Besides it’s good looks, the Aura is noteworthy because it’s only offered with two V6s with a minimum of 224 horsesand automatic transmissions. There’s no standard 4-banger or stick. The Aura also received the top five-star rating from the federal government in frontal and side-impact crash tests.

Walkaround: The 2007 Saturn Aura is very attractive. It has a Saturn Sky-like front grille and headlights, with a European-styled rear deck. Built on the same front-wheel-drive platform as General Motors’ (GM) Opel Vectra sold in Europe and its Pontiac G6 sold here, it’s nearly 16 feet long bumper to bumper and 4.8 feet tall. That’s about an inch longer than the Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata, but nearly 2 inches narrower, allowing less shoulder and hip room in the front and rear seats.

Despite its longer length, the Aura’s 15.7-cubic-foot trunk is smaller than the Sonata’s 16.3, but larger than the Camry’s 15-cubic-foot space.

Interior: The Aura is offered in two trim levels —XE and XR. The XR includes upscale amenities such as leather seating surfaces, premium sound, exterior chrome-colored door handles and a larger the 252-horse V6.

The base Aura XE offers air conditioning, power windows and door locks, tilt and telescoping steering wheel, cruise control, remote entry, AM/FM stereo with CD/MP3 player and six speakers, basic floor mats, chrome-colored, exterior, side molding and 60/40 rear seatbacks that split and fold, standard. It even includes a tachometer — something GM deleted from some vehicles to cuts costs.

The Aura utilizes upscale-looking interior plastics and other materials. I found the audio, climate and other controls to be well arranged and easy to figure out and use. My Midnight blue test vehicle had very comfortable Morocco brown leather-appointed seats — quite a rich-looking, visually pleasing combination. It also had a matching leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. There’s also an attractive, textured ceiling material extending down the pillars alongside the windshield.

Rear-seat passenger windows go all the way down, but don’t get a pull-down armrest — even in the uplevel XR.

Standard safety features include four adjustable and lockable head restraints, front and side-mounted airbags and ceiling-mounted curtain airbags as well as traction control, but no head middle restraint in the Aura’s back seat.

Under The Hood: As noted, there are two V6s offered, and no 4-cylinder. The standard engine is 3.5-liter overhead valve design putting 224 horses to the highway with 220 lb-ft of torque at 4000 rpm. It’s married to an older, 4-speed automatic.

The other choice is a 3.6-liter, dual overhead cam engine with variable valve timing and 251 lb-ft of torque at 3200 rpm. It puts 252 ponies to the pavement and is coupled to a 6-speed automatic.

Fuel economy is rated at 20 mpg/city and 28 or 29 mpg/highway, depending on the engine.

Behind The Wheel: My test vehicle was equipped with the 3.6-liter V6, and I found it accelerated excellently, was quite smooth and felt nicely controlled. Traction control, part of standard stability control in my upscale XR model, kept a grip on the pavement during both aggressive startups as well as on some ice we were contending with during my test period.

Shifts from the Aura’s 6-speed automatic transmission were smooth and sure, and didn’t dampen performance. Braking provided by the ABS 4-wheel discs was adequate.

It handled well through all driving situations I experienced, and seemingly rolled over bumps with minimal impact felt inside the cabin. My test vehicle had standard 18-inch wheels, while 17-inchers are standard on the base Aura XE. In comparison, 16-inch wheels and tires are standard on the base Camry and Sonata.

Whines: Earlier Saturns had a reputation for a noisy ride, in part due to utilizing plastic body panels that didn’t insulate well against road racket. While the Aura doesn’t use those plastic panels and is much improved in ride quality and quietness, there is still a fair amount of road noise on some surfaces.

Bottom Line: Overall, this not only a pretty good vehicle, but a real value — especially when measured against the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, or even the Hyundai Sonata. My fully-loaded XR test vehicle stickered at $26,820. But it’s possible to buy the lower-priced XE with the 224-horse V6, and automatic, add significant options like a sunroof, power driver’s seat and upgraded audio with 240-watt amplifier, and still wind up with an MSRP only around $22,500. That’s less than the lowest-priced 2007 V6 Toyota Camry and $1,500 less than the starting retail price of a 2007 V6 Sonata. The Aura’s starting price was close to that of a 2007 Honda Accord — one with only a 166-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine and a 5-speed manual transmission.

Original Saturn owners loved their cars and were fiercely loyal. But 1990s GM cost cutting, boring design, mix and match assembly that made all GM cars the same underneath, ust with different skin, and GM beancounters who were clueless about what to do with such a beloved vehicle, chased them away. The Aura just may bring them back.