did like the solid feel of this engine-transmission combination, even if it didn't shift as smoothly as some of the more refined six-, seven-, and eight-speeds we've driven. It was fun to use in manual mode, although difficult to shift on tight curves when the paddles vertically align at 12 and 6, as opposed to their straight-line 9 and 3 positioning. During various driving exercises, the six-speed's shifts were very noticeable. Paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel are standard on the XR, and are active when the shifter is put in Manual mode. Our XR had the more advanced six-speed automatic the XE gets a four-speed. The power train differences extend to the transmission as well. This last was a particularly odd feature to have standard, although nice when the kids want to tune out in back while the grown-ups talk in front. An auto-dimming mirror came standard along with separate audio controls for the rear seat, complete with wireless headphones. OnStar also offers a phone service, but you pay per-minute charges, and the car gets assigned its own phone number.Īs part of the Enhanced Convenience Package in our review car, a six-way power-adjustable passenger seat and power-adjustable pedals were included, the latter not something we see too often in a sedan. We've taken OnStar navigation for a test drive, and although it works reasonably well, you have to pay $26.90 a month for the Directions & Connections plan. Buyers get one complimentary year of OnStar's Safe & Sound plan. No Bluetooth cell-phone integration or onboard navigation is offered, but the Aura comes with OnStar. A subwoofer would have added some oomph to the sound. The sound quality is above average, a little muddy in the midrange but no distortion at higher volume. The system uses eight speakers, with two tweeter/woofer combos mounted on the rear deck, a woofer in each front door, and tweeters mounted in the A pillars on either side of the windshield. The stereo also has an auxiliary input jack in its face, a convenient feature for hooking up an MP3 player or an iPod. One particularly nice feature of this stereo is that it can hold up to six pages with six presets on each. XM satellite radio is optional with this stereo. The CD changer handles MP3 discs and does a good job of showing ID3 tag information, letting you choose to view the song title, the artist, the album, or the folder name. Its monochrome amber, dot-matrix display isn't very modern, but its six-disc in-dash changer is. The major tech element in the cabin is the stereo. The rubberized material over the dashboard is nice, though. The panels also felt a little loose in our review car, which doesn't bode well for long-term durability. The result doesn't fool anyone, and we don't know why Saturn would even try. In an attempt to look luxurious, surfaces are covered with glossy plastic intended to look like wood, which is passable, and the aforementioned molded plastic panels in the door, which attempt to match the seats with a stitched leather look. The Aura's cabin is roomy, as befits Saturn's largest sedan. ![]()
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