The Supercharged Saturn ION Redline Was Hilarious 

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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.

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

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 😂

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 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!

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.

I have an 05 Ion Redline with all the ZZP stage 2 supercharged goodness haha

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.

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.

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 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 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. 👍👍

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

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 👏

Cobalt SS or Saturn ION Redline?

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

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!

Loved this video David! Always a pleasure seeing our LSJ Ecotecs get some love!

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 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.

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.

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 🤙🤙

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..

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!

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.

David with the 🔥content! Even when I’m just 3 mins in, I know it will be a good and interesting review!

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 love the Ion Redline. wanted one when they were announced and and still do.

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.

As someone who now owns a corvette, and daily drove a redline, I wish I had my redline back some days

Awesome to see this great and overlooked car make it to your channel!

I've been close to 200mph in a few cars but 120mph in a redline was the scariest 😂😂😂

Saturn getting all the love lately, makes me so happy

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 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

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.

YESSSS. I have had 2 of these, both were amazing daily drivers I paid around 2k for, and clean, comfortable, and surprisingly compentent

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

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.

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

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.

Love all these videos. Showing all the cool concepts the brands had.

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

I owned an 06 SS SC and I loved every bit of it when it wasnt breaking roll pins 😂

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

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.

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!

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.

That sound will never get old to me!!

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

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

My buddy has one that is turbo swapped, thing moves for what it is. Nice little car

I love that you pointed out that center mounted gauges suck and for the right reason.

Thanks for bringing back these cars. I hope you review the cobalt SS 2.4 and SC

@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).

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.

Love the fact that these were roots style SC. Just like some of the FWD era 80s/90s buicks, Pontiacs and Chevys. Had a 89 Pontiac Bonneville SC transverse v6, lol torque steer was a stubborn crackhead 😂

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

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 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!

It was cool meeting you in person. 🤙🏼 You’re going to have to do a video in my Mustang one of these days.

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

I’d rather own the ion redline. I’m actually currently trying to buy one. Finding one in good shape is hard

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!

That look you have when you peeling away from a stop looking in the rear mirror is what I do too. Looking for cops… haha

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 never realized how big and professional his camera setup was

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.

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.

i love these quad coupe ions, some had the 2..4 which is not too slow either, pretty fun cars

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.

I'm getting around to putting the turbo back in my HHR soon, the SS and redline were super fun little cars. Had an 05 ss G85 cobalt and now I've got an HHR SS years later lol.

Owned one for a while and it was so much fun, mine had the competition package so it had factory boost gauge and the limited slip diff. Absolute blast of a car and perfect to learn stick on

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.

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 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 have been seriously considering one of these. Thanks for the review.

I’m pretty sure the gearbox in the Saturn is actually a SAAB transmission

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 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.

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.

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!

that TVS blower is like the best mod you can do to a supercharged ecotech, they are highly sought after for sure

These cars are awesome so underrated

"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.

The doors and cockpit were so cool to see in person! Sick car!

I love these cars! My friend has a 04 cavalier coupe that he’s trying to build and supercharge. maybe one day his car will be on here.

Really want to see a 3800 series 2 review buddy love this “zzp” content!

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

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.

I would get the Saturn. My first car was a 91 saturn sl2 and I loved that thing. "My purple plastic car" as my friends loved to remind me. Blew up two motors but never the auto trans. I used to neutral that thing regularly and actually downshift for turns. Of course being a kid I did a whole bunch of mods to it too. With the "perf" button pressed it would hit second gear so perfectly that it would chirp the tires. Strangest car I've ever owned.

Oh Hell Yeah! The Redline Baby!

Ah glad to see you're a part of the Saturn-Scion mixup fam lol, and this is coming from someone who owned an 02 SL1 5 speed

I was at my local Saturn dealership sometime in the 2000s I saw one of these brand new on the dealership floor, I had no idea what a red line was until then, and to this day I've never seen another one. And I'm the guy that breaks my neck checking out badass cars when I'm going down the highway.

I'm literally just gonna put the base bumpers on it, take the wing off, and daily it.

When I was a teen my buddies sister had this car. We had no idea what it really was. We use to steal it and joyride all the time. It’s literally the car I learned how to drive a stick as a little badass 14 year old. Wasn’t until years later I learned why it was a quick car. Lol.

I love how we pay extra to not have ads just to watch our subs do ads for the ad companies.