Just curious... Did they ever come out with a Solstice coupe? I remember seeing info about being able to order one when I was at a car show a year or so ago, but I've yet to see one one the road...

It's 4:34am and there's not much going on here at work...

2/15/2010 4:33:56 AM

yes, they did.

http://www.pontiac.com/solstice/

2/15/2010 9:28:07 AM

GM fucked up getting rid of Pontiac

2/15/2010 11:03:13 AM

Go down to the Cary Auto Mall on US 1 and check out the former Pontiac dealership there. Still had a bunch of Solstices, including a couple of coupes, out front the last time I was there (early January).

2/15/2010 11:11:21 AM

from what I've found,
1152 Retail Ordered Solstice Coupes (approx 68% GXP) (sequential VIN 9Y000001-9Y001152)
101 Solstice Coupes (part of normal production VIN 9Y100001-9Y108138)

so.. that's only 1253 Solstice coupes. Damn cars are freakin rare.

2/15/2010 2:49:31 PM

Be cool to do a v8 conversion in one

2/15/2010 3:48:38 PM

No doubt

2/15/2010 5:52:06 PM

http://www.hotrod.com/projectbuild/hdrp_0605_pontiac_solstice_project_v8_engine_build/index.html

It cost them a lot of money to do that.

2/15/2010 6:01:18 PM

No, GM fucked up Pontiac by making it nothing more than a rebadging of Chevy and Saturn cars, making it do nothing more than dilute each of the brand's individual sales.

2/15/2010 6:13:04 PM

Quote :

"GM fucked up getting rid of Pontiac"

Yup, they sure did.

Quote :

"No, GM fucked up Pontiac by making it nothing more than a rebadging of Chevy and Saturn cars, making it do nothing more than dilute each of the brand's individual sales."

Not in the least bit. Hell they shoulda kept pontiac!!! 1st mistake was doing away with the GTO after 2006, it was one of my favorite cars that GM has put together "again". Plenty of power and performance for the price. They also had plans to bring the trans am back in 2011 which would have competed with the new 2011 mustangs that are hitting the market (in that gay ass blue color I might add). All GM has is the Camaro or vette if you wanna got that route. The solstice was also a neat little ride, kinda like a crossfire in my opinion, I would never own one, but all in all I don't think it's GM was rebadging anything. That's my .02

[Edited on February 15, 2010 at 7:36 PM. Reason : .]

2/15/2010 7:35:51 PM

yeah, it was such a mistake killing a car that nobody bought.

2/15/2010 8:25:43 PM

Quote :

"nobody bought."

and I'm still wondering why?

2/15/2010 9:05:12 PM

Quote :

"I would never own one, but all in all I don't think it's GM was rebadging anything."

Look at Pontiac's line? How many of them are nothing but rebadging of Chevy/Saturn cars? I'm not talking about the past where there were unique cars in Pontiac's lineup.

They discontinued the Grand Prix, which was relatively unique to Pontiac's lineup. as you mentioned, they discontinued the GTO, which was unique to the Pontiac Lineup in the US (and I agree, it was a great car, people raved about it's cousin, the Holden Monaro IIRC).

Now look at the lineup. The Pontiac G6 is just a Malibu. The G5 is just a Chevy Cobalt. The G3 is just a Chevy Aveo. The Torrent is just a Chevy Equinox. The Vibe is just a Toyota Matrix.

So what do we have left that's unique to Pontiac in the US Market? The Pontiac G8, which is a rebadged Holden Commodore. A nice car, certainly.

The other Pontiac, the Solstice is practically the same as the Saturn Sky, even though the Solstice was released first, and I don't think either of them have been big sellers.

So why should I get a Pontiac over a Chevy? Because they used to have cars unique to their line up?

GM killed Pontiac by producing nothing that was different to consumers. Yeah, they had the G8, which sold very little.

If GM wanted people to look at the Pontiac brand, then they needed to produce something that would be different. But GM thought that by offering consumers the same car under different brands, that they would sell more. Instead, they just raised their costs higher without moving anymore cars. They tried taking the idea of rebadging the same car for different brands too far.

