Somewhere in Saturn’s pipeline is a Vue Red Line, a handling-enhanced version of this Vue. Considering the satisfying driving experience we had with the Vue, we have high hopes for the Red Line. The Vue’s on-road ride is firm and controlled, but not harsh in any way. The steering was nicely weighted, accurate, quick (although the turning circle was large) but without much feedback. The brake pedal had a good, responsive solid feel. The Vue felt like the kind of vehicle capable of soaking up hundreds of miles in a day without intruding on the driver’s comfort in any way. Noise levels were also well controlled, with some wind woosh around the outside mirrors accompanied by some tire noise, but both were well controlled.

The standard suspension was firm enough that we decided to see what the handling was like. Lo and behold, this thing actually does well on mountain roads. At moderately quick speeds, the Vue sticks well, with good responses and limited body roll given the Vue's overall height. It gives up when you really get moving; the steering goes numb as the front tires lose traction, and the roll feels more pronounced. Still, it’s a good vehicle to drive quickly and instills us with high hopes for the Red Line version.

The drivetrain is one of this car’s strongest points, and it’s hard to believe it’s the same setup that was in the noisy and unruly Suzuki XL7 we tested just a couple weeks prior. The V-6 is smooth and refined sounding, a little strained at high revs, but not bad. The transmission shifts quickly and smoothly, and although it's nice to have a manual control function, this one was better suited to upshifts. Downshifts were frequently slow to respond, even though the engine was nowhere near overrevving in the lower gear. Also, we’d prefer paddle shifters or a slap-stick rather than the button mounted on the side of the gear selector in the Vue.

Visibility is good to the sides and front, with the windshield pillars only occasionally intruding on the view. Unit-body crossovers like the Vue require a lot of structure to stay stiff for demanding customers, and a lot of the rigidity is found in the rear hatch area, specifically, the rearmost pillars. That’s true here, too, and combined with the small rear window makes the Vue surprisingly tricky to back up for such a small vehicle, and there are no backup sensors or a camera available. The side mirrors are generous, but the odd shape made one editor think they were about to fall off.