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I owned one of these. It was legit a fantastic car. Had a random guy waiting by it in the parking lot of the mall make me an offer I couldn't refuse for it. Sent me a cashiers check overnight and sent a car hauler to pick it up. The guy was visiting family and apparently had been hunting for one in pristine condition for a while. It was, odd. He way overpaid and yet I still regret selling it.
So glad you finally got around to doing the redline! I daily drive my 07. Most people either have no clue or couldn't care less, but every once in a while I run into someone who knows what it is and it puts a smile on their face every time. Not easy to come by where I'm from, only ever seen 1 other redline and I thought for a second my car got stolen 😂
I ordered a black comp 06 from the dealer, and ended up not buying it.... Seen that one once, and I seen a blue 04 once, which made me find my 04 blue. So I've seen 2 others in 18 years, lol.
@@shannacollins4741 i wanted one my self, but A) i couldn't fine one at the time and B) the insurance rates where double that of the redline lol to many people wrecking them i guess 🤔
I owned one of these, loved it , Supercharger sounded great , factory exhaust sounded great , the seat were great . I was a big Saturn fan , owned 2 Sc2, 1 Ion redline , and 1 Saturn Vue . I even went to the Saturn home coming drove from Toronto to Springhill Tennessee.
I miss my redline! I had a FBO one pushing 310HP it was a absolute rocket! It didn’t have the high rise wing so it looked like traffic and it was fun because I use too mess with everyone in it!
Back when domestic companies looked at the late 90s civi Si popularity and said, “we can do this better”… we had this Saturn, cobalt ss, srt-4 neon, A LOT faster than the Japanese sub compacts
It's refreshing seeing the positive comments on the Saturn. Both my wife and I were involved in the supply end of Saturn production for many years. GM actually did a good thing with the Saturn, building a brand from nothing that was competitive with the Asian products of the day. Quality was a true focus when started and philosophy was to be truly different from the rest of GM. Research the success of the initial Saturn homecoming and the brand loyalty that was developed that early in its life. Unfortunately, by the time that the Ion was released, GM was ratcheting down on the spending and was focused on making Saturn into just another GM division. Products that were intended for Saturn were moved to other divisions and the products that were sold as Saturns were rebadged Opels or other GM cars. The uniqueness of the first generation was gone with the exception of the Saturn Sky and Redline series. It was probably some of the most enjoyable times in our careers seeing it literally rise from an old horse plantation to one of the most modern production facilities in the country. It is great to see Saturns still on the road as daily drivers in our area.
I still own and collect saturns with my girlfriend! We absolutely love them! I myself saved a sl1 and a sc1 from the scrapyard and built a ion redline. I have a vue redline and a sky redline as well
The only problem was in 25 years Saturn never and I mean never turned 1 penny of profit. They lost money on every single Saturn ever made. It was a poorly executed idea made from hodgepodge parts and 99% were ugly and forgettable. It was actually taught in my business classes as one of the biggest modern business failures.
I’m glad to see ZZP is still out there. I had a handful of their parts and tunes on my old GTP’s over 10yrs ago. Miss those cars! Always wanted to do an L67 swap on a Fiero.
"Saturn was carbon copies of Chevies and Pontiacs". Actually, it was the reverse. Saturn had been using the GM Delta Platform and the Ecotec for 2 years before the Cobalt, G5/G4/Persuit and HHR. The Supercharged Ecotec was used in the Saturn Ion Redline for more than a year before the Cobalt SS/HHR SS. The "Redline" series of Saturn vehicles was the precursor to the Chevy SS line of vehicles (don't forget the Saturn Vue Redline too). As a Saturn SL1 owner (SOHC), I had no issue embarrassing Civics, Cavalier/Sunfires, Neons etc. Most cars now a days owe a lot to Saturn (I could go on for days to be honest). Great content as always.
I completely forgot about the suicide doors. That was my favorite feature on that car when it came out. Cool to see people doing some tasteful mods to them.
Great feature especially if you have a couple kids. Makes car seats much easier to get in and out. I have owned one since 2020. They have their issues but if you fix them before they break they last a while. Mainly they suffered from timing chain assembly issues. Jumped timing is the number 1 killer of these cars
Hey man, I got one of these cars now. I ordered one in 06, needed a cheap car until it arrived, bought a 93 Impreza for $600. A week later I took my deposit back and kept the Impreza. The daily Forester I just picked up is Subaru #15. Restoring my entire suspension and braking systems over now on my 08 Legacy 3.0R which came with the spec b goodies. I'm a Subaru guy thru and thru now.
I just bought a 05 Ion QC 5speed 164k. I drove it on a trip from coastal NC to Columbus MS. 80 mph a lot of the way, there and back, have driven her 4k miles so far, zero oil usage, zero timing chain noise, cool little car. Wasn't sure about the centered instrument cluster, but kinda like it the more I drive it. Nice review. 👍👍
My 03 QC was my first new car, loved it, had it for 14 years, original battery lasted 11.5 years, always sat outside, sold it for 2500 with 165k and the original clutch, although not without some maintenance I had to do on it.
@@kevingarofalo8493 That's cool , my 08 G5 was a great little car , I think the timing chain broke so it killed the enging at 200k , it was a great little car too , my ion replaced it , so far so good. I may go ahead and put a new timing chain in it. A little preventive maintenance. I think the Saturn is quieter than the G5 was. Putting a sound system in the ion too. Cool little cars.
I heard about these cars many years ago and was intrigued. But then I realized I liked different build quality at that time. Now when I see my brothers ion 4 door auto, it’s just reliable and really easy to use for Doordash and such. Cheap as can be! Respect for Saturn.
Yeah, it was nice to see what these cars stood for at the time. However, with the typical fashion of GM, they don’t realize the value of what they have and decide to axe such a brand. May Saab, Pontiac, Saturn, Oldsmobile, etc. all rest easy. Such nice cars they were at the time and still are. Just always has me thinking what all of those brands could’ve been under the right hands.
I drove a non redline 5 speed for a few years and once you get used to the center gauge I found it a lot easier to check quickly than the normal behind the steering wheel. It's not as big a focal change and you're not peering through the steering wheel, so even with a slight shift to the right it's less distracting. I think it's a better design that never took off because it's just not what people were used to so it turned them off. Kind of like how we have all these fake shifting cvts now because people are used to feeling shift points.
Finally as a Ion Redline owner I’ve been waiting for a long time for this. Hopefully you can review a SRT4 caliber and CTS V1 because I also own those rare cars too
U wana talk about rare. I worked at a Pontiac dealer right at the end and we had 1 solstice gxp hard top. Only one I have ever seen in the flesh. Guy told me when he was dropping it off to take a good look id never see a nother one. Also when i worked at a ford dealer we got a 13 fusion with a 6 speed manual once by mistake a mess up in the ordering. Ford took it back but cant be to many of them around.
@@robertstone9988 solstice GXP is rare but not as rare as the 3 cars I mentioned. Not too sure about a 6 speed fusion. Dodge made only 5564 SRT4 calibers. GM only made 5855 Ion Redlines and 7000 pulse CTS V1s.
It's crazy to think how far we have come in car design. I had a 2005 orange blast SRT-4 when it first came out. Lol I had a razor phone back then haha.
I daily my ‘05 Ion Redline. Had it since ‘08, 30k miles to now 150k miles. Been a fun little car. Have to agree about the gauge cluster, wish the tack was on the left side closer to view and temp/warning lights on the right.
