Saturn Vue Green Line: First Drive – Timing is everything. Just ask Ford Motor Company, the struggling domestic automaker that recently suffered its share of backlash for abandoning its pledge to produce 250,000 hybrids annually by 2010. A few weeks later, in light of Toyota’s success in selling tens of thousands of hybrid vehicles per year, word came that the U.S. Congress was considering offering more incentives for hybrid ownership. Ouch.

Suffering its own share of lumps over the years, General Motors – for once – found itself in the enviable position of not only presenting its 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line hybrid SUV to the press, but also confirming for those who weren’t sure that a Saturn Aura hybrid sedan will be arriving within six months or so, with a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan arriving soon thereafter. Unlike the two-mode systems featured on the upcoming large GM SUV hybrids, the Vue Green Line, Aura Green Line, and Malibu hybrids couple a traditional four-cylinder engine with an electric generator and a battery pack. Details are sketchy on the sedans, but the 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line, due to hit the streets mid-summer 2006, was made available to members of the media for a short drive around Santa Monica, Calif. What we found was an SUV that falls short on both driving excitement and materials quality, but promises to raise a few eyebrows with a $22,995 starting price and claims of 32 mpg on the highway.