Big time in the Big Apple; SATURN ROLLS OUT A FLOOD OF NEW MODELS AT NEW YORK.(News)

Byline: WES RAYNAL

For General Motors, the New York show will be all Saturn all the time. The GM division will display a concept car and three new production models, the most Saturns ever revealed at a single show. The idea is to demonstrate that Saturn's transformation is well under way.

First, the backstory. GM hopes to take Saturn, a division with historically average cars and great customer service, and turn it into one with great cars, while keeping the customer-service levels sky high. GM thinks the way to do that is for Saturn to become sort of an outlet for U.S.-built versions of the General's European subsidiary Opel-add some European flair to Saturn's image, and maybe save some money on design and development costs, too.

At the Geneva motor show ("Swiss Spotlight,'' March 13) GM vice chairman Bob Lutz said the easiest way to think of the "new'' Saturn is to think of Vauxhall, which sells rebadged Opels in the United Kingdom. "Saturn will be like Vauxhall,'' Lutz said, adding, "now Opel cars will be done for three brands instead of two.''

This brings us to Saturn's New York show concept. It is called the PreVue, and is basically a rebadged Opel Antara GTC as seen in Frankfurt ("Big Think in Frankfurt,'' Sept. 26, 2005). "Forget the Antara is an Opel,'' we wrote at the time, "and imagine it as the next Saturn Vue.''

The Antara (and thus the PreVue) is a three-door, four-wheel-drive crossover. Saturn says in addition to hints at what the Vue might look like, the PreVue is also a look at the design intent for future Saturns.

The PreVue is powered by a transverse, twin-turbo version of the Ecotec common-rail diesel. It ...