I owned a blue 2004 Saturn RL that got totalled and then a silver 2005 Saturn RL back in the day. The 2005 RL I made I think if I remember right 260 whp or 270whp, from PA drove to Maryland to get it tuned. Some guy had a laptop with hptuners and had a few runs on the highway. 2.8 zzperformance pulley 60lb injectors pacesetter headers, cut the air intake box and had a big fat k&n filter. I really loved that car; I remember that crazy wheel hop, had to buy that brace thing, those gears were long and beautiful and 3rd was the best. One thing was the oem clutch was horrible and it used to get hot that it wouldn't work till you let it cool down, eventually Saturn replaced it with a Saab clutch, yup the upgrade one clutch was from a Saab. I think I got it from GM crate for like $180.00..... memories.
I had the redline and my cousin had the SS. I think the goofy suicide doors and the gauge cluster being in the middle of the dash gave the redline much more character. I wish id never have sold it. currently looking for another to get into. by far the most fun I've had in a street car
Same I had the zzp stage 3 w 2.8 pulley running like 20psi miss that car I’m looking at getting another 06 with 65k original miles on it but the guy wants 6k!!
Nice to see a video giving some love to the R/L! I've wanted one since they came out, took me 14 years to find a low mileage mint condition 04 that I had to drive 5 hours for and over paid lol! It did come with a van full of parts though including a low mileage LSD transmission that I swapped in when I changed the clutch. Super fun weekend car, can't wait to track it one day!
I owned a 2007 Ion Redline in Red with the Competition package. It came with an LSD and the gun metal 17 inch rims . I purchased it new and at the time Saturn dealers were offering stage 1 and Stage 2 packages. I purchased both packages. Stage 1 had a factory Tune and 45 pound injectors. Stage 2 came with a 2.5 pulley kit plus it raised redline to 7000 rpms. On top of that I also installed the extrude honed port header with a straight 2.5 exhaust....That car was insane..1s gear was nearly useless, but Once you got grip....Watch out! In a straight it would destroy you...With all panels made of plastic..car weighed under 2700 pounds...Subarus WRX, Nissan 350 were NO match. STI and Neon SRT4 were trickier..But if i got a good launch, it was mine to win.....however all.those mods.came with a price. Driveability went to shit...At the light with a small pulley kit messed with the A/C. Car revved kind of rough. At 45,000 miles the Header Cracked. Thank god I purchased the extemded warranty at dealer. Since I purchased and installed the header at a saturn dealer and it was a GM Performance part, They had to.honor it (not before trying to weasle themselves out of it. Then the head gasket started leaking. It was also covered..By the time it was 2010, Car had almost 75000 miles from highway driving in FL and.was time to go. Still...Lots of fun memories. My favorite: Guy in a 350 with his GF started revving next to me at the light..I was like...nah not today...I was tired...but then the guy looked like a real douch..so fuck it...red to green...got an awesome launch...killed.him by like 2 cars. We get to the next light..guy goes..WTF you have.in.there..I just told him....Its a Saturn baby..His Girlfriend started laughing...He gave me one of.those half assed smile and went his way....Good times!
Had one as my first car. Got it for $2000 in 2017 with 136k miles. Interior felt awful with the hard plastic but the seats were nice. My 15-16 year old self had an absolute ball driving it 🤙🤙
These and the Cobalt ss are a lot of car for a 15-16 year old lol. But they are a great performance car to learn on. These were too new when I was 15-16, and the most powerful cars we had in our school were the 93-02 F-body camaros and Trans-ams. One kid saved up for a WS-6 for senior year. And yeah, the interiors of Coblats and Ions are trash, but you over look that because of their potential. I miss my Cobalt SS so much.
Much better than Honda's do generally at least. Not sure why every civic etc I look at has rotted seats and stained interior. Youll see a few balts like that but most of them are clean, even the dirty seat ones don't rip after all that slobbery. *edit, honda's from the late 90s-2010. They got much better after 2012.
I'm in WA state......was a parts manager at the Saturn dealership from 2000-2002. Wish I'd have paid more attention to redline stuff back then. I've been looking for one of these for a few years locally and have had no luck.
I had one for like two weeks while I worked on a few things to flip it. Made a few hundred bucks and got to rip on it for a bit. It’s pretty quick and you’d never expect it from the looks of it.
Great review, David. A lot of angles and it really brought me back to when I had a GReddy exhaust on my S200. It was so much fun! Picking up people at the airport was always fun. I’d always tell ‘em, just listen for me. 😅 Netsky, Goldie, John B, Reid Speed, Rusko, Marcus Intalex. We all had a blast!
Definitely the ion redline for me over the cobalt SS. Both great cars but, the Saturn is just quirky and different. I'm partial still to the sc/sl models though because that little 1.9 dohc was just flat out reliable and got killer fuel mileage. I had a 91 sc2 with a 2001 engine swap(did NOT fit well and was missing an important engine mount) and I drove that thing to work for 2 months with a broken slave cylinder and having to shift using pliers on the shift cable lol. Had to start in gear and float it up/down shifts, also while holding the shifter in the correct gate area and making it shift by pulling and pushing the cable with pliers lmao 🤦. I worked at Cadillac at the time and once or twice a week a couple of other mechanics would come look at how it was driven because they wouldn't believe it when someone told them how I had to drive it. (Sorry for the book here). I just thought you mind find it as hilarious as we did. Hey when your poor, you gotta do what you gotta do. Matco got most of my paycheck for about a year 👌
I remember driving my Camaro to work at 18yrs old in the 90's to the shop I worked at w 2 pairs of vice grips for a steering wheel cause I was waiting on a grant adapter. Got a few stares.... good times lol
I picked up a cobalt ss sedan in 2010, new off the lot. Neighbor had an ion redline. We had entirely too much fun wrenching and working on our little rockets
I have always loved the Ion Redline. I would take it in a heart beat over the Cobalt. The Saturn was the first one designed that they then converted into the Cobalt SS.
I had a Saturn SC2 that was really fun to drive. It was a better but I stripped everything out of it to make it as light as possible. Then I did a basic upgrade to the suspension and added some performance to the engine. It was a pretty quick car and really fun driving the highways in Northern Ontario
Those SC2's were DOHC 150hp package in a car that didn't weigh a whole lot at all, those things moved! Kind of like the first-gen Dodge Neon R/T 2 door, DOHC 160 HP, 5 speed, those things were actually faster than the Civic Si at the time.
Both are nice, but the SS edges it out for me. Such an underrated and rad FWD performance car it is. Everyone loves to rave about JDM’s finest and while those cars are good, the value for which the Cobalt SS played at hung out with cars 2-3x as much. IIRC, it was the fastest FWD around VIR when tested by Car and Driver. Such Wonderful motors!
I purchased a 2007 Red Saturn Redline with The Competition package that brought The LSD, Carbon Black wheels, the big ass wing, Adjustable Tree light tachometer with adjustable shift points etc. But for once I wanted to go all in. At the time, Saturn dealers sold the Stage 1 and Stage 2 kits. Stage 1 had an ECU flash, Stage 2 brought a smaller pulley, More poweful injectors and a more aggresive tune with a slight higher rev limiter. I also went nuts and put the Extrude honed Manifold Header and a 3 inch catback custom made with magnaflow muffler. And yes all this was installed AT the dealer which meant I had warranty. The car was insane. 1st gear was nearly useless. Insane amount of wheelspin so you had to modulate it.very carefully. The materials said that Stage 2 would give me 255 hp and about 280 pounds of torque. All i can say is that a lot of cars liked to screw with me, and a lot of drivers after getting their ass handed to them went like: What the hell is that??? I always loved responding: Its just A Saturn.baby. I own that.vehicle for 3 years as and drove the hell out of it in FL. About almost 80,000 miles. The modifications took a toll on the car (thats why I had all done at dealer) The A/C at stop would not work well because of the pulley. The iddle was pretty rough. The headers failed once. The dealer where I moved to after purchasing the car tried to weasel out of it until i showed them all the info in paper and black and white. Replaced it but also the gasket seals started leaking. They had to end up putting a new head and new gaskets. Also check engine lights used to go off all the time. But I would not change anything. Had the joy of driving a very rare car. Modded very high with warranty and driven a lot. I have owned Focus SVT, Heavily modded ZETEC Focus, Mustang GT, VW GTI, and These days I drive a Ford Fiesta ST also modded. I think I may hang on to the ST and keep as toy.
