Six months after the launch of the Saturn Vue Green Line, General Motors will halt production of the vehicle. In what may be the most bizarre product introduction in auto industry history, GM trumpeted the release of the Vue Green Line last fall—as a sign of the company’s commitment to hybrids and the environment—but will phase out production starting in March, and then start back again in September, replacing the 2007 Vue Green Line with the redesigned 2008 version. This start-stop will leave a six-month gap during which dealers will run out of the Saturn Vue Green Line.

General Motor’s intention to release a hybrid version of the Saturn Vue dates back to the Detroit Auto

Show in 2003. At that time, Tom Stephens, GM’s vice-president of powertrain, said, “GM will introduce a Saturn Vue with an advance hybrid system in the latter half of the 2005 calendar year.” Stephens indicated that “drivers can expect fuel economy gains of up to 50 percent” with the hybrid Vue. At the 2003 Detroit Show, Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, also said the company “would be capable of providing more than one million hybrid vehicles per year” by 2007. The removal of the Vue Green Line, which provides a 20 percent fuel economy gain over the conventional version, will reduce GM’s expected 2007 annual hybrid sales by approximately 4,000 units.

GM plans to introduce five new hybrids in 2007: the Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Aura Green Line, GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Tahoe, and Cadillac Escalade. The company is not releasing projected sales numbers for these vehicles.

The mild-hybrid Saturn Vue Green Line is G.M.’s first gas-electric vehicle, unless you count the company’s ultramild-hybrid pickup trucks. The hybrid field is starting to get crowded—there are now a dozen to choose from—so the pitch for Green Line is “the most affordable S.U.V. hybrid.” In other words, this Vue appeals to your inner accountant. The numbers would impress any C.P.A.

For $22,995, the Green Line delivers an E.P.A. fuel economy rating of 27 m.p.g. in town and 32 in the country, which is the highest highway rating for any sport utility. For comparison’s sake, a conventional gas-only Vue with 4-cylinder engine, front drive and automatic transmission is rated 22 in town, 27 on the highway.

I drove the Green Line on two successive 78-mile highway loops, one well below the speed limit and a second in complete disregard of the 65 m.p.h. signs. As a saint, I achieved an impressive 36 m.p.g. As a sinner, my fuel economy dropped to 24. I have little doubt that a careful foot applied to the Green Line could regularly produce 30 m.p.g. on the highway.