Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid SUV Review
SUV Reviewer
Until you have actually read, driven, or heard about the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid you really haven't seen quite how different every hybrid can be. With good intentions that just didn't come together quite right, the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was released in 2007 and then was abandoned in 2008. Of course, Saturn had to abandon its entire line as the 2009 financial fiasco left car manufacturers scrambling to figure out how to cover their production expenses.
The 2.4 liter engine was gas powered. The Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid relied on its four cylinder 172 horsepower to get the vehicle from one place to another. It only came with a four speed automatic transmission. The front wheel drive SUV hybrid only came as a front wheel drive model. Consumers noticed rather quickly that there were limited options and that the standard and mandatory equipment wasn't quite what they had in mind.
Of course, the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was an actual hybrid so that meant there had to be a form of electricity. Hybrid vehicles are made by combining the use of gasoline engines with electric motors. The more use the vehicle gets from the electric motor the less gas it has to use altogether, which is why they are considered to be more environmentally friendly. What happens when the hybrid in question does not have a strong enough electric motor?
That's exactly the type of electric motor the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was equipped with and therefore there were problems right off the assembly line. The electricity produced by the small motor was barely enough to help in the process of movement, if at all. Tests later showed that the amount of electricity that was produced was about enough to move the car as fast as most people walk, which is on average 3 miles per hour. If one compared the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid to the Toyota they would find that electricity alone can move the Toyota 27 miles per hour faster than that, at about 30 miles per hour.
The electric motor in the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was there to restart the gasoline engine. The gas engine was designed to conserve energy and fuel by automatically shutting down whenever the vehicle came to a rest. It may have provided a tiny bit of vehicular movement assistance while there was actually motion.
Some of the technology was there. Regenerative braking, which is the process of returning the braking energy back into the vehicle's electrical function, was found on this model. Overall, the additional expense to the consumer was not worth the actual savings in fuel or energy considering that the price difference was often more than $5000 higher for the hybrid. Fuel savings added up to a mere 6 miles to the gallon.
After the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid received such terrible reviews, including hard core speaking out against the poorly designed and built interior and poor responsiveness, the Saturn Vue Hybrid was redesigned in order to let the Green Line die a natural death and never (hopefully) to be spoken of again.
The 2.4 liter engine was gas powered. The Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid relied on its four cylinder 172 horsepower to get the vehicle from one place to another. It only came with a four speed automatic transmission. The front wheel drive SUV hybrid only came as a front wheel drive model. Consumers noticed rather quickly that there were limited options and that the standard and mandatory equipment wasn't quite what they had in mind.
Of course, the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was an actual hybrid so that meant there had to be a form of electricity. Hybrid vehicles are made by combining the use of gasoline engines with electric motors. The more use the vehicle gets from the electric motor the less gas it has to use altogether, which is why they are considered to be more environmentally friendly. What happens when the hybrid in question does not have a strong enough electric motor?
That's exactly the type of electric motor the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was equipped with and therefore there were problems right off the assembly line. The electricity produced by the small motor was barely enough to help in the process of movement, if at all. Tests later showed that the amount of electricity that was produced was about enough to move the car as fast as most people walk, which is on average 3 miles per hour. If one compared the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid to the Toyota they would find that electricity alone can move the Toyota 27 miles per hour faster than that, at about 30 miles per hour.
The electric motor in the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid was there to restart the gasoline engine. The gas engine was designed to conserve energy and fuel by automatically shutting down whenever the vehicle came to a rest. It may have provided a tiny bit of vehicular movement assistance while there was actually motion.
Some of the technology was there. Regenerative braking, which is the process of returning the braking energy back into the vehicle's electrical function, was found on this model. Overall, the additional expense to the consumer was not worth the actual savings in fuel or energy considering that the price difference was often more than $5000 higher for the hybrid. Fuel savings added up to a mere 6 miles to the gallon.
After the Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid received such terrible reviews, including hard core speaking out against the poorly designed and built interior and poor responsiveness, the Saturn Vue Hybrid was redesigned in order to let the Green Line die a natural death and never (hopefully) to be spoken of again.