I worked at a Saturn dealer when these came out. I stayed late to help bring the cars onto the lot, when the first sky red line and ion showed up we immediately raced them on the back of the lot
My redline makes 260whp on 93, has 210k miles on stock longblock, trans, clutch, etc. Been pullied and tuned/bolt ons since 100k miles. There are lsj engined cars with similar miles to mine making twice the power on stock longblocks. With proper maintenance and care (which many of these cars did not get) and timing chain replacements, the LSJ engine is extremely reliable, probably the only endgine that is more so in this class is the K series.
Awesome you finally got a good one to review! I miss mine. Had it for about 8 years and had to sell it in 2020. Hope you had a good time with it. These are total sleepers and make even more power turbo swapped. I Hope to buy another one in the future. To bad saturn was shut down by gm. They should have lived on and continued to make great affordable cars.
I own a cobalt ss/sc.. The cobalt ss also had a Recaro seat option. The first cobalt ss's had the 4 post steering wheel, then they switched to the corvette wheel. The good thing about the SC is the stop and go traffic races.....1st and 2nd are brutal. You should have hit the Rev limiter in 1st and 2nd....it's a TVS which is different than the Eaton m62....it's more top end peak.
My old Cobalt SS S/C had the Recaro's, they were so damn comfortable when they had no right to be. They were so nice on Roadtrips. And they held you in on the twisties
These are hard as hell to find in a clean example these days. I really miss the early to mid 2000's tuner platforms all the brands were doing. SRT4, Redline, cobalt SS, k20 Si's... I would love to have a clean Mazdaspeed Protege...also rare these days
Same with the Cobalts. If I get another Cobalt, I'm probably going to have to restore it. Same with these. But back in th early 2010s, you could get clean ones with not much looking
Absolutely! The heyday of "cheap/fun" American cars. Don't forget the Toyota XRS 2ZZ cars, including the Pontiac Vibe GT. Not as fast as the SRT4s and SSs but that 8000rpm redline was a beauty
I got a friend who has one and he swears by them. Only dude I know who has one, they are cool cars and it sounds pretty good tbh. I've seen Cobalt SS, but these are pretty cool
I like how there is no mention of the aftermarket Supercharger TVS1320 on that bad boy. I am sure that thing is running straight with all kinds of mods to the suspension, and perhaps aftermarket engine/transmission mounts. Id love to buy a redline. I look them up all the time, but I cannot find one... ever.
Very good review on the Ion red line and cobalt ss. You should definitely do a review on a HHR SS next. I have a stock one in the Atlanta area if needed.
My sister in law owned it and had NO IDEA it was supercharged let alone even cared, until the pulley started to whine real bad and she said she had a whine from the engine. That was also the 1st time i ever seen or heard of a supercharged saturn ...
I owned a 2004 ion 3 got it for 2k with 260k miles on it. Man that car was in remarkable shape especially the engine. Didnt burn oil got 34-35mpgon highway and 29-30 city. It was a slow car but I was suprised how well it ran with the miles it had. I traded it in though. I want a redline lol
I'd have to go with the Saturn. I've owned a Saturn Ion sedan and my girlfriend had a Cobalt a couple years back also. I like the layout of the Ions dash alot more then the Cobalt sedan. Plus, the Ion Redline looks more like a sportier car then the SS.
When I was in highschool in the late 90's a friend of mine parents bought her an 88 or 89 factory model 4 cylinder supercharged 4 door Nissan stanza 5 speed. That car was a blast to drive for what it was.
Owned an ‘04 Ion Redline and man, that car was a riot. Took the wing off and nobody had any clue how quick it was. Could spin the tires in third gear with all the torque it made and the best part was slaughtering GTI’s, mustangs, WRX’s and Civics. Unfortunately my supercharger blew and needed an engine rebuild at 34,000 miles so I had to sell it. Totally underrated car back in the mid ‘00’s!
Nice intro as always, and I enjoyed learning about such a quirky anonymous fwd performance coupe that sits so quietly under the car enthusiast radar, ty for this quality review 👏
@2:05 There was actually 3 different Cobalt SS variations. The 2.0L supercharged LSJ, the 2.0L turbocharged LNF (like the red one you reviewed previously) and the naturally aspirated 2.4L LE5. The "high output" LE5 engine was also what came standard in the base Solstice/Sky (whereas the GXP/Redline models used the turbocharged LNF engines).
Well, that Saturn center gauge pod, I found, isn't actually so hard to adjust to, at all, especially considering that if you aren't tall, sometimes the steering wheel can clip your view in regular spots. My friend had an Ion3 with the 5-speed and their kinda vteckey thing, it was OK, and one of the few manual options she could get at the time. I think the REdllines are OK but getting kinda scarce/worn out.
PLEASE! Do a saturn SKY Redline (or Solstice GXP)! I know you've done a base Solstice but it's not the same. I have an 08 Redline 5MT that I'd love for you to drive! 🙂
I have owned my 2006 Ion Redline with Comp Package since 2005. Bought it new and been daily driving it to this day. Great car lots of fun and greet performance!
I do not think it had much to do with Ion. HHR is considered one of the worst car’s of the 2000’s, it’s why you don’t see them on the road anymore. More similar to the PT cruiser, similarly terrible car.
I had a Redline. Bought it for a steal of a deal, still remember paying 4k at 40k miles. The owner regretted selling it after a few weeks, he was non-stop was haggling me and after only 2 months he bought it back from me. Quick little unit, made some good memories racing friends in it for the short time I had with it.
Love it! I really like the ecotec engines in these Cobalts and IONs. I bought a 2004 Cavalier new off the lot in 04. It had the factory body kit and was white with grey racing stripes. I used to joke that them damn racing stripes would get me in trouble, cause all these Hondas wanted to race me. Lol. I ended up buying a 13 Genesis coupe rspec in 2013, modded it to my liking, but I still have my Cavalier (143k), and she's been solid. I would have loved to thrown the Eaton supercharger on its 2.2 ecotec. Maybe I'll still do it just to see. Good vid
I’m not sure how much it would cost but there was a cavalier at my local drag strip back in the day that had a 3800 supercharged swap from a Grand Prix GTP or one of those cars and it would hurt feelings all night
@@dirtybirddog1579 Wow. Yeah , I'm putting most of my $$ in my Genesis coupe, but I'd be interested to see if those same superchargers in the Cobalt / Ion, would work in my 2.2 ecotec. I'm assuming it would.
@@godzilla7391 I’m pretty sure it’s an Eaton M90 like what was on the Thunderbird SuperCoupe. Most applications I’ve seen have been v6’s but I figure there’s gotta be a way. Either way, happy modding!
@@ezraa7777 bolts on yes, handle it no..the rods in the L61 are the weak points..with the piston right behind it. Redo the guts and do some headwork (port/polish etc) and you can have reliable power. Can probably get it done for $1k to $1.5k diy of course. If you pay a shop to do it then you're into the bend-over price range
I owned the colbalt ss NA and I can say even tho it wasn't turbo or supercharged. It was still an extremely fun car to learn stick in and beat up a bit. I even jumped the thing (accidentally) going like 55mph. Snapped all the springs and the shocks were leaking. But I had a blast driving the colbalt. It'll forever be my first car.
