My review of the 2003 ION was very negative. At first I received many critical comments and emails from Saturn fans. Then the professional reviews appeared, and they similarly panned the car.

So why I am driving another ION? Well, this time around I drove the recently introduced Red Line coupe. It’s one of the first products from GM’s new Performance Division, the others being the VUE Red Line and Cadillac CTSv. It’s easy to make a great car when you start with a very good one. But what about when you start with a mediocre product?

I also wanted to compare the supercharged Saturn with other high-performance compacts I’ve driven recently. The ION Red Line is priced like the Dodge Neon SRT-4, widely recognized as the biggest bang you can buy for twenty grand. Is the ION similarly worthy of consideration?

Styling

Though not nearly as curvy as the previous Saturn coupe, the ION coupe is considerably more attractive than the sedan. The lower roofline helps, as it permits a more sweeping roofline. Although looking directly at the car it doesn’t set my heart afire, quite a few times I’ve involuntarily performed double takes when sighting one out of the corner of my eye. I can’t say why, but something about the car grabs me at a subliminal level. (Certainly not the overly lengthy overhangs.)

To the standard coupe the Red Line adds a deeper airdam, deeper rear skirt, and 17-inch chromed alloys. The body kit though fairly aggressive is well within the limits of good taste, and the alloys are classically styled with thin spokes.

All photos of the Saturn ION Red Line also show a Evo-like rear wing as part of the package. However, the car I drove was fitted with a much smaller spoiler. It seems the wing is a dealer-installed accessory. If, like me, you think the wing is a bit over the top, you don't have to get it.

Inside the interior has improved a bit over last year. Perhaps because I wasn’t the only one complaining about the look and feel of the material on the instrument panel, a more conventional grained texture is used in the 2004 IONs. Although still hard plastic, it looks more upscale. Best of all, the goofy steering wheel found in regular IONs is replaced with a thoroughly forgettable four-spoke unit. Overall, the interior still looks cheaper than the average compact’s, but has improved to borderline acceptable.

The Red Line comes with well-bolstered Recaro seats that look appropriately sporty. Like the buckets in many high-performance compacts, these have blue-flecked cloth in the center panels and vinyl on the bolsters.

Accommodations

The Saturn ION's odd driving position continues from last year. If anything it’s worse in the coupe, as the driver’s seat is lower. A sharply raked windshield translates into a very deep dash that looks all the deeper because the instrument binnacle is in the center. It also translates into poor visibility to the front quarters, as the A-pillars are thick and extend far forward. To the rear visibility is even worse, even without the big spoiler. The driver’s seat headrest is tall and wide, the rear end is high, and the rear pillars on the coupe are very thick. Add smallish rearview mirrors into the mix, and I did not feel confident changing lanes in this car, especially after I barely caught a VW Passat hiding back there. And to think the car I drove didn't even have a wing on the trunk...

The driver’s seat provides very good lateral support but general comfort is just okay. These Recaros are not as nice as those in the (far more expensive) Audi S4. They adjust manually in the basic ways plus height, but that’s it. No adjustable rake, no adjustable lumbar.

Access to the rear seat is greatly aided by rear-hinged half-doors. (Like the Mazda RX-8, this is a four-door coupe.) Adults won’t be spending much time back there. Although headroom is adequate if you’re under six feet, leg room is tight and the seat is low to the floor, affording little in the way of thigh support. For kids it does just fine (my four-year-old came along for this test drive). You cannot put three kids back there, though—there are only two seats separated by a basic hard plastic console with a pair of cupholders.

The trunk is fairly long and wide but not very deep. The hinges are conventional. Unlike in some high-performance compacts, the rear seat does fold in two sections if you need to carry long objects. Inside the car storage space is minimal. There is no storage compartment in the center console. No armrest, either, now that I’m thinking about it. The regular Saturn ION has one, so why not the Red Line? Another deletion: unlike the standard front passenger seat, the Recaro unit does not fold flat for extra-long cargo.

On the Road

Now for the meat of the review: how much magic has GM’s Performance Division wrought? The major change is to the engine. Instead of a normally aspirated 140-horsepower 2.2-liter four, the Saturn ION Red Line has a supercharged 205-horsepower 2.0-liter. Both are members of the Ecotec family. Why a supercharged engine instead of just using the related 210-horsepower turbo 2.0 from the Saab 9-3? Maybe to avoid sullying the Saab brand. More likely to avoid boost lag.

