Sorry for the delay in responding
I love my XR, hate the dealer. I'm trying not to let my dealer experience ruin this great car.
The 3.6 / 6 speed rocks. The only thing is that the tapshift is still a bit slow to respond, even after having the transmission reprogrammed to correct that. I really don't use it anyways, just leaving it in drive 95% of the time. The body is hot, I still have people thinking it is an Audi/BMW/Lexus. The interior is nice, but I do have a rattle in the passenger door that has to go back for a fix. Not bad considering my last first-year vehicle was a Trailblazer LTZ in 2002 that went back to the dealer 24 times. I understand it was crushed because of the CarFax being so bad, they couldn't sell it.
The car does have a bit of torquesteer, but it is not excessive. The handling is phenomenal, I haven't had to call in the Stabilitrack yet, but the TC does intervene (I have a heavy foot). The brakes are awesome, best of any car I owned.
The only things I wish it had was memory seats for the power seats and the HID lights that GM used on the Opel Vectra. I am talking with some people to see if I could get them to fit the Aura since it appears the sheetmetal in front of the A-pillars is identical to the Vectra (oh, and BTW, the taillamps seem to be off an Opel Astra GTC).
As the mechanic I used said, you got a nice German car with a Saturn price.