The Cobalt SS is definitely better known than the Ion RL. The Ion was made from 2003-07 whereas the Cobalt SS went into production for the 2005 model year. I bought a brand new 07 Ion RL with the competition package on 10/31/06. I absolutely loved to drive that car. It ended up becoming a project after a mystery issue developed in the engine/fuel system, then it got crushed by a building in a hurricane. My last dyno run was 320 whp.
What was the issue? I was having a weird throttle issue in my cable, base ion. Turns out it was the air filter. I heard K&N drop ins only affected MAF in the ions, so I thought I was safe since I had MAP for the intake manifold and that isn't a known issue. I added 2+2 together and realized MAF has the IAT sort of combined in it, and I had IAT in the air intake as well 😂
I am one of the few people that actually owns one of these. It is an extremely under rated car. You can make a hell of a track car out of it. And can buy one (when you can find one for sale) for under 5k easily.
Tach isn't a big deal, mine is blocked by my cellphone so i never even see it 😅. Drive it enough and you learn the shift points. Also i have the competition package with boost gauge / shift lights so it is a nice back up as when you see the red light turn on at (for me) 7k rpm you know what you got to do. Original owner of a 06 and have 257k miles on her and i still hit max boost and play around with people who have no idea that it can pull as hard as it does.
Hey David! I see you’ve been on the weird or niche car kick lately and wondered if you have ever been offered to drive a 2007-2012 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V? The last generation of the Sentra SER Spec V’s are getting very hard to find like the ion redline.
never really been a fan of Saturn, however this car is pretty cool with all the performance goodies on it. I could grow to love it if I had some seat time.
My first car was an 06 saturn ion (not redline) but i had so much fun with that car :D just be careful if you want to do an intake on the N/A ecotec, because the car won't correct for the added air and go into limp mode. Lol
I owned a Saturn ion redline with the stage 2 gm upgrade and a upgraded supercharger pulley. In the winter it made 32psi boost which made this car impossible to launch or get on before 60mph. It was fun but not easy to push hard
@@gbrunner24 I have the 5 speed, which is hooked up to a high mileage B205R (which has had money money dumped in to fix than the car is worth: 1.6K. Oil crank +new radiator) I’m thinking about maybe keeping the car or not, and maybe in the future turn it from a daily into a project.
Considering that I owned a supercharged SS, I'm Partial to the Cobalt. And yes, those Recaro's are the best. My S/C Cobalt had them and they were so nice on roadtrips.
My first car was a 1997 Saturn SL2. It had a 5 speed manual, and despite having only 100 hp, was quite peppy and fun…as long as you were the only one in the car. Thanks to that car, I’ve always had a soft spot for Saturns, especially the Red Lines. I test drove an Ion Red Line on my 20th birthday, and I would love to to own one, but it just never was possible. After losing the SL2 in an accident, I owned a series of Mercury Sables. All 3 were fine cars, but they weren’t nearly as fun as that little Saturn. I finally got back to having a fun manual car this year when I got an 05 V6 Mustang.
I test drove the first one our city, and the dashboard was already coming apart before we left the dealer lot. Hard to believe they made a car with a worse interior than the SRT-4.
I went to an auto show that had a bunch of new cars to sit in and check out. I sat in an Ion Redline and didn't want to get up. Those Recaros are so comfortable.
i remember seeing a top 10 cars to buy for cheap as a first car and this one was one of them, and ive always been keeping an eye out because its just such an obscure car
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Yo patterson... are you for real? You are advertising a digital loan shark. These kinds of things ruin lives.
@@Dudeman9339 hey man ruin your life for that downpipe! Get dave!
Please give Taylor a call and do his Redline for the show!
Why can't we have cars like this anymore?
F Dave
I owned one of these. It was legit a fantastic car. Had a random guy waiting by it in the parking lot of the mall make me an offer I couldn't refuse for it. Sent me a cashiers check overnight and sent a car hauler to pick it up. The guy was visiting family and apparently had been hunting for one in pristine condition for a while. It was, odd. He way overpaid and yet I still regret selling it.
How much did he give you for it? Go get another one 😂
@@Blakethegoat I'm curious what he got for it, as well. I have no idea what these go for.
Wow !
That could make a good vinwiki story.
Bob please tell us what you paid 🙏🏻
So glad you finally got around to doing the redline! I daily drive my 07. Most people either have no clue or couldn't care less, but every once in a while I run into someone who knows what it is and it puts a smile on their face every time. Not easy to come by where I'm from, only ever seen 1 other redline and I thought for a second my car got stolen 😂
Daily my 06 since day 1, 257k and counting and she sees max boost every day 👍
I ordered a black comp 06 from the dealer, and ended up not buying it.... Seen that one once, and I seen a blue 04 once, which made me find my 04 blue. So I've seen 2 others in 18 years, lol.
Rather have my SRT4 sorry Saturn! Lol
@@shannacollins4741 i wanted one my self, but A) i couldn't fine one at the time and B) the insurance rates where double that of the redline lol to many people wrecking them i guess 🤔
Fuck yeah I wanted I one too
I owned one of these, loved it , Supercharger sounded great , factory exhaust sounded great , the seat were great . I was a big Saturn fan , owned 2 Sc2, 1 Ion redline , and 1 Saturn Vue . I even went to the Saturn home coming drove from Toronto to Springhill Tennessee.
I'm currently driving a 2008 saturn aura
I miss my redline! I had a FBO one pushing 310HP it was a absolute rocket! It didn’t have the high rise wing so it looked like traffic and it was fun because I use too mess with everyone in it!
Back when domestic companies looked at the late 90s civi Si popularity and said, “we can do this better”… we had this Saturn, cobalt ss, srt-4 neon, A LOT faster than the Japanese sub compacts
Lol true. Then Japan was like let's send our rally cars. Enter WRX, then Evo, then STi. Everyone wins with car wars
actually the major 3 had hot compacts in the early 80's😉
It's refreshing seeing the positive comments on the Saturn. Both my wife and I were involved in the supply end of Saturn production for many years. GM actually did a good thing with the Saturn, building a brand from nothing that was competitive with the Asian products of the day. Quality was a true focus when started and philosophy was to be truly different from the rest of GM. Research the success of the initial Saturn homecoming and the brand loyalty that was developed that early in its life. Unfortunately, by the time that the Ion was released, GM was ratcheting down on the spending and was focused on making Saturn into just another GM division. Products that were intended for Saturn were moved to other divisions and the products that were sold as Saturns were rebadged Opels or other GM cars. The uniqueness of the first generation was gone with the exception of the Saturn Sky and Redline series. It was probably some of the most enjoyable times in our careers seeing it literally rise from an old horse plantation to one of the most modern production facilities in the country. It is great to see Saturns still on the road as daily drivers in our area.
I still own and collect saturns with my girlfriend! We absolutely love them! I myself saved a sl1 and a sc1 from the scrapyard and built a ion redline. I have a vue redline and a sky redline as well
The only problem was in 25 years Saturn never and I mean never turned 1 penny of profit. They lost money on every single Saturn ever made. It was a poorly executed idea made from hodgepodge parts and 99% were ugly and forgettable. It was actually taught in my business classes as one of the biggest modern business failures.
I’m glad to see ZZP is still out there. I had a handful of their parts and tunes on my old GTP’s over 10yrs ago. Miss those cars! Always wanted to do an L67 swap on a Fiero.
We're here and still growing!