The car was about out of gas, so the salesperson filled it up—with regular unleaded. Regular is acceptable, but premium is necessary if you want all 205 horses. How many were missing during my test drive? The owner’s manual just says there might be a small decline in performance. My guess is ten to fifteen.

Whatever the result, the Saturn ION Red Line on regular unleaded accelerates quickly, but not explosively. The hot Neon feels far quicker.

There are a number of reasons for this beyond the gasoline. First, the Neon’s engine is rated at 230 horsepower, and I’ve read claims that it actually produces over 250. Second, the Neon has far more midrange power: while the Red Line’s engine produces 200 pounds-feet at 4400 RPM, the SRT-4’s kicks out 250 at 2200. Why the disparity? Well, the Neon has an extra 400 cc’s. And it’s turbocharged rather than supercharged. While turbos don’t boost power with the immediacy of superchargers, once they spool up they’re somewhat more effective at high RPM and far more effective at low RPM because they draw less power from the engine and are less dependent on engine speed. While we’re on the subject, the Ecotec 2.0-liter turbo in the 9-3 produces only five more horsepower but 21 foot-pounds more torque, and at 1900 fewer RPM.

Add it all up, and the Red Line engine produces power much more linearly than a turbo would. There’s only modest power at low RPM; as with most small fours you must wind this one out to really move. Only over 4000 RPM do the thrills arrive.

In terms of refinement the engine fares better than the Neon's. At idle the engine is nearly silent. While accelerating it is moderately loud, with a fair amount of whine from the supercharger, and the engine note is not the sweetest, but I've heard far worse. Thankfully there’s no embarrassing bark when you lift off the gas (which killed the SRT-4 for me). I banged the rev limiter the first time I gave the car free reign—the engine is smooth enough at high RPM that I didn’t feel the need to shift.

I’d have kept a closer watch on the tach, but it’s over in front of the passenger. Note to GM's Performance Division: put a tach on the steering column—in a performance car you need to be able to see it at a glance. Especially when the redline is low for a 2.0-liter--6450 RPM--and the engine revs smoothly to it.

A final reason the Red Line feels less energetic than I expected: the gear ratios are too widely spaced for a small four with modest low-end grunt. This "close ratio" (according to Saturn) transmission is based on that in the Saab 9-3, but as already mentioned the Saab has a much plumper midrange. I guess "close ratio" is a relative term: the ION's gears are spaced a little more tightly than the 9-3's, but much distance remains between them. With even fourth an overdrive ratio, this unit seems designed more for highway cruising than around town scoot. Shifting into second drops the engine out of its power band. Even if you shift right at the redline--about 35 MPH in first--engine speed drops below 3500 RPM. If you shift short of the redline... In the 35-45 MPH range that represents the bulk of off-highway driving you're going far too fast for first but not fast enough for second, much less third. More closely spaced gears, with shorter ratios in second and third, would make the car feel much more energetic around town.

Torque steer is present under hard acceleration, but no more so than in any other similarly powerful front-drive compact. The steering becomes a touch squirrelly, but not enough to significantly diminish the experience of driving the car. You don’t need to keep a firm grip on the wheel to avoid an unintentional lane change. Nissan could do worse than studying this car while redesigning the Sentra.

The shifter is considerably better than in the regular Saturn ION. If memory serves, the throws are shorter if still not short, and the feel is smoother and more solid. It’s still not the best, but it’s easily average. One nit: unless the seat was as far back as I could set it and still easily depress the clutch, my arm hit the side bolster on the seat when shifting into second and fourth. If you want an automatic, well, then you’re not getting the ION Red Line.

After sampling the clutch, even stick-shift fanatics might be wishing for an automatic. Effort is very high, especially compared to other compacts. Also, near the bottom of its travel the clutch produces a series of clicks. I’m used to the starter interlock that attends most clutches, but this one is much more noticeable.

The steering has also improved over the ION I drove last year. Though feedback remains minimal, effort is higher and the weighting feels more natural. Nothing felt downright odd about the steering, which is saying a lot in an ION. Responsiveness is good but not great—the Focus ST I test drove (for a second time) the same day reacts much more quickly just off-center (and a small Mazda is also superior in this regard). The hot Neon was much the same, though. It’s possible that big front-drive horsepower and ultra-quick steering don’t go well together…

Beyond the steering, the Red Line handles pretty well. For a nose-heavy front-driver understeer is moderate and the chassis feels composed. But then this was one of the few areas I positively reviewed last year. There’s a good basic chassis here; GM just needs to get the other bits right.

