Pontiac Solstice.
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While the Pontiac brand is no longer with us, it seems the Solstice is still on many people’s minds. A rebirth of GM’s affordable 2-seater could actually be great news to many.
I test-drove the Pontiac Solstice for a whole week many years ago. And I have to say this was one of the most fun weeks I’ve ever had driving these press cars. A memorable few days thanks to this great-looking, affordable, and wonderful fun car. The manual/turbo combo of the version I was lucky to drive was just wonderful.
The Pontiac Solstice was a first-generation model that came out in 2005. Which came out in 2005. Just imagine how great the car would be by now, in its 3rd or even 4th generation.
I think the Solstice looked fantastic. Its designer, Franz Von Hlozhausen is now much more famous for being the head of design at Tesla. As expected, the Solstice wasn’t a huge hit. However, I don’t think it was really meant to be. 1st year sales were pretty good with over 21,200 units. But that quickly went south with around 4,800 sold just 3 years later. (By the way, Mazda only sold 8100 units of the Miata last year…)
The amazing low starting price of around $23,000 was achieved by smartly using many components from other GM cars. Like the rear axle and automatic transmission from the Cadillac CTS. The same engines are in many other GM models like the Pontiac G6, Chevy Malibu, and many more.
The Solstice died when Pontiac was killed. Which is really too bad. Since then, the Mazda Miata is now the only affordable 2-seater convertible available.
While it would be very hard to make a business case for a new 2-seater convertible from a dead brand, it’s not impossible. I never thought I’d see a new Hummer model again. We now have 2.
Basically thanks to the Ultium platform it seems to be able to offer and size combination known to man. A new Solstice based on the upcoming small Chevrolet Bolt EV is something that could be done. And again, being based on the Bolt it wouldn’t be really expensive.
I say why not!
The Pontiac sol was cute fyn but come with alit of pro lens always needing work. The firebird yeap if it’s got to b a pontiac.but ig you got the mo ey then that’s your 2 seater.
The rebirth of pontiac would be a great option for consumers to have.In many cases there is a niche for the sellers market and a solstice would be a great two seater option to move forward with this idea.Especially iif it were hybrid powerplant model with some universal torque to jumpstart the brand back into the sporty car scene.
I loved Pontiac and have owned several. I wish there were companies that could re-produce past makes and models of cars, but as EVs. It would probably raise legal questions, as makes and models of past automakers, to be remanufactured with EV propulsion, would still have copyright ownership of the vehicles to be manufactured. I want the best of both worlds.
I had a teenage student that had a really cute Red soltice…it was very noticeable …Bright red with a super cute driver…… I wondered just what happened to that cutecar
Would love to see a come back in a soticewith a gasoline engine