2007 Saturn Aura XR: Oh Schmidt!

some reviews just like to find fault with anything. and the sissy handles. geez really. people still reach for them? if you are driving that hard on city streets you need to re-examine your skills

opfreak is GM's target buyer.
These buyers do exist, as long as they get their midsized sedan for $15,000.
Rear seat armrests are for wusses.
Rear seat cup holders that don't spill drinks when the accelerator pedal is depressed are for people who have some kind of drinking problem.
Quit drinking so much.
 
Come to the GM Way.
P.S. People with long legs are also abnormal. Consider surgical correction to drive a proper GM vehicle.

Oh "schmidt" Handles are very important. I notice that the older people who ride in my car use them to help get in and out and while i drive to keep themselves in their seat. It also happens to be the first thing my mum reaches for when i pick her up at the airport.

I'm curious about the "Oh Schmidt" Handles also. ( I like that name as well.)
How do they get the handle and the curtain airbag in the same place?
It's pretty cool when you think about it.

Don't forget the MINI Cooper Moto-Go Grip! :o)
 
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&b=0&vid=119597&gid=136314

Funny...when i first test drove the AURA I noticed the lack of handles and said "wow, it doesn't have those stupid ugly handles." I guess I'm in the minority on this one. I don't think I've ever used those handles in any car nor did anyone in my previous car which had them. Are you people really driving so fast you need handles for your passengers to hold on to in addition to the seat belt? Geesh. The rear armrest would be nice (so would a center rear headrest). It is odd they left that out but keep the rear seat audio standard on the XR. Edmunds, why have you not critiqued the rear seat audio yet? It works so strangely (but effectively) that it's a great topic for one of these blogs.
 
billt9 - I'm 6'2" and fit comfortably in the AURA. Not sure what your comment about long legs means...there is plenty of room.

mjd1123,
  
the handles assist when you are getting out of the car, and sometimes, I just like to hold on to them for fun.
They don't have to be there, but their a nice addition.

Heavy-set people use the assist handles to help themselves adjust in the seat. For some people, it's easier to pull up than to push up against the armrest. The handles don't have to be ugly. Many car companies have retractable handles that retract against the roof when not in use. They are usually dampened so they don't snap, lending a more luxurious feel to the car (like my seven year old Altima).
  
GM did make assist handles at one time, but they were the hard fixed type (as in my father's Deville), and are not really classy. In fact when I ride in his car, I have to be careful not to knock my head off of them. Maybe that's why they got rid of them.

billt9
 
i dont know where you are coming from. But isn't also small minded to think these handles are a requirement. the rear armrest. hmm maybe. The handles. I honestly could car less. I dont belive I ever used one. nor would I.
 
And while I know cars with side airbags have them. Those same cars have warnings about not having your arm by the window. or sticking out the window in case the air bag goes off. seems like not having the handle their, is really a safety feature that will not encourage arms to hang out where they shouldn't

"Edmunds, why have you not critiqued the rear seat audio yet? It works so strangely (but effectively) that it's a great topic for one of these blogs."
  
There was a blog entry about the partially-assed rear-seat audio controls:
  
http://66.160.188.111/?128@@.ee9d9ef

I have lower back problem. couple of times a year, my back gets so terrible, it's hard to sit still or even laying down is hard. so when my back hurts, having grab handles(or oh schmitz handle) is tremendously helpful.
 
Even when I drive, first thing i reach for when getting out of a car is grab handle. (after turning engine off, and undoing seatbelt, of course) and when I am a passenger, I like to hold onto grab handle to relieve pressure on my back from time to time even though driver may not necessarily drive fast.
 
You can't say this is isolated case for people like me, when statistic tells you that one in 10 people experience chronic back pain, and at any given time, 1 in 3 working people are experiencing back pain.
 
and older people need every assistance they can get.
(a gentleman I saw at gas station few weeks ago, getting out of his corvette Z06 took him literally few minutes.)
 
GM is ..how should I say this.. the word. starts with S and ends with tupid, for not making grab handle standard. it's just a lousy cost cutting, when more and more pecentage of populations are becoming seniors, too.

