Solstice Coupe - RIP - WStJrl article
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:09 am
By JERRY GARRETTPublished: July 2, 2009THE just-introduced (and just-canceled) Pontiac Solstice coupe is already assured a place inautomotive history, and not only because its fleeting production run lasted mere months.This new targa-top Solstice is the last of the Pontiacs, the final breath of a brand that failed toadapt to a changing world. Once-proud Pontiac is being phased out by General Motors, itsparent, and will be gone in 2010. The Solstice coupe, a fixed-roof variation of thefour-year-old roadster, is Pontiac’s last new model.It could become something of a collector’s item. We expect that total production will be in the neighborhood of 1,100 units when we ceaseoperations at the Wilmington plant by the end of July, Jim Hopson, a Pontiac spokesman,wrote in an e-mail message. All Solstice coupes will have sequential ID numbers, so ownerswill know exactly which car of the 1,100 they have.The coupe I tested was the hot GXP version, which comes with a 260-horsepower 4-cylinderengine. Its window sticker of $31,045 created an expectation of polish and comfort that I felt,considering the price, it failed to deliver.Here is a car that essentially matches my definition a doomed romance. Its drop-deadgorgeous exterior made me yearn for a fling that would turn meaningful, but a week ofcompanionship revealed a list of quirks that included nearly every imaginable character flaw.A love-hate relationship, I suppose, was inevitable.The spartan cabin, finished in unrelenting black on my test car, was especially noteworthy: Ibelieve it could be the first automotive interior styled entirely by an accounting department.The only minimum-security prison I have ever visited (honest, it was only to interview aninmate) had more luxurious appointments.The seats are tolerable, but neither supportive nor particularly adjustable there is no placeelse for them to go in the cramped cockpit. Plus-size drivers should shop elsewhere.There is virtually no convenient storage no handy place for a cellphone, no bin to holdcoins, no storage in the enormous console, no cubbies or map pockets in the doors. But thereis a slit along the door sill, long enough and wide enough for a package of Slim Jim jerky.A package shelf under the hatchback rear window is only large enough to hold the bareessentials for a weekend getaway. But if you pop for the temporary fabric top to use when theremovable panel has been left home (there’s no place onboard to stash the 31-pound targapanel), the package area is commandeered to store that. So plan your trips carefully, payingclose attention to the weather forecast.The power window controls are perfectly placed for someone with six-inch-long forearms;otherwise, use your elbows. The dashboard instruments are partly eclipsed by the adjustablesteering wheel, regardless of its position. The gauge faces and the radio’s digital display panelcan be difficult to read, but, hey, it’s only a problem during most daylight hours.The shifter for the 5-speed manual transmission clanks like a tenement radiator in February.Wind and road noise with the top shut is intrusive enough to warrant constant checks that thewindows are all the way up and doors aren’t flapping open.The turbocharged Ecotec 2-liter 4-cylinder makes an industrial whine but it is capable ofpushing this 3,018 pound package that’s slightly more than the convertible, oddly enough from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 5.2 seconds, according to Car and Driver magazine. The federalfuel economy rating is 19 miles a gallon in town and 28 on the highway with the 5-speedmanual.The suspension is tuned too soft for thrashing around during amateur hour at your localracetrack. Despite standard Bilstein monotube shock absorbers, there is a generous amount ofbobbing and weaving on grip-challenged 18-inch Goodyears.The stability control system can be turned off, but my advice is to avoid this or beprepared for some anxious moments of oversteer in spirited driving. In normal driving freeway cruising, errand-running and getting groceries (although there is little room for them) the GXP coupe is generally quite pleasant and stable.Despite its many faults, the shapely little coupe is a sexy attention-getter, another beautydesigned by Franz von Holzhausen when he was a rising star at General Motors. (Mr. vonHolzhausen subsequently left for Mazda and is now at Tesla.) Outward visibility is atrocious,but that’s the price of being so stylish. If you can’t live with that, buy an old Volvo wagon.Creature discomforts aside, friends and family all wanted to ride in the coupe, the longer thetrip the better. Beware of straying too far from home, though: Consumer Reports found thereliability record of the Solstice convertible and the similar Saturn Sky to be dismal.So what sort of epitaph, if any, does the Solstice GXP coupe suggest for the once-mightyPontiac nameplate? In many ways it is a rolling testament of G.M.’s shortsightedness: a pinchof pizazz, a dash of panache, all mixed into a package of unmet promise.