What could truly be better than a large convention center filled with
spa treatments, fancy soaps and lotions, purses, super-cute summer
clothes, ultra-fluffy bathrobes, and chocolate-covered marshmallows?
Um. Nothing. Seriously. Unless maybe a date with Orlando Bloom or Ewan
McGregor was thrown in. Hey, to each his own right?
Well
the Del Mar Head-To-Toe Women’s Expo was all that (without the sexy
Aussie and Scotsman), with a few new H-O-T cars added to the mix.
Saturn was there in full force with their dreamy-fast Skye Redline and
the roomy new Outlook. But the belle of the ball had to be the stunning
2008 Saturn Vue. I did a double take because all of the photos I’ve
seen didn’t prepare me for this luxury-looking vehicle to be parked
next to, well, Saturns.
The new Vue has been redesigned from the outside in and it shows. The
car has a more streamlined, European look and the steering wheel is
weighty and powerful, ensconced in audio controls. The seats are
comfortable and like its predecessor design, are offered in leather.
Because of the more dramatic slope of the rear of the vehicle, the
cargo area suffers a bit, but the seats still fold down for those
larger items.
Honestly,
it looks 100 times better than the last one. It’s as if this new SUV
was born from a completely different mother… AND father. The lineage is
still there with safety and gas mileage and a great MSRP, but this is a
whole new animal. One thing I wish they would have kept in this new
iteration: the shopping cart-proof panels. When I went shopping for a
Vue with my parents, the salesman handed them a hammer and asked them
to hit the example Saturn door panel. They gave it a good whallop with
NOTHING. It withstood it! Then he said to hit the sample “regular” door
panel and bammo! HUGE dent.
Saturn, if you ever listened to
me, listen to me now: We want to throw shopping carts at our Saturns,
if only to say, Hey, the other day I threw a shopping cart at me car
and guess what… it’s fine.