I can confirm just look at what they did to the Chevy sonic rs
"Saturn was carbon copies of Chevies and Pontiacs". Actually, it was the reverse. Saturn had been using the GM Delta Platform and the Ecotec for 2 years before the Cobalt, G5/G4/Persuit and HHR. The Supercharged Ecotec was used in the Saturn Ion Redline for more than a year before the Cobalt SS/HHR SS. The "Redline" series of Saturn vehicles was the precursor to the Chevy SS line of vehicles (don't forget the Saturn Vue Redline too). As a Saturn SL1 owner (SOHC), I had no issue embarrassing Civics, Cavalier/Sunfires, Neons etc. Most cars now a days owe a lot to Saturn (I could go on for days to be honest). Great content as always.
I completely forgot about the suicide doors. That was my favorite feature on that car when it came out. Cool to see people doing some tasteful mods to them.
Great feature especially if you have a couple kids. Makes car seats much easier to get in and out. I have owned one since 2020. They have their issues but if you fix them before they break they last a while. Mainly they suffered from timing chain assembly issues. Jumped timing is the number 1 killer of these cars
Hey man, I got one of these cars now. I ordered one in 06, needed a cheap car until it arrived, bought a 93 Impreza for $600. A week later I took my deposit back and kept the Impreza. The daily Forester I just picked up is Subaru #15. Restoring my entire suspension and braking systems over now on my 08 Legacy 3.0R which came with the spec b goodies. I'm a Subaru guy thru and thru now.
I just bought a 05 Ion QC 5speed 164k. I drove it on a trip from coastal NC to Columbus MS. 80 mph a lot of the way, there and back, have driven her 4k miles so far, zero oil usage, zero timing chain noise, cool little car. Wasn't sure about the centered instrument cluster, but kinda like it the more I drive it. Nice review. 👍👍
My 03 QC was my first new car, loved it, had it for 14 years, original battery lasted 11.5 years, always sat outside, sold it for 2500 with 165k and the original clutch, although not without some maintenance I had to do on it.
@@kevingarofalo8493
That's cool , my 08 G5 was a great little car , I think the timing chain broke so it killed the enging at 200k , it was a great little car too , my ion replaced it , so far so good. I may go ahead and put a new timing chain in it. A little preventive maintenance. I think the Saturn is quieter than the G5 was. Putting a sound system in the ion too. Cool little cars.
I heard about these cars many years ago and was intrigued. But then I realized I liked different build quality at that time. Now when I see my brothers ion 4 door auto, it’s just reliable and really easy to use for Doordash and such. Cheap as can be! Respect for Saturn.
Yeah, it was nice to see what these cars stood for at the time. However, with the typical fashion of GM, they don’t realize the value of what they have and decide to axe such a brand. May Saab, Pontiac, Saturn, Oldsmobile, etc. all rest easy.
Such nice cars they were at the time and still are. Just always has me thinking what all of those brands could’ve been under the right hands.
They always got a bad rep for having plastic bodies. idk why that was such an issue, but a lot of people hated it.
@@MikeLaRock88 the plastic became extremely brittle and cracked easily. In freezing temps, parts of the bumper would just break off 😂
@@creedns That makes sense. I live in the desert so didnt know about that
@@creedns I have a 96 and live in Wisconsin so far no cracked panels
I drove a non redline 5 speed for a few years and once you get used to the center gauge I found it a lot easier to check quickly than the normal behind the steering wheel. It's not as big a focal change and you're not peering through the steering wheel, so even with a slight shift to the right it's less distracting. I think it's a better design that never took off because it's just not what people were used to so it turned them off. Kind of like how we have all these fake shifting cvts now because people are used to feeling shift points.
Finally as a Ion Redline owner I’ve been waiting for a long time for this. Hopefully you can review a SRT4 caliber and CTS V1 because I also own those rare cars too
U wana talk about rare. I worked at a Pontiac dealer right at the end and we had 1 solstice gxp hard top. Only one I have ever seen in the flesh. Guy told me when he was dropping it off to take a good look id never see a nother one. Also when i worked at a ford dealer we got a 13 fusion with a 6 speed manual once by mistake a mess up in the ordering. Ford took it back but cant be to many of them around.
@@robertstone9988 solstice GXP is rare but not as rare as the 3 cars I mentioned. Not too sure about a 6 speed fusion. Dodge made only 5564 SRT4 calibers. GM only made 5855 Ion Redlines and 7000 pulse CTS V1s.
@@robertstone9988 ok just looked it up they pretty damn rare
@@irlredline7965 yeah its not a competition though there all pretty rare. Rare shit is cool.
@@irlredline7965 they only made 1266 solstice coupes, they were much more rare than the others you mentioned.
I love that you pointed out that center mounted gauges suck and for the right reason.
It's crazy to think how far we have come in car design. I had a 2005 orange blast SRT-4 when it first came out. Lol I had a razor phone back then haha.
Haha, Dude. thats like a full mid 2000s vibe right there. What kind of music would you be playing in the SRT?
@@joshuakhaos4451 Eminem, 50 cent, Nelly, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Nickelback,GreenDay,Limp Bizkit,Korn, Ying Yang Twins haha.
@@TheNORegretShow Lol, If that doesnt describe 2005, I dont know what else will
lol this was my teen years but mine was red 😂
And I smoked you in my stage 2 redline. Lol
Not you. But soo many of you. Every srt4 tried me
I daily my ‘05 Ion Redline. Had it since ‘08, 30k miles to now 150k miles. Been a fun little car. Have to agree about the gauge cluster, wish the tack was on the left side closer to view and temp/warning lights on the right.
I owned a blue 2004 Saturn RL that got totalled and then a silver 2005 Saturn RL back in the day. The 2005 RL I made I think if I remember right 260 whp or 270whp, from PA drove to Maryland to get it tuned. Some guy had a laptop with hptuners and had a few runs on the highway. 2.8 zzperformance pulley 60lb injectors pacesetter headers, cut the air intake box and had a big fat k&n filter. I really loved that car; I remember that crazy wheel hop, had to buy that brace thing, those gears were long and beautiful and 3rd was the best. One thing was the oem clutch was horrible and it used to get hot that it wouldn't work till you let it cool down, eventually Saturn replaced it with a Saab clutch, yup the upgrade one clutch was from a Saab. I think I got it from GM crate for like $180.00..... memories.
I had the redline and my cousin had the SS. I think the goofy suicide doors and the gauge cluster being in the middle of the dash gave the redline much more character. I wish id never have sold it. currently looking for another to get into. by far the most fun I've had in a street car
Same I had the zzp stage 3 w 2.8 pulley running like 20psi miss that car I’m looking at getting another 06 with 65k original miles on it but the guy wants 6k!!
@@kbarnes7634 $6k that’s it? Hell I’m seeing 100k miles out here for $8k-$10k
I own one of these and actually learned to drive stick in it! The gauge cluster is definitely weird and made it a little funky…
I have an 05 Ion Redline with all the ZZP stage 2 supercharged goodness haha
Nice to see a video giving some love to the R/L! I've wanted one since they came out, took me 14 years to find a low mileage mint condition 04 that I had to drive 5 hours for and over paid lol! It did come with a van full of parts though including a low mileage LSD transmission that I swapped in when I changed the clutch. Super fun weekend car, can't wait to track it one day!