They had Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn selling mostly the same cars with very similar features and performance options. It ended up making Pontiac and Saturn largely redundant in the marketplace, while doing nothing but raising the cost of manufacturing the cars higher.

2/15/2010 10:52:11 PM

good luck buying an new pontiac. a friend with an almost 800 credit score and around $10K down got denied for one. WTF is up with that

2/15/2010 11:24:23 PM

^Sounds like he maxed out his debt/income ratio. Credit score and money down won't help you get financed if you are already at the lending limit, especially when the economy is as low as it is. I mean, shit, interest rates on deposit accounts and CDs just fucking went down AGAIN for some institutions.

Anyways, like I said, it sounds like a personal problem rather than one with the dealership.

[Edited on February 16, 2010 at 12:16 AM. Reason : .]

2/16/2010 12:13:38 AM

I couldn't figure out why the G8 didn't sell well. It compared very well (performance-wise) to the BMW 5 Series, yet for $10-25k less. It also didn't hurt that the G8 GT was the most powerful car for less than $30,000 that money could buy. If I was in the market for a full-sized sedan it would have been my choice over everything else in the price range (Accord, Camry, Charger, Taurus, etc.).

2/16/2010 8:40:03 AM

the explanation is obvious. the build quality on pontiacs was so poor in the past that no one would even give them a chance on the G8.

2/16/2010 9:00:30 AM

I don't think it's a build quality issue. I think it's the brand's image that is the problem - remember the plastic clad shit mobile called the Grand Am/Prix? They were built of crappy materials with awful styling, but they ran well enough. I didn't like the G8 because of the tail lights. The altezza crap looked stupid.

I see a Solstice coupe on my commute about once a week. Sharp looking car. I found one company that sells V8 conversions with a Google search.

I'd like to pick up a GTO in a couple years when they depreciate a little more and do a Monaro conversion. But I've got a lot of other vehicles I'd like to own before then.



A Holden Commodore conversion would be cool too.

2/16/2010 9:41:44 AM

^6 What he said about Pontiacs being mostly rebadged versions of other cars, though the G6 was vastly distinctive from the Malibu. The GTO was a nice car...when it came out in '01 as the Monaro. GM didn't export it to the USA until 2005, and they kept the bland bodywork. Granted it performed well, but it's competition all had much more evocative styling. The G8 was great, but performance sedans were not what the market wanted at the time.

2/16/2010 10:05:57 AM

Quote :

"^Sounds like he maxed out his debt/income ratio. Credit score and money down won't help you get financed if you are already at the lending limit, especially when the economy is as low as it is. I mean, shit, interest rates on deposit accounts and CDs just fucking went down AGAIN for some institutions. Anyways, like I said, it sounds like a personal problem rather than one with the dealership. [Edited on February 16, 2010 at 12:16 AM. Reason : .] "

i see.

2/16/2010 11:21:01 AM

the gto is a hideous car. what are you guys thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!

2/16/2010 12:47:50 PM

The reason why people didn't buy the GTO is because it looks like an overweight Cavalier (I used to have a Cavalier). I thought this was common knowledge. The first year of GTO was particularly bad for this styling. Performance-wise, it was like buying a Camaro with more weight and IRS. Then they put on some Autozone-looking hood scoops and quad tips the next year, but the public continued to ignore it. Even the LS2 couldn't save that thing.

[Edited on February 16, 2010 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

2/16/2010 2:42:41 PM

Quote :

"I couldn't figure out why the G8 didn't sell well. It compared very well (performance-wise) to the BMW 5 Series, yet for $10-25k less. It also didn't hurt that the G8 GT was the most powerful car for less than $30,000 that money could buy. If I was in the market for a full-sized sedan it would have been my choice over everything else in the price range (Accord, Camry, Charger, Taurus, etc.)."

I love my G8 GT! Drove all the rest and it was the winner hands down. The G8 doesn't drive like a big car at all.

2/16/2010 2:43:21 PM