Sky reaches styling pinnacle and hides a few clouds
When it comes to creating a new two-seat roadster, the sky is the limit. The Saturn “Sky†reaches the top echelon of eye-stopping beauty in its stylish design, even if, overall, it falls a couple notches short of the limit.
The Sky is SaturnÂ’s 2007 version of the recently introduced 2006 Pontiac Solstice. Its bodywork and styling is remarkably different, and itÂ’s a few inches longer, but the two cars share the same kappa platform and 2.4-liter Ecotec four-cylinder engine.
As two-seat, open-air roadsters go, the market is pretty wide open. In the $40,000 realm, there are the BMW Z4, Mercedes SLK, Porsche Boxster, Audi TT, and the rarefied Lotus Elise, but closer to $30,000, the Honda S2000 is pretty much the only choice. In order to keep the price down to a reasonable $20,000-$25,000 bracket, there also has only been one choice – the Mazda Miata.
So it was a worthy move by General Motors to make the Solstice, aimed at the MiataÂ’s sports-roadster-on-a-budget market segment. For 2006, the Solstice came out directly opposite a new third-generation Miata. There is no doubt that the newer, more feature-filled and stronger Miata is a gem, a much tighter and quicker and more sophisticated car than the first-off Solstice.
But I had to give a Car of the Year nod to the Solstice for one big reason: The Miata was a substantial improvement over an already excellent vehicle, while the Solstice was a breakthrough vehicle as the first GM product in decades that was fun to drive for reasons other than enormous engine displacement.
The SolsticeÂ’s shortcomings are the lack of anything resembling trunk space, a top that is as busy to put up and down as the MiataÂ’s is simple, a five-speed stick where the Miata offers a six-speed, and a 2.4 engine that is a little unsophisticated and canÂ’t beat the highly sophisticated 2.0 in the less-expensive Miata, and an overall feeling of looseness compared to the extremely tight Miata.
Still, the Solstice design is stunning, from every angle, and it wins big points for appearance. GM officials said a six-speed isnÂ’t offered in order to keep costs down, so unfortunately a concession was granted to the Miata right out of the box.
Now along comes the Sky, and it purposely has been made a little bigger, a little heavier, more stylish, and presenting an entirely different appearance. It is perhaps even more stunning to look at, with a frontal appearance that is more like a combination of the new Corvette and the newest Camaro concept car shown off at this yearÂ’s auto shows. The rear also has a very attractive and more geometric shape than the Solstice.
The Sky is intended to carry the heavy load of altering SaturnÂ’s entire persona for the coming generation. While Saturn has entrenched itself from all of its first-generation vehicles and outstanding dealership conduct, the plan for the future, as GM confronts major financial problems, is to taper SaturnÂ’s independence and make it something of a U.S. outlet for shared vehicles with GMÂ’s German Opel operation. With that in mind, the Sky is very similar to the new Opel GT.
The Sky will start at a base price of just over $23,000, which is about $3,000 more than either a basic Solstice or a basic Miata. After loading on a few options, the Miata and Solstice might rise to $25,000, while the Sky might get to $27,000. The test Sky I drove stickered at $25,130.
In styling, on a 10-1 scale, I would give the Miata an 8.0 – because it is not much of a variation from the previous model – and the Solstice a 10.0; but with the Sky now on the horizon, I might give the Sky a 10.0 and drop the Solstice to 9.7.
While I wasnÂ’t invited to the Sky introduction, I did get a gleaming silver Sky for a weekÂ’s test drive shortly thereafter. When the press-fleet car showed up, it dazzled the whole neighborhood. On my first walk-around, I had to admit it was eye-catching from every angle, although the neat little chromed vents on the hood are phony, and my theory is that if itÂ’s not functional, why bother? When I looked inside, I saw the high-gloss black — “piano black†they call it – panel on the top of the center dashboard, and the shiny silver panel surrounding the floor shift lever. But the shift lever – it was an automatic.
Now, automatics may rule the industry, but in a sports roadster it almost seemed sacrilegious to put an automatic. Still, the Miata can be obtained with an automatic, and it has neat little paddle-shift manual overrides on the steering wheel. But thereÂ’s no such feature on the Sky.
The automatic is a five-speed, an $850 option, and fifth helps with a lower-rev cruising gear on the freeways. In “D,†however, stepping on the gas at takeoff produces a fairly loud roar that doesnÂ’t seem to be matched by the enthusiasm of the carÂ’s launch. My wife, Joan, went off for her first drive in the car and called me on her cell phone. “This car groans,†she said. “When you step on it, it groans!Ââ€
I suggested putting the shifter in “4,†which holds the transmission in the first four gears and gives the car a much better attitude, as well as ratio, for city and residential driving. With 177 horsepower, I’m sure the stick version would run as well as the stick Solstice, and closer to the quicker Miata. The automatic Sky definitely can’t keep up to that group.