I owned a 2007 Ion Redline in Red with the Competition package. It came with an LSD and the gun metal 17 inch rims . I purchased it new and at the time Saturn dealers were offering stage 1 and Stage 2 packages. I purchased both packages. Stage 1 had a factory Tune and 45 pound injectors. Stage 2 came with a 2.5 pulley kit plus it raised redline to 7000 rpms. On top of that I also installed the extrude honed port header with a straight 2.5 exhaust....That car was insane..1s gear was nearly useless, but Once you got grip....Watch out! In a straight it would destroy you...With all panels made of plastic..car weighed under 2700 pounds...Subarus WRX, Nissan 350 were NO match. STI and Neon SRT4 were trickier..But if i got a good launch, it was mine to win.....however all.those mods.came with a price. Driveability went to shit...At the light with a small pulley kit messed with the A/C. Car revved kind of rough. At 45,000 miles the Header Cracked. Thank god I purchased the extemded warranty at dealer. Since I purchased and installed the header at a saturn dealer and it was a GM Performance part, They had to.honor it (not before trying to weasle themselves out of it. Then the head gasket started leaking. It was also covered..By the time it was 2010, Car had almost 75000 miles from highway driving in FL and.was time to go. Still...Lots of fun memories. My favorite: Guy in a 350 with his GF started revving next to me at the light..I was like...nah not today...I was tired...but then the guy looked like a real douch..so fuck it...red to green...got an awesome launch...killed.him by like 2 cars. We get to the next light..guy goes..WTF you have.in.there..I just told him....Its a Saturn baby..His Girlfriend started laughing...He gave me one of.those half assed smile and went his way....Good times!
Had one as my first car. Got it for $2000 in 2017 with 136k miles. Interior felt awful with the hard plastic but the seats were nice. My 15-16 year old self had an absolute ball driving it 🤙🤙
These and the Cobalt ss are a lot of car for a 15-16 year old lol. But they are a great performance car to learn on. These were too new when I was 15-16, and the most powerful cars we had in our school were the 93-02 F-body camaros and Trans-ams. One kid saved up for a WS-6 for senior year.
And yeah, the interiors of Coblats and Ions are trash, but you over look that because of their potential. I miss my Cobalt SS so much.
While cheap looking, the interiors hold up well though if the owner wasn't a slob.
Much better than Honda's do generally at least. Not sure why every civic etc I look at has rotted seats and stained interior. Youll see a few balts like that but most of them are clean, even the dirty seat ones don't rip after all that slobbery.
*edit, honda's from the late 90s-2010. They got much better after 2012.
I'm in WA state......was a parts manager at the Saturn dealership from 2000-2002. Wish I'd have paid more attention to redline stuff back then. I've been looking for one of these for a few years locally and have had no luck.
I had one for like two weeks while I worked on a few things to flip it. Made a few hundred bucks and got to rip on it for a bit. It’s pretty quick and you’d never expect it from the looks of it.
Great review, David. A lot of angles and it really brought me back to when I had a GReddy exhaust on my S200.
It was so much fun! Picking up people at the airport was always fun. I’d always tell ‘em, just listen for me. 😅
Netsky, Goldie, John B, Reid Speed, Rusko, Marcus Intalex. We all had a blast!
Definitely the ion redline for me over the cobalt SS. Both great cars but, the Saturn is just quirky and different. I'm partial still to the sc/sl models though because that little 1.9 dohc was just flat out reliable and got killer fuel mileage. I had a 91 sc2 with a 2001 engine swap(did NOT fit well and was missing an important engine mount) and I drove that thing to work for 2 months with a broken slave cylinder and having to shift using pliers on the shift cable lol. Had to start in gear and float it up/down shifts, also while holding the shifter in the correct gate area and making it shift by pulling and pushing the cable with pliers lmao 🤦. I worked at Cadillac at the time and once or twice a week a couple of other mechanics would come look at how it was driven because they wouldn't believe it when someone told them how I had to drive it. (Sorry for the book here). I just thought you mind find it as hilarious as we did. Hey when your poor, you gotta do what you gotta do. Matco got most of my paycheck for about a year 👌
I remember driving my Camaro to work at 18yrs old in the 90's to the shop I worked at w 2 pairs of vice grips for a steering wheel cause I was waiting on a grant adapter. Got a few stares.... good times lol
Snap on got mine
@@g.o.g.survivalgaming adult rape vans lol
@@jonmcdonald6374 that's great lol 😆
I picked up a cobalt ss sedan in 2010, new off the lot. Neighbor had an ion redline. We had entirely too much fun wrenching and working on our little rockets
I have always loved the Ion Redline. I would take it in a heart beat over the Cobalt. The Saturn was the first one designed that they then converted into the Cobalt SS.
I had a Saturn SC2 that was really fun to drive. It was a better but I stripped everything out of it to make it as light as possible. Then I did a basic upgrade to the suspension and added some performance to the engine. It was a pretty quick car and really fun driving the highways in Northern Ontario
Those SC2's were DOHC 150hp package in a car that didn't weigh a whole lot at all, those things moved! Kind of like the first-gen Dodge Neon R/T 2 door, DOHC 160 HP, 5 speed, those things were actually faster than the Civic Si at the time.
I had a 93 SC2 IN 97 that I put the SPS Stage 3 head package on. It made 191whp I think.
Cobalt SS or Saturn ION Redline?
I'm a fan of both actually. I do wish they would have turbo charged the ION Redline instead of super charging it.
Ion Redline all day. Way cooler name, way more unique
Both are nice, but the SS edges it out for me. Such an underrated and rad FWD performance car it is. Everyone loves to rave about JDM’s finest and while those cars are good, the value for which the Cobalt SS played at hung out with cars 2-3x as much. IIRC, it was the fastest FWD around VIR when tested by Car and Driver. Such Wonderful motors!
Cobalt
Cobalt, still get parts for it.
I purchased a 2007 Red Saturn Redline with The Competition package that brought The LSD, Carbon Black wheels, the big ass wing, Adjustable Tree light tachometer with adjustable shift points etc. But for once I wanted to go all in. At the time, Saturn dealers sold the Stage 1 and Stage 2 kits. Stage 1 had an ECU flash, Stage 2 brought a smaller pulley, More poweful injectors and a more aggresive tune with a slight higher rev limiter. I also went nuts and put the Extrude honed Manifold Header and a 3 inch catback custom made with magnaflow muffler. And yes all this was installed AT the dealer which meant I had warranty. The car was insane. 1st gear was nearly useless. Insane amount of wheelspin so you had to modulate it.very carefully. The materials said that Stage 2 would give me 255 hp and about 280 pounds of torque. All i can say is that a lot of cars liked to screw with me, and a lot of drivers after getting their ass handed to them went like: What the hell is that??? I always loved responding: Its just A Saturn.baby. I own that.vehicle for 3 years as and drove the hell out of it in FL. About almost 80,000 miles. The modifications took a toll on the car (thats why I had all done at dealer) The A/C at stop would not work well because of the pulley. The iddle was pretty rough. The headers failed once. The dealer where I moved to after purchasing the car tried to weasel out of it until i showed them all the info in paper and black and white. Replaced it but also the gasket seals started leaking. They had to end up putting a new head and new gaskets. Also check engine lights used to go off all the time. But I would not change anything. Had the joy of driving a very rare car. Modded very high with warranty and driven a lot. I have owned Focus SVT, Heavily modded ZETEC Focus, Mustang GT, VW GTI, and These days I drive a Ford Fiesta ST also modded. I think I may hang on to the ST and keep as toy.
And oh yeah..THE DRONNING of that exhaust..lol..Only 5 speed!!!
I worked at a Saturn dealer when these came out. I stayed late to help bring the cars onto the lot, when the first sky red line and ion showed up we immediately raced them on the back of the lot
My redline makes 260whp on 93, has 210k miles on stock longblock, trans, clutch, etc. Been pullied and tuned/bolt ons since 100k miles.
There are lsj engined cars with similar miles to mine making twice the power on stock longblocks. With proper maintenance and care (which many of these cars did not get) and timing chain replacements, the LSJ engine is extremely reliable, probably the only endgine that is more so in this class is the K series.
