"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
02/25/2019 at 11:37 • Filed to: None
8
13|
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
02/25/2019 at 11:37 • Filed to: None | 8
| 13 |
The Saturn Sky is one of those cars that most commonly evokes the emotion “ oh, yeah, I forgot about those ” but should it? Should the Sky be condemned to the footnotes of history as “that weird offspring of a Cobalt and a Corvette” or is it destined for something greater? Will anyone give a shit? Should they? Even after driving one, I’m not sure.
The styling on this car is superb. This has aged better than nearly every other contemporary car in the mid-2000s. Once the all-too-common cateracts are resolved with new headlight housings the Sky manages to look amazingly fresh today with an angular coke-bottle design very evocative of the current generation C7 Corvette. The only thing that could date it is the lack of LED running lights somewhere on the car and the now-defunct Saturn badge.
The interior on the other hand is easily the weakest point of this car. In pictures it looks decent enough with attractive red accents, neat “SKY” embroidery, and a classy piano black center stack. In reality? A mixed bag. Mixed in the sense that the REALLY IMPORTANT things such as the pedalbox, shifter position, and steering wheel are absolutely excellent. Heel-toeing this car is effortless and intuitive. The shifter falls to hand very easily next to the steering wheel. Well done, GM. Everything else about the interior is straight bullshit, as far as ergonomics. Want to roll down the windows? Have fun contorting your left hand to reach the window switches. The only storage other than the glove box is between the seats, above the cupholders. Reaching either of these while driving is ill-advised at best. A third cupholder, naturally, is built into the center console on the passenger side and spends much of its life broken.
And then there’s the build quality. The door cards have a solid half inch of wiggle in/out. The door handles move about a quarter inch when you pull them to close the door as the whole thing goes ‘thunkatunkatunka’ when the door closes. The seats squeak INCESSANTLY against the interior panels they happen to rub up against. The shift knob rattles. It’s genuinely terrible and I’m not sure how one would fix it.
Speaking of ergonomic disasters, raising and lowering the canvas top is an absolute clusterfuck. GM made a cool looking top, but in the process created one of the most baffling song and dances imaginable. First, pop the trunk. When you do this the two buttress parts of the soft top spring up from the trunk. Note, every time you want to get into the trunk these two buttresses have to spring up out of the way first, and after closing the trunk you have to pop them both back into place.
Once the trunk is open the single latch in the middle of the soft top can be undone and the top thrown backwards into the trunk, where it uncomfortably binds on itself and goes about halfway down. Then you wiggle it and push on it until it tucks into the trunk, taking up the entire thing in the process, and you can SLAM the rear-hinged trunk down to complete the process. I can’t emphasize that enough, you have to stand behind the car, stick your hand in the center of the trunk, and Kobe that motherfucker home. No half-measures.
This is all done in the name of style, though. The Sky manages to be one of maybe two convertibles that looks equally great top up or top down.
But how does it drive?
Like a stock ND Miata, but a lot MORE. The Red Line in stock form has a 260hp 260lb-ft LNF direct-injected 2.0t mated to a 5 speed Aisin trans which makes 12-15PSI stock which comes on reasonably smooth with none of the fun lag you get with older style turbo cars, just a nice pull to redline. It’s enough to shove you back in your seat with 0-60 happening in the upper 5 second range and a quarter mile coming at 14 flat. The trans is fantastic. It’s very Honda in the sense that you can happily bang-shift the everloving hell out of it without feeling bad. It’ll take it. It’ll take it fine without crunching gears or feeling excessively notchy. Quick, smooth shifts between gears with very well laid out gates. A Very Good Transmission.
One thing the redline is lacking in is turbo noise. No fun BOV whoosh and very little turbo whistle just t he engine note which is quite sporting but not amazing. This is a car that would become a whole different animal with some basic bolt-ons which I’m told are coming soon.
Handling? Shockingly vague. I got an overall mushy feel from the front end when trying to flick the car back and forth. Body roll is very minimal and the seating position being so close to the rear axle definitely gives you a feel of the car pivoting around you in corners.
The brakes were an unmitigated disaster since there was air in the lines. Need bled, then I’ll reevaluate.
