I was pleasantly surprised when I first got behind the wheel of the new Saturn L200. It was just like most other sports sedans, only different — after all, this was a Saturn and Saturn is known for small cars — not stylish sports sedans.

According to Jill Lajdziak, Saturn’s vice president of sales, service and marketing, the automaker, which was originally a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors (GM), never planned to build larger cars. “It was really our owners... they came back to us and said they wanted to stay with our brand... but they told us, `You don’t have something for me to grow into.’”

And Saturn, a company which had created a strong brand image by using folksy ads and courteous dealership personnel, wasn’t growing. 1998 sales were down nearly 20,000 units from the previous year and it was clear something needed to happen. So Saturn did what it’s always done — listened to its loyal cadre of owners.

That brought bigger Saturn’s — station wagons, a pre-production SUV that’s made the rounds of the nation’s auto shows, and a midsize sedan. Known as the L models, these new Saturn’s are stylish and roomier than before and even offer the first V6 engine under the hood of a Saturn.

These Saturn’s are also coming from somewhere other than the company’s main assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., taking over GM’s Wilmington, DE, factory — the same plant where the Chevy Chevette, Beretta, Corsica and Malibu used to be built.

The L series is based on the same platform used by the Opel Vectra in Europe. Since Opel is another GM unit there was a lot of collaboration between American and European designers.

The Americans set their sights on the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord as the cars to beat in the midsize segment. An Opel engineer took the Camry out on the test track expecting the typical European ride — firm suspension, sharp handling and tight steering — and immediately wound up off the track. He and his colleagues at Opel just couldn’t understand why the Camry was the best-selling vehicle in America. But after much re-engineering, the Opel platform and suspension were tweaked to accommodate the American ride.

The new Saturn L series sedans come in three trim levels — L100, L200 and 300 — as well as two trim levels for the wagon — LW200 and LW300.

Our LS1 test vehicle was nice, but nothing fancy — utilitarian would be a good word to describe it. It has everything you need without a lot of fancy bells and whistles. It’s not gimmicky or over-styled and keeps with Saturn’s overall image.

Inside, instrumentation is clear and easy to understand with simply marked gauges, dials and buttons. There’s nothing strange or difficult to understand. while new audio options provide the best sound ever available in a Saturn.

The nicely done front seats offer good support. They’re not bona fide sport seats but they feel good once you’re in them.

In the rear, seating is cozy, but not awkward, with 34.4 inches of rear legroom. That’s slightly less than the Malibu, Accord and Camry, while rear headroom equals the Camry and is more than the Accord and Malibu.

To overcome that European ride we talked about, the L series utilizes independent MacPherson struts up front and a multi-link rear suspension, with stabilizer bars front and rear. All Saturn’s L series cars also come with 15-inch tires.

That cushions the bumps, yet the European influence is still there in the handling. I didn’t feel the same kind of isolation from the road as in the Camry and although the power rack-and-pinion steering is a bit anesthetized, the softness isn’t as pronounced as in the Camry. Front-wheel-drive cars, especially those from GM, are all prone to understeer in the corners, but the Saturn has moderated that somewhat.

The L200 offered a quiet ride, and the smooth, 3.0-liter 54-degree DOHC V6, which produces 182 horses gave our LS1 that true sports sedan feel — especially on 2-lane blacktops. There’s no stick available with the new six cylinder. Only a 4-speed automatic is offered. The 5-speed manual is reserved for the 4-banger.

Saturn buyers put a high priority on safety — behind only Volvo and Saab buyers. Child seat tether spots are provided for the back seat, but surprisingly, no side airbags, shoulder belt or head restraint for the middle rear-seat passenger are offered.

Whines: One weird thing was how the defroster vents near the windshield reflect up onto the windshield. It was quite distracting.

Kudos: The Saturn L series cars have the road cushioning typical of GM, the quiet ride and cleanly laid-out interior of a Camry, and the road manners of an Accord.

Bottom Line: Smartly styled, well built and practical. A car that combines the best of Europe, Japan and America at a price that’s competitive with the dozens of other midsize cars on the U.S. market.