YESSSS. I have had 2 of these, both were amazing daily drivers I paid around 2k for, and clean, comfortable, and surprisingly compentent
Awesome you finally got a good one to review! I miss mine. Had it for about 8 years and had to sell it in 2020. Hope you had a good time with it. These are total sleepers and make even more power turbo swapped. I Hope to buy another one in the future. To bad saturn was shut down by gm. They should have lived on and continued to make great affordable cars.
I own a cobalt ss/sc..
The cobalt ss also had a Recaro seat option. The first cobalt ss's had the 4 post steering wheel, then they switched to the corvette wheel.
The good thing about the SC is the stop and go traffic races.....1st and 2nd are brutal.
You should have hit the Rev limiter in 1st and 2nd....it's a TVS which is different than the Eaton m62....it's more top end peak.
My old Cobalt SS S/C had the Recaro's, they were so damn comfortable when they had no right to be. They were so nice on Roadtrips. And they held you in on the twisties
@@joshuakhaos4451 I got the crappy pleather seats in mine...but I got the Prisma "pizza seats", they are super comfortable and hold me in great lol.
These are hard as hell to find in a clean example these days. I really miss the early to mid 2000's tuner platforms all the brands were doing. SRT4, Redline, cobalt SS, k20 Si's... I would love to have a clean Mazdaspeed Protege...also rare these days
Same with the Cobalts. If I get another Cobalt, I'm probably going to have to restore it. Same with these. But back in th early 2010s, you could get clean ones with not much looking
My SRT-4 has almost 300k miles on it and was my only car (daily driven) for 16 years! This era was just plain FUN!! All of the sporty eco cars!
Had my srt4 in stock tune for thirteen years before i sold it.
Absolutely! The heyday of "cheap/fun" American cars. Don't forget the Toyota XRS 2ZZ cars, including the Pontiac Vibe GT. Not as fast as the SRT4s and SSs but that 8000rpm redline was a beauty
SE-R
man I miss mine, you're making me want another. You absolutely get used to the offset gauge cluster, it got to the point where i preferred it
Honestly it's better
I owned a 03 QC first and it's easy to get used to, I just wish they swapped the tach and the fuel gauge around.
I got a friend who has one and he swears by them. Only dude I know who has one, they are cool cars and it sounds pretty good tbh. I've seen Cobalt SS, but these are pretty cool
My buddy has one that is turbo swapped, thing moves for what it is. Nice little car
I like how there is no mention of the aftermarket Supercharger TVS1320 on that bad boy. I am sure that thing is running straight with all kinds of mods to the suspension, and perhaps aftermarket engine/transmission mounts. Id love to buy a redline. I look them up all the time, but I cannot find one... ever.
i love the Ion Redline. wanted one when they were announced and and still do.
Loved this video David! Always a pleasure seeing our LSJ Ecotecs get some love!
I'm so glad you finally got to drive one! Wish It was mine🥺 I had one as my first car and I absolutely loved it, got taken out by a drunk driver..
As someone who now owns a corvette, and daily drove a redline, I wish I had my redline back some days
I owned an 06 SS SC and I loved every bit of it when it wasnt breaking roll pins 😂
Very good review on the Ion red line and cobalt ss. You should definitely do a review on a HHR SS next. I have a stock one in the Atlanta area if needed.
My sister in law owned it and had NO IDEA it was supercharged let alone even cared, until the pulley started to whine real bad and she said she had a whine from the engine.
That was also the 1st time i ever seen or heard of a supercharged saturn ...
I owned a 2004 ion 3 got it for 2k with 260k miles on it. Man that car was in remarkable shape especially the engine. Didnt burn oil got 34-35mpgon highway and 29-30 city. It was a slow car but I was suprised how well it ran with the miles it had. I traded it in though. I want a redline lol
I had an Ion 2, 4 door, with manual, and it was pretty quick. Much better once I put the recaro seats in from the redline.
Saturn getting all the love lately, makes me so happy
that TVS blower is like the best mod you can do to a supercharged ecotech, they are highly sought after for sure
I'd have to go with the Saturn. I've owned a Saturn Ion sedan and my girlfriend had a Cobalt a couple years back also. I like the layout of the Ions dash alot more then the Cobalt sedan. Plus, the Ion Redline looks more like a sportier car then the SS.
When I was in highschool in the late 90's a friend of mine parents bought her an 88 or 89 factory model 4 cylinder supercharged 4 door Nissan stanza 5 speed. That car was a blast to drive for what it was.
David with the 🔥content! Even when I’m just 3 mins in, I know it will be a good and interesting review!
Owned an ‘04 Ion Redline and man, that car was a riot. Took the wing off and nobody had any clue how quick it was. Could spin the tires in third gear with all the torque it made and the best part was slaughtering GTI’s, mustangs, WRX’s and Civics. Unfortunately my supercharger blew and needed an engine rebuild at 34,000 miles so I had to sell it. Totally underrated car back in the mid ‘00’s!
Nice intro as always, and I enjoyed learning about such a quirky anonymous fwd performance coupe that sits so quietly under the car enthusiast radar, ty for this quality review 👏
@2:05 There was actually 3 different Cobalt SS variations. The 2.0L supercharged LSJ, the 2.0L turbocharged LNF (like the red one you reviewed previously) and the naturally aspirated 2.4L LE5. The "high output" LE5 engine was also what came standard in the base Solstice/Sky (whereas the GXP/Redline models used the turbocharged LNF engines).
Sky redline came with the turbocharged LNF
Well, that Saturn center gauge pod, I found, isn't actually so hard to adjust to, at all, especially considering that if you aren't tall, sometimes the steering wheel can clip your view in regular spots. My friend had an Ion3 with the 5-speed and their kinda vteckey thing, it was OK, and one of the few manual options she could get at the time. I think the REdllines are OK but getting kinda scarce/worn out.
There was actually 3 version. 2.0SC the 2.0TC and the 2.4NA but that last one we dont talk about
PLEASE! Do a saturn SKY Redline (or Solstice GXP)! I know you've done a base Solstice but it's not the same. I have an 08 Redline 5MT that I'd love for you to drive! 🙂
finally!!!! i drive an 04 redline, stage 3. 2.7 pulley on e85 and methanol Injection. such a fun car!!!
also, if you ever wanna drive a saleen or roush zx3 focus let me know!!
I've been close to 200mph in a few cars but 120mph in a redline was the scariest 😂😂😂
Balance your tires😂
I have owned my 2006 Ion Redline with Comp Package since 2005. Bought it new and been daily driving it to this day. Great car lots of fun and greet performance!
Don't forget the wagon version of the cobalt/ion... the HHR.
The supercharger setup can swap over, I got mine from a scrap engine.
I do not think it had much to do with Ion. HHR is considered one of the worst car’s of the 2000’s, it’s why you don’t see them on the road anymore. More similar to the PT cruiser, similarly terrible car.
I've got the 05 ion, not the redline and I got a compliment the other day. Made my day
Hi David, would love to see if you have any updates on Smurf & Subzero and how they’re getting on
Cheers dude!
That sound will never get old to me!!
I had a Redline. Bought it for a steal of a deal, still remember paying 4k at 40k miles. The owner regretted selling it after a few weeks, he was non-stop was haggling me and after only 2 months he bought it back from me. Quick little unit, made some good memories racing friends in it for the short time I had with it.
Love it! I really like the ecotec engines in these Cobalts and IONs. I bought a 2004 Cavalier new off the lot in 04. It had the factory body kit and was white with grey racing stripes. I used to joke that them damn racing stripes would get me in trouble, cause all these Hondas wanted to race me. Lol. I ended up buying a 13 Genesis coupe rspec in 2013, modded it to my liking, but I still have my Cavalier (143k), and she's been solid. I would have loved to thrown the Eaton supercharger on its 2.2 ecotec. Maybe I'll still do it just to see. Good vid
I’m not sure how much it would cost but there was a cavalier at my local drag strip back in the day that had a 3800 supercharged swap from a Grand Prix GTP or one of those cars and it would hurt feelings all night
@@dirtybirddog1579 Wow. Yeah , I'm putting most of my $$ in my Genesis coupe, but I'd be interested to see if those same superchargers in the Cobalt / Ion, would work in my 2.2 ecotec. I'm assuming it would.
