With the Saturn Aura, General Motors finally has a world-class car with broad buyer appeal. This car is not a Buick with awesome J.D. Power reliability scores and little else to recommend it to under-50 buyers, and it's not a Corvette with niche market dominance and crummy seats, nor is it a pricy Cadillac. The Aura provides flair and performance in a medium-large sport sedan at a price barely over $25,000 equipped with every option. The options list isn't that long or technical, however, and that's Aura's smallish Achilles heel.

The Aura feels European, so the Volkswagen Passat is competition—but the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are more so, because of their market-dominating sales. It's also a buy-American-again car for people who grew tired of buzzy engines and uninspired cockpits with ill-fitting panels and who defected a decade ago. It's no surprise that Aura feels European: It's closely related to the Opel Vectra, Opel being GM's European subsidiary. The Vectra's underpinnings, called the Epsilon platform in GM-speak, also serve as the starting point for the Saab 9-3, another decent car, and the Pontiac G6, which looks good from the outside (the coupe especially) but suffers from an underwhelming interior.

Slide behind the leather-wrapped steering wheel of the upscale Aura XR, and you'll notice paddle shifters, power-adjustable foot pedals, and a restrained dashboard with relatively restrained chrome brightwork. Hop in an Aura with optional Morocco Brown leather upholstery, and you might be forgiven for thinking you're sitting in a $45,000 Audi. Rich-brown seating leather is now in vogue, whether it's called rust brown, chocolate, or Morocco.

Look further, and you'll see narrow, even seams defining where dashboard panels meet. Recessed LED lighting fills the door-handle cutout, so it's easy for a first-time passenger to see the door latch. (Does every passenger, unable to find the latch quickly at night, flash forward to the car plunging into an icy lake and being unable to escape?)

Look still further, and you'll see a few interior trim gaps here and there that wouldn't have been allowed to leave the factory, were this a Camry. A couple of the plastic panels look like, well, plastic, and sound hollow when you tap them. But the overwhelming reaction from those who've been away for a decade will be, "This is an American car? Wow!"

Opt for the XR and you get a 3.6 liter, 262-hp V6 engine with double overhead camshafts, variable-valve timing, a drive-by-wire throttle, a six-speed automatic transmission, and the paddle shifters, called TAPshift. The combination pushes the Aura's 3,630 pounds from 0 to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds. The entry XE makes do with a 224-hp engine and just a four-speed automatic.

Out on the highway, the Aura feels quiet, thanks to its double-layer windshield glass, a steel laminating technology called Quiet Steel, and lots of insulation materials. The ride is midway between the stiff setup of a European sports car and the marshmallow-like ride of some American barges. The Aura's front-wheel drive and stability control should see you through most any rain-slicked or snow-covered highway. Backseat passengers have as much or more room than they'd find in a $50,000 BMW or Mercedes (but no more than in the competing Camry or Accord).

The Aura fared well in its initial round of government crash tests, receiving five-star ratings, and the OnStar service is built in and paid for for the first year.

The Aura's only 191 inches long, but its backseat occupants get one of the entertainment features of a stretch limo: their own audio, with rear-seat controls and wireless headphones.

The audio system comprises a six-disc MP3 CD player, an AM/FM tuner, eight speakers, 240 watts of amplification, and a dash-mounted line-in jack. XM Satellite Radio is available for $199 (reasonable) but an iPod adapter is not an option.

After the initial enthusiasm over the Aura, you might notice a few gotchas. There's no rear-seat center armrest. The indicator for the paddle shifter, when paddle shifters are used, takes over the odometer readout. As on other Saturns, such as the Vue Green Line, the steering-wheel buttons are hopelessly small. And a dozen other GM cars have the same basic radio configuration, with the oddball power/volume button in the middle instead of on the left.

No navigation system is available for the Aura, unlike cars from Honda and Toyota, which have first-rate systems. Nor is Bluetooth, which Toyota and Honda also offer. GM and Saturn could have used the Aura to leapfrog the competition with entertainment offerings such as a USB key or memory card slot, even an in-dash hard disk.

The Accord and Camry are benchmarks for medium-large sedans; the 2007 Camry that arrived in the spring may be the most significant mainstream car of 2006. Against that competition, it's hard to recommend the Aura over the Honda or Camry, or the Nissan Altima. But it can't be dismissed, either.

You may find the shopping experience better at a Saturn dealer, since they've been used to hard times and know how to treat customers decently, unless those customers are trying to buy a much-in-demand Saturn Sky sports car. Chauvinists (as in patriot chauvinists, the original definition, not male chauvinists) may like buying a made-in-the-USA vehicle, although the competition is U.S.-built too: the Camry (Kentucky) and Accord (Ohio). The Accord and Camry have hybrid modelss; General Motors recently announced Saturn will have a mild hybrid Aura Green Line in spring 2007, "mild" meaning that the electric motor runs along with the gasoline engine, not on its own.

If you do buy an Aura, get the XR, which starts $4,000 higher than the XE but includes $2,000 in options you'll probably want anyway as well as the more serious engine and transmission. Go for the leather upholstery and pay the $100 upcharge for the Morocco Brown leather, which is available on all colors save Berry Red. If you want to keep the XR closer to $25,000, delete the $1,500 panorama sunroof panel. At least, give this Saturn a look.

With more models such as the Aura, GM could be a healthy car company. Our 3.5 star rating might best be seen as a 4 for the car in general lowered by a just-above-average 3 for the dearth of advanced technology features.

To read Bill Howard's review of the Saturn Vue Green Line, click here.

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$20,595.00 - $27,769.00

EPA-rated mileage (for the XR)): 20 mpg city/38 highway

GM delivers a world-class sporty sedan with performance, style, and good fit and finish. Next step: Boost the technology offerings and dial up cockpit amenities by half a notch.

Reasonable performance from entry XE, good performance from upscale XR model. Variable-valve timing is standard on both models, stability control is standard on the XR. OnStar telematics service is standard.

Light on technology offerings compared with class leaders. Cockpit materials not quite in a league with those of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. No navigation, Bluetooth, or iPod-adapter options.