Conclusion
The Sky is a toy. It is the Miata alternative for someone who slides the scale more towards acceleration vs handling, but not far enough that they’re into pony car territory. It’s less practical than a Corvette or even a Miata, while being not quite cheap enough vs a C5 to be worth it and too expensive over a Miata to make sense. To buy a Saturn Sky you have to want exactly what the Saturn Sky offers which is a tunable turbo engine, good looks, serviceable handling, room for a LOT of tire underneath, and not much else. I recommend having something more practical and comfortable in your stable as a daily if you buy one of these , such as a geo metro. Or a motorcycle.
2Fast2Furious: Rotary Powered
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2019 at 12:19 |
|
This is a car I would in fact buy, because I have the NB looks wise and it's much cheaper and out preforms an early NC
dropthatclutch
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2019 at 14:07 |
|
Owned one for 6 years. White with the same black/red interior. Had the GMPP turbo upgrade which was really just a pair of 3 Bar MAP sensors and a reflas hed ECU. It dyno’d at 270hp/319tq at the wheels.
It was fun and I miss it, but I felt I needed to get out of it before parts became impossible.
I can’t imagine sourcing the top and components a few years from now.
|
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> dropthatclutch
02/25/2019 at 14:09 |
|
Yeah the top is likely to become a real problem in the future. This cars fate will be 400whp one way or another.
CobraJoe
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2019 at 14:25 |
|
I’d love to have one of those.
But I’m also the type to forgive (and maybe even revel in) annoyances and interior issues if the driving enjoyment is there.
dogisbadob
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2019 at 14:45 |
|
Typical GM half-assing :(
Jayvincent
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2019 at 21:54 |
|
Shame, Jake, Shame! Great writeup of the Sky, but not one pic from behind, which is it’s best feature!
that’s poetry right there, poetry just standing still...
(thanks again for the writeup on a car most of us have forgotten, it’s good OPPO to keep the memories alive)
404 - User No Longer Available
> dropthatclutch
02/25/2019 at 22:37 |
|
I still have one (Solstice, not Sky though) , and actually mechanical parts should be plentiful. I still see lots of compatible AC Delco parts on Amazon all the time, and some body hardware can be pulled from other cars.
Last time when my door handle broke (under warranty), dealer said my part was “out of stock”, but end up another guy just said “it’s the same one as the HHR, give him that.” Left the dealer the same day with the door handle, no appointment either. Oh and I fixed my interior one twice using Cobalt parts.
|
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> Jayvincent
02/25/2019 at 23:49 |
|
This car belongs to youtuber and fellow Wichita native WatchJRGo. Big horsepower plans coming Soon(tm) . I’ll do an actual photoshoot of it once it goes in for some body work and we give it a proper detail.
Chariotoflove
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/26/2019 at 13:25 |
|
I’m one of those who likes the look of the Pontiac version a bit better. Still, either is a good looking car. I wish they had something like this today. It might be a better all around car.
|
dropthatclutch
> 404 - User No Longer Available
02/26/2019 at 15:33 |
|
The door handle in my parents solstice came right off too. That’s good to know.
my goat ate my homework
> dropthatclutch
05/01/2019 at 11:03 |
|
T he top is hard to source NOW. But it’s more fun down anyway.
|
my goat ate my homework
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
05/01/2019 at 11:08 |
|
Honestly, 400 whp is going to cost quite a bit to do right since you’ll need to upgrade drivetrain components for longetivity . If you can live with around 300 -325 whp they have shown excellent longevity with stock trans, rear, and support ing equipment. And, at that power it’s still quick (0-60 under 5 all day long).
|
my goat ate my homework
> 404 - User No Longer Available
05/01/2019 at 11:14 |
|
R ight on Toni!
The Kappa twins (and the Opel too) are GM parts-bin specials. SOOO many of the mechanical parts (and many interior parts) are shared with other long-run high quantity GM models. So parts are easy to find and rather cheap if you have the resources to cross reference.
For the solstice here is a fun list:
Front fog lamps: Grand Prix
Rear Back-up Lamps: Envoy/Trailblazer
Outside Rear View Mirrors
: Fiat Barchetta
Interior AC vents: Lotus Elise or Alfa 156/Fiat
Brakes/Rotors: ION Redline/Malibu Maxx/G6
Engine: Chevy Cobalt (2.4l), Uplevel F/I is new, HHR SS
,
Transmission: Aisin 5 spd manual, adapted from
Chevy Colorado
, also used in Cadillac CTS
Differential: Cadillac CTS
Door Handles: Chevy Cobalt
Gage Cluster: Chevy Cobalt
HVAC Controls Hummer H3