Anyway, driving the Sky is pretty impressive. It steers well around corners and holds the road quite well, thanks to its wide and low stance, and top-shelf Bilstein shock absorbers. Its 3,200-pound weight leaves the Sky’s autocross quotient a bit short of the lighter and quicker-responding Miata.
As for shortcomings, I found a few. I was unable to put the top down for the first couple of days, because of the kind of drizzly rain that open-air sports stadium proponents seem to have forgotten about. But I was heading from Minneapolis to Duluth for the weekend, and returning in time for a senior menÂ’s baseball practice.
To get into the trunk, hit a switch in the cockpit or on the key fob and the little fabric-top points that meet back on the neatly styled buttresses behind the two seats snap to attention, straight up, and the clamshell-opening lid unlatches. Then you get out, flip it up, and see a massive carpeted thing over the fuel tank, and precious little room around it on both sides, and at the rear. I had to do some equipment compromising, and put carefully placed my computer bag, my baseball glove and spikes, a ball bag, one batting helmet, and two selected bats. ThatÂ’s all that would fit. Snap the top back down, and walk around the car to button down the two fabric top points, and weÂ’re off.
In the North Shore sunlight, it was time to shoot some photos. I drove up on Skyline Drive, and flipped the rear lid up, unlatched the top, and folded it carefully back and into the receptacle, above the gear I had stowed. But the lid wouldnÂ’t close. After several careful attempts, I realized I had to move the helmet, the glove, the spikes and the ball bag into the passenger seat, and only then was there room to put the folded top down deep enough so that the lid closed securely.
The fact sheet says luggage space is 5.4 cubic feet with the top up, and 2.0 with it down. Those figures might work, as long as none of the items youÂ’re stowing are larger in diameter than a folded-up newspaper.
The different interior kept supplying issues that I also found less than ergonomically sound. The instrument panel has only speedometer, tachometer and fuel gauge, and while they are all located well, they are housed in bright silver bezels, and the fuel gauge is down a tube. In different light conditions, I found glare from the bright silver surrounds made it difficult to see the fuel gauge at all.
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Sitting in the cockpit, the diagonal door grip is comfortable to grab, but because of its location, the switches for the power windows as mounted rearward from that grip, on the armrest. But when IÂ’d slide my arm back to operate the switches, my elbow hit the end of the armrest detent before my fingers could reach the switches. Without the skill to operate the switches with my elbow, I had to put my elbow up at ear-height and reach straight down, as if I was trying to put myself into a hammerlock, to open or close the windows.
If my arm was too long to work the window switches, they were too short to reach either the storage box located on the back wall between the two bucket seats, or the dual cupholders that popped out directly under that cubicle. A single cupholder will pop out of the center console on the passenger side.
When a new model has these kinds of shortcomings, you wonder if any full-size human ever sat in one to see if all was well, and if so, whether such an evaluator might need to be institutionalized for sadistic tendencies.
My other ergonomic question was so bizarre that I am declaring it a remarkable coincidence of anti-ergonomics.
Driving along with the top up, on a fairly bright day, when the sun poked through I found myself repeatedly glancing up at the rear-view mirror, each time realizing there was not some vehicle that had suddenly materialized behind me, but instead was merely a reflection in the rear-view mirror that was bright enough to catch my peripheral vision.
Finally I decided to trace it, because the reflection was that of the shiny silver gearshift lever surround – which is located directly down from, and perpendicular to, the rear-view mirror. So how did the reflection get there? It’s easier to understand if you’re into billiards, because this required a four-cushion bank shot. First, the glints of sunlight or even normal brightness, coming down through the windshield hits the silvery surround, and reflects almost straight up, where it hits the windshield, and reflects straight back. With the top down, it would continue on into infinity, or Infiniti, if one were driving behind you. But with the top up, the reflected glare ricochets off the almost-vertical rear window, bouncing almost straight back forward – into the rear-view mirror, from where it flashes directly into the driver’s eyes.
Remarkable. Even a Ford insurrectionist who infiltrated GMÂ’s design studio couldnÂ’t have been clever enough to create this scenario with such fiendish precision.
Despite those complaints and criticisms – call them nitpicks – I liked the Sky overall. I’m sure I’ll like it a lot better with the five-speed manual. I personally prefer little engines that overachieve, and when the sticker price rises to near $30,000, the Honda S2000 enters the picture, with a four-cylinder that stirs up 240 horsepower and performs at another level. I’ll have to check out the Sky again with a stick, and still again when the car gets a Red Line upgrade this fall, with a turbocharged 260 horsepower version of the basic Ecotec, firmer suspension, and a limited-slip differential. That will be impressive, but it also will further underscore performance and handling shortcomings of the normal Sky.
We’ll have to wait and see about the window switches. And you may still have to decide whether to take your wife or a couple of small duffel bags, because you can’t fit both. That remains the nagging memory of the Sky. It’s extra frustrating when a car that is a perfect “10†in styling and appearance has such nagging shortcomings. I thought we got well beyond the style-over-substance plateau a couple of decades ago.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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