The Saturn ION Red Line’s stiffer suspension and 45-series Dunlop 9000s do take a toll on ride quality. Even on roads that appear smooth the ride is busy, with a high frequency of small vertical motions. On the flip side, I aimed for some minor potholes, and these were dealt with well. No jarring crashes threatened to shake the plastic panels off. Noise levels at highway speeds are typical of a compact car, which is to say moderately high.

One final note on the tires: the Dunlops are mud-and-snow rated, so the car should be at least marginally driveable in the snow.

Saturn ION Red Line Price Comparisons and Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

The price, well the price isn’t pretty. At least not the one of the window sticker. It starts at $20,950, $45 under the Neon. I imagine Saturn feels people will give up brute acceleration for its car’s sleeker, less-econocar styling. The car I drove was fitted with a sunroof, side curtain airbags, uplevel audio, and XM satellite radio. Final tally: $23,005. Now, it used to be Saturn’s sold at sticker. Well, they still do, but now there are rebates. The salesman thought I could get a $2,500 rebate and another $1,500 in “flex cash.” These are available on the regular ION, and he did not think the Red Line was excluded. At $19,000--$18,700 without the XM radio--this car is much more viable.

Still, this price is $4,600 above the regular ION 3, and even adjusting the price for the Red Line’s standard ABS and (partial) leather leaves a $3,500 premium for the Red Line bits. Dodge and Subaru charge about the same for boost (and the Subaru doesn’t include special wheels/seats/suspension in the mix), but it’s still steep. I guess it depends how important acceleration is to you… If you want 200 horsepower in a compact, the Saturn is as cheap as it gets.

If you’re willing to settle for a bit less acceleration, the Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart, Mazda3, and Ford Focus ST are worth a look. The Scion tC is also just around the corner, if a coupe is what you’re after. These naturally aspirated cars require an extra second or so to hit sixty, but otherwise are more enjoyable to drive than the ION Red Line.

Looking only at coupes, there are fewer alternatives. The Scion tC will be less expensive, but also considerably less powerful. The same can be said of the Hyundai Tiburon. The Acura RSX and Toyota Celica GT-S are almost as quick (if you rev the bejeezus out of them), but cost much more, in the low twenties after discounts. Want a coupe at least as quick as the Red Line? Then you’d better plan on spending in the high twenties, at least until Chevrolet’s Cobalt arrives later this year. The only other four-door coupe is Mazda’s RX-8. It costs much more, and has no midrange to speak of, but its chassis is far superior to the Saturn’s. More livable rear seat, too.

After running through the alternatives, the Red Line’s post-rebate price seems very reasonable.

Last Words

The Saturn ION Red Line is less exciting to drive than I expected. With a much more linear power curve and much less torque, it lacks the sheer grunt of the hot Neon. In the handling department, it responds less quickly than most sport compacts. And the view from the driver’s seat runs from odd to confidence-impairing. On the other hand, the Red Line is a huge improvement over the ION sedans I drove last year. So GM’s Performance Division did achieve some minor miracles.

Who will want this car? Those simply seeking the quickest or the sharpest-handling compact will be happier elsewhere. The Saturn’s strengths are the cheapest 200-plus-horsepower engine on the market and sleek coupe styling. Some people simply will not buy a sedan, no matter how quickly it accelerates or how adroitly it steers. The ION coupe might have four doors, but it looks every bit a coupe and nothing like a Lancer or a Neon. This plus $4,000 in incentives might just do the trick.

Because the post-incentive price is reasonable and performance is acceptable, I marginally recommend this car for those who do not mind the view from the driver’s seat.

A Note on Saturn ION Red Line Reliability

I cannot practically cover reliability within the context of this review. However, many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.

Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy an ION Red Line rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in Saturn ION Red Line reliability comparisons.

Before I can report results, I need reliability data on all cars--not just the ION Red Line--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.

For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.

A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

Some of my reviews of related vehicles:
Acura RSX review
Chevrolet Cobalt review
Ford Focus ST review
Hyundai Tiburon review
Mazda3 review
Mazda RX-8 review
Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart review
Nissan Sentra SE-R review
Scion tC review

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 23,005
Model and Options: All options