As I was going to look at a motorcycle today, I stumbled upon a test drive event put on by Saturn. Having nothing better to do, and eager to drive just about anything with four wheels, I went and signed up. There was just about no one there (no one waiting, at least), so I managed to get right into a car.

I started off with a Sky, with the base inline four and a stick shift. It's a fantastic looking car, but a little mediocre to drive (I hear it's great at autocrossing, but I was only on public roads). Whether it be because of a weird clutch or just my lack of practice on a manual, I stalled several times. After that, it was ok, but the shifter felt like dragging a wrench through a box of wrenches. Combine that with a motor with merely adequate power, and little else (it drones and takes its time to rev up), the regular Sky is more about cruising with the top down than bombing around corners.

After that, I took out an Aura XR (in other words, a Vauxhall Vectra with GM's so-called "High-Feature" V6 from the CTS). As far as driving it went, there was quick tug at the wheel when I stood on the gas, but other than that, it was a very solid, very competent drive. The engine is also much nicer than GM's pushrod V6s, which are good, but a little dull. This sounds nice, and has a fairly good power band (and for what it's worth, it's the basis of the 3.2L V6 now used by Alfa Romeo).

Last, I drove the Sky Redline (lucky for me, and GM, this one was an automatic). The droning dull four in the regular Sky is the Dr. Jeckyl to the Redline's turbocharged Mr. Hyde. The exhaust note is a little booming, which I suppose could get irritating after an hour or so, but in the context of my five minute drive, it was pretty cool (the power delivery was also quicker than the N.A. four). It's also powerful enough that I was chirping the tires pulling away from stop signs (the traction control was off). Now, on the last part of the test drive, it was a reasonably long stretch along a road with a speed limit of 60kmh - just enough to get a vague feel for the acceleration. On the first two drives, this went smoothly enough. By the third drive, a minor fender bender had happened, blocking off one of the lanes, and causing a bit of traffic to block up. I was getting a little impatient waiting to uncork that engine (I think the little tire chirps were egging me on), so when I finally got a bit of open road in front of me, I accidentally gave it a little too much gas, leaving the car squealing the tires - in front of the cops who had stopped for the accident (that's a bit of guilty fun, but something I felt a little sheepish about).

Overall, I liked the Aura a lot. A couple of the interior bits were a little on the hard side, but other than that, it was a impressive car, and rather nice to drive. The base Sky was underwhelming to drive, and because it's ultimately useless as a car (there's a complete lack of storage anywhere), I can't say much fantastic about it (although it's a gorgeous car). But I adore the Redline's engine, so if the gearbox on that was sorted out enough, that'd be fun enough I could overlook the fact that it's a toy.

Sounds like fun, I can relate to every action you stated.

(I prefer to test drive alone and not with a pushy salesman, who is trying to sell me the vehicle while I’m in it) If I can test drive by myself, that’s when I can really decide whether I like the vehicle or not.

Assuming I’m alone with the vehicle, because with a salesman I can not do most of these things. The things I always do while test driving a vehicle are:

#1: I Check Fit & Finish
#2: I listen to the engine run at idle
#3: Given proper time, I check to see if ALL electronics work correctly
#4: I check performance (Acceleration, Braking and Handling)
#5: I check the Audio System (Not really useful, but I like to see if the vehicles’ got a good sound system!! )
#6: And just for good measure I check Acceleration again. (I love to hear the sweet symphony of a screaming engine)

Nice. They let you take three cars by yourself? I've only encountered two or three dealerships that allowed that and the cars they let me take were old four-door family sedans.

No, not by myself. It was an event put on for Saturn by some marketing company, and they sent you out with one of their representatives (of course, they weren't actually selling the cars, so they didn't have to push them, just babysit and have some rudimentary knowledge of the cars).