@@godzilla7391 I’m pretty sure it’s an Eaton M90 like what was on the Thunderbird SuperCoupe. Most applications I’ve seen have been v6’s but I figure there’s gotta be a way. Either way, happy modding!
Yes it bolts right on with the intake manifold as well, and the 2.2 l61 in the cav can handle it
@@ezraa7777 bolts on yes, handle it no..the rods in the L61 are the weak points..with the piston right behind it. Redo the guts and do some headwork (port/polish etc) and you can have reliable power. Can probably get it done for $1k to $1.5k diy of course. If you pay a shop to do it then you're into the bend-over price range
I owned the colbalt ss NA and I can say even tho it wasn't turbo or supercharged. It was still an extremely fun car to learn stick in and beat up a bit. I even jumped the thing (accidentally) going like 55mph. Snapped all the springs and the shocks were leaking. But I had a blast driving the colbalt. It'll forever be my first car.
Seen one rocket past me the other day in Omaha I started laughing so hard. Like it wasn’t slow but it wasn’t fast. But holy cow was it LOUD!
Neon this neon that. Let’s see the Caliber SRT4 the true sleeper. I love mine.
The Cobalt SS is definitely better known than the Ion RL. The Ion was made from 2003-07 whereas the Cobalt SS went into production for the 2005 model year. I bought a brand new 07 Ion RL with the competition package on 10/31/06. I absolutely loved to drive that car. It ended up becoming a project after a mystery issue developed in the engine/fuel system, then it got crushed by a building in a hurricane. My last dyno run was 320 whp.
What was the issue? I was having a weird throttle issue in my cable, base ion. Turns out it was the air filter. I heard K&N drop ins only affected MAF in the ions, so I thought I was safe since I had MAP for the intake manifold and that isn't a known issue. I added 2+2 together and realized MAF has the IAT sort of combined in it, and I had IAT in the air intake as well 😂
the saturn for sure, i had a love for the style of them and the weird names like the sl1 etc. i relly liked the station wagons
my sl1 i swore would go a week on empty gas light being on
I had an 98 SW2 as my first car, I loved that thing, one of the cars I regret selling.
I miss seeing the 2000-02 LW wagons, preferred the pre-facelift versions.
I misses out on one a while back. Doesn't look like I missed much, but still cool for a Saturn and way better than the Sky.
I never realized how big and professional his camera setup was
Yup he had a lot of help from his parents
@@Thatguy55595 naw he did everything himself
@@Jim_Layhey yeah like that Mustang GT he had when he made his channel right? He definitely paid for that himself LOL
I am one of the few people that actually owns one of these. It is an extremely under rated car. You can make a hell of a track car out of it. And can buy one (when you can find one for sale) for under 5k easily.
Tach isn't a big deal, mine is blocked by my cellphone so i never even see it 😅. Drive it enough and you learn the shift points. Also i have the competition package with boost gauge / shift lights so it is a nice back up as when you see the red light turn on at (for me) 7k rpm you know what you got to do. Original owner of a 06 and have 257k miles on her and i still hit max boost and play around with people who have no idea that it can pull as hard as it does.
badass buddy!
I had a wingless 05 IRL, loved that car. It was a bit of a sleeper. Most people just saw a Saturn until they got dusted.
Lets all try to get saturn back 😢
Fr tho 😭💀
I have a feeling if they come back they all gonna be EVS
Those were all great/fun cars back then. Don't forget the original XRS Corella/Matrix and Vibe GT.
i love these quad coupe ions, some had the 2..4 which is not too slow either, pretty fun cars
180 hp
@@redsealjourneymanreviews6647 yeah
@@crisisrogue8286 hi
@@redsealjourneymanreviews6647 hi
@@crisisrogue8286 hi
I drove a highly modified one that ran on e85 and it was stupid fast, I loved that car. Didn’t buy it but I wished I had.
Hey David! I see you’ve been on the weird or niche car kick lately and wondered if you have ever been offered to drive a 2007-2012 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V? The last generation of the Sentra SER Spec V’s are getting very hard to find like the ion redline.
I support this one! Would love a review on the SER Spec V
They're ok. About like reviewing an svt focus nowadays.
A normal cvt 1.5t Honda is gonna be faster than both now.
Theyre cool looking but slow na :(
Those things were sick. 6 speed 2.5, brembos, SUPER loud vtec sounding vvt.
@@Seasniffer69 I promise you. The 1.5t with CVT isn’t going to leave the spec V lol.
never really been a fan of Saturn, however this car is pretty cool with all the performance goodies on it. I could grow to love it if I had some seat time.
My first car was an 06 saturn ion (not redline) but i had so much fun with that car :D just be careful if you want to do an intake on the N/A ecotec, because the car won't correct for the added air and go into limp mode. Lol
I owned a Saturn ion redline with the stage 2 gm upgrade and a upgraded supercharger pulley. In the winter it made 32psi boost which made this car impossible to launch or get on before 60mph. It was fun but not easy to push hard
I’m pretty sure the gearbox in the Saturn is actually a SAAB transmission
aisin trasnmission probably the f40 trans that every cobalt guy wants because they arent as brittle
@@SJSOmar isn’t the F40 transmission the one that is found in the 9-5?
@@SJSOmar or it that the F35?
F35 transmission from the factory, F40 came in the 9-3 and was a 6 speed. Much better design, we make a swap kit for it because the F35 is horrible.
@@gbrunner24 I have the 5 speed, which is hooked up to a high mileage B205R (which has had money money dumped in to fix than the car is worth: 1.6K. Oil crank +new radiator)
I’m thinking about maybe keeping the car or not, and maybe in the future turn it from a daily into a project.
Original owner of a 06 Redline. 16 years later it still makes me happy. End of story.
Considering that I owned a supercharged SS, I'm Partial to the Cobalt. And yes, those Recaro's are the best. My S/C Cobalt had them and they were so nice on roadtrips.
My brother bought a turbo cobalt SS brand new and got it tuned and some other upgrades and it was stupid fast.
My first car was a 1997 Saturn SL2. It had a 5 speed manual, and despite having only 100 hp, was quite peppy and fun…as long as you were the only one in the car. Thanks to that car, I’ve always had a soft spot for Saturns, especially the Red Lines. I test drove an Ion Red Line on my 20th birthday, and I would love to to own one, but it just never was possible. After losing the SL2 in an accident, I owned a series of Mercury Sables. All 3 were fine cars, but they weren’t nearly as fun as that little Saturn. I finally got back to having a fun manual car this year when I got an 05 V6 Mustang.
I wish I could've gone back in time and built one these engines up with hella boost and just blow the doors off of anything back at the time
A neighbor of mine has this in blue with a tasteless foot long stick for a shifter.
I test drove the first one our city, and the dashboard was already coming apart before we left the dealer lot. Hard to believe they made a car with a worse interior than the SRT-4.
I went to an auto show that had a bunch of new cars to sit in and check out. I sat in an Ion Redline and didn't want to get up. Those Recaros are so comfortable.
i remember seeing a top 10 cars to buy for cheap as a first car and this one was one of them, and ive always been keeping an eye out because its just such an obscure car
With that car having a TVS and bigger fuel injectors depending on fueling and what else is done it makes 350+hp easy.