2007 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid
By Daniel Souza
Unless you are a history buff you may not know that the electric car dates back over one hundred and fifty years—and you thought electric cars were the thing of the future huh? Well, yes and no. No because they have been around for a long time. Yes because automotive manufacturers keep coming up with different types of more-effective, more-affordable and more-consumer friendly (and not-so-ugly-to-look-at) electric cars.
But it was really the gas vehicle—powered by the internal combustion engine (ICE) —that became massively produced in the last one hundred years or so. The resolution to produce ICE cars hinged on the very cheap and readily available fuel type: a petroleum-derived liquid mixture we usually refer to simply as gas.
Well, these are different days and I just don’t seem to find a station with 25-cents/gallon of gas anymore; for this reason automakers came up with the petroleum electric hybrid vehicle, or simply called hybrids. It combines a rechargeable energy storage system and a fueled powered source.
By now—the fourth paragraph of this column—you may be wondering if I am going to talk about this week’s car at all… Yes I am, but I often run into people that either ask me what a hybrid vehicle is or try to sound like a smart cookie by describing something they are not that familiar with at all. So to avoid confusion, I provided this service to you, the reader. Aren’t you glad you are still reading this? On with the car!
The 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid is the first GM vehicle powered by a new, more affordable hybrid system that delivers an estimated 20-percent improvement in fuel economy, depending on driving conditions. It is expected to deliver an EPA estimated 27 mpg in the city and one of the best highway mileage for a SUV at 32 mpg. The Vue's hybrid system costs under $2,000. The full vehicle price starts at less than $23,000.
The Vue Green Line uses a unique electric motor/generator paired to a 2.4L VVT four-cylinder engine and 4T45-E four-speed transmission. GM calls it a “simple and flexible hybrid design” that provides additional power from the motor/generator during acceleration and allows increased fuel economy through engine shut-off at idle, fuel cut-off during deceleration and the capability to capture electrical energy through regenerative braking.
The Hybrid Vue showed a good pick up when needed and smooth engine shut-off. Often a hybrid vehicle will make itself known to the driver with the common wobble of restarting the internal combustion engine once you let go of the brake pedal—a very annoying byproduct of the engine’s restart. The Vue’s restart was almost imperceptible.
The Saturn Vue Green Line’s 2.4-liter hybrid powertrain is rated at 170 horsepower, a nice increase from the 143 hp provided by the 2.2-liter engine in the conventional four-cylinder Vue. The vehicle also provides an appropriate balance between fuel economy and comfort by providing a system with two driver-selectable operating modes. An economy mode favors fuel economy by limiting the affect of air conditioning, while the other mode favors maximum passenger comfort and defogging performance.
It will seat five passengers effortlessly and the interior provides nice polished-like plastic plates. But although SUV sized, the Vue is mostly for inner city driving, lacking an offroading-capable 4x4 system. Saturn says they decided to refrain from the 4x4 system to maximize on fuel economy; hence the Vue is a front wheel drive utility vehicle.
Base Price - $22,995
Price as tested - $ $24,711
No comments:
Post a Comment