The Saturn Vue is a five-passenger vehicle with a rear seat that folds flat to increase cargo space plus a one-piece rear liftgate. It's built around a car-like unit-body frame, which increases structural integrity and reduces weight. And also like a car, it has independent suspension at every wheel.The Vue is a bit larger than both the Ford Escape and Honda CR-V, as the Saturn's 106.6-inch wheelbase is some three inches longer. This dimension gives the Vue a useful advantage in passenger volume, as it offers 113.0 cubic feet of passenger space compared to the Escape's 99.2 cubic feet and CR-V's 103.8 cubic feet.
The Vue compromises its cargo volume slightly in the process, however, as it has 30.8 cubic feet of cargo volume with the second seat in place, and 63.8 cubic feet of cargo volume when the second seat is folded flat. In comparison, the Escape offers 29.3 cubic feet and 66.3 cubic feet respectively, while the CR-V has 35.7 feet and 72.9 cubic feet respectively.
The Vue weighs as much as a mid-size car, ranging between the 3292 pounds of the Vue four-cylinder with manual transmission to the 3668 pounds of the Vue V-6. An Escape averages about 150 pounds lighter, while the CR-V is about 100 pounds heavier. Like the CR-V, the four-cylinder Vue can tow 1500 pounds, and like an Escape V-6, the Vue V-6 can tow 3500 pounds.