General Motors launched Saturn Ion in 2003 as a replacement for the S Series that had come to an end, but this is not a singulary model, since other designs accopanied this change on the market. Statistics indicate that, Saturn Ion satisfied users more than any other compact car sold on the American market, and this is the reason why it was sold for such a long time, till 2007 when it was replaced by Saturn Astra. This vehicle relied on the famous General Motors Delta platform and it had a standard DOHC Ecotec I4 engine that generated 140 horsepower.
The interior design of Saturn Ion had a very striking feature because of the instrument panel position, thus instead of being located behind the steering wheel as it happens for most other car concepts, it had a frontal position in the center of the dashboard. The Saturn Ion varieties available on the market included the coupe and the sedan. The modernity this car enjoyed was explainable by the gearbox that allowed room for five forward gears modified to fit to the regular manual gearbox. The fuel consume was positively influenced by such a gearbox structure with the potential to improve acceleration too. Moreover, with Saturn Ion, heat was no longer a problem for the planetary gear set.
General Motors upgraded the first Saturn Ion design according to the requirements of a superior more powerful Red Line issued in 2004. The model was imagined as a sportier car with a more powerful engine of 205 horsepower, a stiffer suspension and special valved shock absorbers; the LSJ, Ecotec engine was the only one used in the manufacturing of this Saturn Ion variant. 2004 also saw the launching of a limited Saturn Ion edition with upgrades both in outer and interior design. Even if it were more expensive the cosmetic look did matter for certain buyers. Only three color options were available: black onyx, chili pepper red and electric blue.
Until 2007, several improvements were made for the Saturn Ion engine power and cabin decorations. Some of the varieties were also discontinued because of various technical issues that made their reliability questionable: this was the case with the Aisin model. The bad publicity was generated from all sorts of materials published by disatisfied customers. General Motors announced an upgrade with the re-launched Saturn Ion in 2008, pictures of the new model even circulated on the Internet, but eventually the manufacturer dropped the concept and turned to a re-badging. And then Saturn Aura emerged.
