At $22,695, the Aura Green Line as the cheapest hybrid on the market, at least until the stripped-down 2008 Prius arrives later this month. However, to get to that price, GM cut some corners. Not enough to turn Picasso into Cezanne as in years past, but still enough to make you scratch your head.
The 164-horsepower, 2.4-liter four-banger is just enough to move the car at a decent clip at reasonable conditions -- say about 70 degrees with the A/C off. Once the mercury breaks the 90 mark and the A/C gets cranked up, however, the car feels woefully underpowered. The aging four-speed automatic is reluctant to downshift and provide anything resembling brisk acceleration. In fact, under those conditions, acceleration is bordering on dangerously slow for making in-traffic maneuvers.
At a stop, the engine dies with a slight shudder and comes back to life as soon as the brakes are released. The stop-start system is disabled if the A/C is on unless it's running in "green mode," which allows the A/C to be turned off along with the engine -- not something you want to happen when it's 100 degrees out.
Inside, there's little change except a "Hybrid" badge on the gauge cluster, an "eco" light that comes on to indicate that the car is getting better fuel economy, and a gauge that shows if the battery is being charged by regenerative braking or is assisting the gasoline engine. Otherwise, it's the same well-designed and visually pleasing interior that suffers from cheap-feeling rock-hard plastics on the door panels, lower dash, and center console -- a complete contrast to the soft plastics of the upper dash. The steering wheel is made of some strange, sticky material that feels as if it's covered in syrup. When GM fired its design committees some years ago, in favor of actual designers, perhaps it should've done the same with its plastics engineers.
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