GM's overdue shot at imports.(News)

Byline: JOHN D. STOLL

The General's econo-box hopes never ran so high as in 1990. The new Saturn would ``give the American import buyer confidence in American products again,'' per its inaugural president.

Saturn wooed customers with knit-shirt, non-haggling sales reps and non-denting polymer panels. Since then, though, the entry-level benchmarks Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla have cycled through three models each. Same decade: Ford has gone from Escort to Focus; Mitsubishi from Mirage to Lancer; Dodge from Horizon/Omni to Neon; the Koreans from failing bottom-feeders to booming bottom-feeders. Meanwhile, the S Series has managed one reskin, horsepower bumps and a handful of content and structural upgrades. Essentially, Saturn's small car strategy borders on starvation.

Saturn vp of engineering Jim Ulrich spent 24 months creating the replacement for the original Saturn: Ion. He and his comrades aren't shy about proclaiming the importance of that two-year project. Seeing that the Ion precedes replacement of the (also aged) Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire, it's the General's best hope in the segment.

Saturn plopped the Ecotec 2.2-liter dohc inline four under the Ion's hood, familiar from L Series and Cavalier. The corporate 140-hp, 145-lb-ft Ecotec replaces Saturn's own 1.9-liter four, which gave the S either 100 hp/114 lb-ft (sohc) or 122 hp/122 lb-ft (dohc).

Along with a five-speed Getrag manual, Saturn offers an optional five-speed automatic for sedans (the competition is mostly one cog short) or a continuously variable transmission for coupes.

At first the sedan's five-speed automatic seemed like overkill, but after motoring in fourth at highway speeds, an additional upshift was welcome (the auto shifter slots ``l'' for low, ``i'' for fourth and ``d'' for fifth). ...