FULL METAL JACKET; Saturn goes large and goes long.(Saturn Outlook XR)(Product/service evaluation)

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

If you've not yet scrubbed your mind completely clean of the image of Saturn as the maker of cheap, small, plastic-bodied cars, the Outlook crossover now arriving in dealerships should finish the job. The largest, most-expensive Saturn ever is based on a front-wheel-drive platform (with optional awd) and is the first of a family of GM products that will include the GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave and a Chevy to be named later.

While Enclave aims at the Acura MDX and Lexus RX range, Outlook's target is somewhat more affordable with the likes of Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander in its sights. If our experience with an option-laden top-level XR edition is any indication, Saturn has overshot its mark. At a price some 15 percent lower, it matched up well against an MDX also in our fleet recently. This is good because the Honda Pilot is due to be replaced soon, and for once GM is leading rather than trailing its moving target.

Like its stablemates, Outlook is bigger-longer, wider and heavier-than the Japanese-brand competition. Stretched across an expansive 118.9-inch wheelbase, it boasts a wide 67.28-inch track for an SUV-like stance. It's 200.7 inches long, about a foot longer than a Pilot, and a little more than 78 inches wide. The dimensions are put to good use with seating throughout for full-size adults: It accommodates either seven or eight (depending on the buyer's choice of a standard 60/40-split center bench or the $495 option of captain's chairs).

Saturn has the best access to the third row of any non-minivan in our experience, thanks to a fold-and-slide arrangement on the second row that really opens up the path to the spacious back row and incorporates memory that readily returns the second-row seat to its original position. It's manually operated (the same for either second-row seating option), with large, easily found levers and mechanisms that move with little effort. The one downside may be the obvious, minivan-like slides on the floor in front of the second row that detract from the otherwise luxurious look of the cabin.

Not only is it easy to get into, we'd gladly ride in that third row all day-if we wanted to watch a DVD on the optional entertainment system, the third row might be our first choice. Little wonder that GM is having second thoughts about its plan to derive a minivan from this platform-sliding doors would not improve access to the third row by much, unless you made the minivan bigger still.

At just less than 5000 pounds in awd form, Outlook may be as big as most families want or can afford to run in a world of uncertain gas prices. Propulsion comes from the same 3.6-liter variable-valve timing V6 that serves in the Aura sedan, coupled to the six-speed automatic. It serves up 270 hp and 248 lb-ft of torque in the $27,990 base XE model. Opt for the $30,290 XR and you get 275 hp and 251 lb-ft, thanks to a dual exhaust (awd models cost $2,000 more). Instead of the Aura's manual-shift arrangement with lever or paddles, Outlook has a simple button on the side of the console-mounted shift-lever knob that you can thumb to select shifts up or down-it works well for this application, in which the driver is likely to seek such control to adjust for terrain and load conditions rather than sporting intent.