I use the grab handles. Not only when the driver is driving aggressively or when getting in and out of the car, I also grab on it at random moments ( as a passenger). Sometimes I just dont know where to put my hand at so i just grab on the handle.

Ah, as opfreak says, NO grab handles is a safety feature!
Toyota, Honda, and Nissan need to take note, and bring their cars up to date on safety! It's a shame how the competitors are so poor on safety.
 
mjd1123, I was trying to make a stupid remark on the steering column destroying the gauge trim for tall people. But apparently the way I wrote it was too obscure.

I smacked my head on the "ohmygawd" (my name for them) handles on my girlfriend's Corolla all the time, which is odd as I'm a pretty short guy. I wish that car had the retractable handles, and I wish the Aura and Malibu did too, in addition to a rear center armrest. Interestingly enough, the new Pontiacs have ohmygawd handles for the passenger down by the center stack. They may not be good for pulling yourself in or out of the car, but since Pontiac is supposed to be GM's excitement division (believable in the Solstice and G8) they still make sense.

I never use the grab handles in cars that have them but the Aura should have them just to avoid blog comments like this one. The epsilon cars don't have grab handles for some reason. I wasn't aware the old malibu had them- I need to check that out. The W platform cars all have grab handles and side curtain airbags. Same goes for STS, Lucerne and DTS.
 
I think center armrests are being removed or made optional on more and more vehicles. The Rogue doesnt have one but somehow the crack reviewers at Edmunds and other places didn't notice that. The 3 didnt have one when it came out but one was added later on.
 
Apparently GM didnt want to redesign the seat that was already designed for the G6 and thus there is no armrest in the backseat. Makes no sense to me at all but I don't ride back there so its not a major deal. They did add a grab handle to the Malibu trunk lid which was one thing missing from the Aura.
 
If people are really saying that grab handles are needed for older people I would have to say those buyers are more likely to get a Lacrosse, Impala or Lucerne- all have grab handles.

whats next. Saturn Aura... If it was only a toyota we could like it.

Let's be real. Grab handles and rear seat armrests are standard fare in all the cars against which GM hope to compete with the Saturn Aura. Not having these relatively inexpensive features is a problem. It's not huge, but with GM's reputation being what it is, it's a significant shortcoming. It's not like the Aura otherwise stands head and shoulders above its competition. Nobody is going to choose the Aura for NOT having them, but some might pass on the Aura for not having them--if they believe it to be a sign of other potential deficiencies.

not a big deal to not have them, but definitely looking cheap for GM.
 
they are just nice convenience features that sometimes get overlooked. would i not buy a car because they didn't have the handles or the center rear arm rest....no...but it's one of those things that 1 year into owning the car, you just get surprised something so simple isn't there

maybe its a gm thing, my sunfire doesn't have sissy handles as well.
 
in fact I didn't even notice until this post made me look. and thats after 8 years of owning the thing.

We did mention the lack of a rear center armrest in the Rogue. It was in the Inside Line four-car comparo and in the Edmunds.com review of the car.
http://www.edmunds.com/nissan/rogue/2008/review.html

opfreak....don't have to knock it just because you don't use it....
 
if you had side airbags and got into a front accident, would you say the side airbags are useless just because you didn't use it?

The Aura does not have grab handles because of the side curtain airbags. Its an engineering flaw so do not look for them to be added on this generation. Obviously the issue wasn't discovered until it was too late to make adjustments so that booth features could coexist.

langjie, Sorry but knocking something for missing, what imho is in gernal a useless feature. is point less.
 
Heck, they knocked the aura for having remote start. Now its bad its lacking a handle.
 
