A while ago I wrote about how I was involved in an accident when a Cadillac rear-ended my Jeep grand Cherokee. During Winter it is taking a long time here in Colorado to get an appointment at a body shop. So, yesterday it was finally my turn to drop off my car. Arrangements were made for a rental and Enterprise-Rent-A-Car was waiting for me at the body shop. I received a 2007 Saturn Vue SUV with hybrid technology. I have to say, I am not very impressed by this vehicle. First of all the Saturn really feels cheap inside. Cheap plastic, cheap design, cheap (lousy) seats - just not a comparison at all to the Grand Cherokee of mine (and that is not an very expensive or high-end vehicle itself). The difference is really dramatic in my opinion. So, once I was working myself through all the cheap plastic I was interested to see how a Hybrid would do. Going Green is the right thing to do and maybe this would motivate me to buy a Hybrid the next time a car buying opportunity comes around. I gotta say - I am (again) not impressed with the Saturn. Maybe it is the altitude? I live in Highlands Ranch, Colorado which is about 5,900 feet high. As a rule of thumb cars lose about 10% of their power due to the altitude. I don’t know if this car is good enough at sea-level, but it is under-motorized for Colorado for sure. Acceleration feels really slow - especially at speeds when you sometimes need to floor it to pass somebody. Putting the pedal to the metal here did not do anything - it was just slow. Once travel speed was reached it drives OK and at ~65 MPH it is doing, but getting there can be an issue.

So, I am not impressed by this Hybrid. I don’t know how other Hybrids - especially Toyota and Honda - feel like, but so far this would no really motivate me to buy a Hybrid. Maybe one of the new Diesels in a Jeep SUV will work better? I heard Diesels are becoming more clean and they are more fuel-efficient, too.