Styling cues may suggest a sport utility vehicle, but the Saturn Relay looks like a minivan with a long nose. The sliding-door slots are a dead giveaway, as are the rear door handles, which are in the wrong place for an SUV. The Relay is also too low to the ground to pull off the masquerade; its 5.5-inch ground clearance and 17.5-inch step-in height are about 3 inches lower than a typical SUV stance.

However, sliding doors and a low step-in height are good things. These are some of the key features that make minivans more practical than SUVs for most on-road duty.

Relay shares its pseudo-SUV facade with the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, and Pontiac Montana SV6. All four are nearly the same under the skin, sharing a single powertrain with a choice of front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. Only minor styling and equipment differences distinguish them from each other.

Relay's outer skin is steel, not plastic like other Saturns, although its horizontal-bar grille and big red logo give it some Saturn identity. And the grey cladding that runs all around the lower perimeter of Relay suggests a kinship with the Saturn Vue, a compact sport utility. Another SUV styling cue: Instead of trying to blend the side windows into a single visual element, the designers designed them as three distinct windows on each side.

All models ride on 17-inch tires and wheels, but while Relay 2 comes with steel wheels, Relay 3 gets painted alloy wheels.

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