OMG having remote start bad
OMG NOT having a handle BAD.
 
maybe we need gm to make 300k bentlies with every feature. might as well come with its own driver. OMG the staurn doesn't have its own driver. What a terrible car.

opfreak, I noted that you stated you owned a Sunfire for eight years.
I'm sorry.
As far as grab handles, they are on every vehicle I own and I did not give them much thought. I know my wife appreciates the handles. Surprised that GM does not include them.
My midsize car has rear passenger armrest and grab handles for both driver and passenger. It is not a GM.

i respect your honest opinion, but in this case, i think it can be knocked for not being there. they had them before...
 
i did disagree with the autostart blog though...the blogger had the same mentality as you and was knocking something that, in his "honest opinion is in gernal a useless feature, is point less"

"Not having these relatively inexpensive features is a problem."
 
same thing I say about the Accord and camry and altima having gooseneck trunk hinges but most poeple say thats a minor issue not worth mentioning. Same thing i say about accord lacking manumatic and split folding rear seat. I cant find anyone who cares. Same thiing I say about Camry SE which lacks split folding rear seat and auto climate control. Same thing I say about any cars in this class that dont come with remote start or at least offer it. None of these cars is perfectly equipped.
 
And this is not a GM thing, its a platform thing. Other Gm cars do have grab handles as I noted earlier. GM's best selling car is the Impala and it has the handles AND and armrest.
 
jriz,
 
glad to hear it. I didnt read that comparo since I wasnt interested in those vehicle. No other reviews I read mentioned the lack of armrest. Not sure if Rogue has grab handles or not.

grab handles should be included since they are expected and are a low cost item. We can all agree on that. I wouldnt go so far as to say the car isnt worthy of consideration because it lacks these items.
 
My beef with the press is that they often are quick to find any omissions on domestic vehicles but similar minor omissions on imports dont get mentioned. This is yet further proof. Out of all the reviews I read on the Accord I think one or two criticized it for having trunk hinges like my parents' '86 Chevy had. Even the Cobalt has struts. I dont even think all of the Asian cars in this class have stuts to hold up the hood.

1487, the Fit was beat to hell for not having a passenger side vanity mirror so its not only the domestics that the press is picking on. Every vehicle has advantages and disadvantages, some of course are liked some are not. I still think the Aura is a creditable entry in this segement, just dont go around corners aggressively with passengers.....wink!

My 1995 Civic Ex sedan has struts for the trunk, so yes Honda SHOULD have included this, especiallly in a car like the Accord.

I think the gooseneck hinge thing has been mentioned in a past Azera blog.
http://66.160.188.111/roadtests/1461
Supposedly, the reason the Accord and Camry don't have the strut-type hinges is because they allow the trunklid to pop higher then with a strut-type hinge.

"Supposedly, the reason the Accord and Camry don't have the strut-type hinges is because they allow the trunklid to pop higher then with a strut-type hinge."
 
I don't think anyone at Honda or Toyota ever said that. its just speculation. The real reason is cost cutting. Most p[remium cars (if not all) use struts so if BMW and Lexus and MB can figure out how to make it work than I'm sure Accord engineers can as well.

1487....i really don't care for a strut-type hinge for my trunk (just my opinion)...i'd much rather have that strut for the hood of the car instead!

1487,
 
That's why I said supposedly.

langie,
 
what do you have to lose by having struts? I dont get that at all. If you need to load something horizontal that runs the width of your trunk hinges can be a problem. I see no advantage to them.
 
does the altima have a hood strut?

no, altima doesn't have a hood strut, i would like to have one though. but i don't really like struts on the trunk because you need to use extra force to close it. if you just have something spring loaded (pretty much the older style), then the force you use to close the trunk is more linear whereas with the strut, the force needed isn't the same throughout the motion
 
but pretty much that's the reasoning. not a deal breaker for me if a car had one over the other, just my preference
 
with a hood though, i think there is an advantage with the strut because you don't have that stupid arm that you need to fumble into the hole and also not having that arm allows you to work easier under the hood. wish my car had it.

When filling up the washer fluid on my 07 camry a few weeks ago, I was surprized that they had struts for the front hood. I thought it was funny they used them on the front and not the back... but it was nice not having to search for the dirty stick to hold up the hood.
 
Regarding handles, at minimum all cars should have them on the passanger side. My dad is an amputee and needs the handle to pull himself in. If we had a car or a rental car without it, it would be pretty difficult.

Grab handles are very useful in any vehicle,I have 5 in my 2002 4runner, The company owned 2002 silverado work truck that i drive has 3.

since I am usually the driver and not a passenger I wouldn't use the grab handles anyway. I do agree they would be helpful to an elderly person who has trouble getting out of a car.

1487, grab handles only for the elderly?