2009 Pontiac Solstice Coupe GXP Delivers the Most Excitement From Pontiac in 40 Years

::shrug::

The Solstice is proof of the decline and fall of GM.

1. The world's once-upon-a-time largest car company, with all of its resources and engineering capabilities, couldn't come up with a top mechanism as simple to use as the Mazda Miata's.

2. The Kappa platform the Solstice sits atop features a novel, strong, light hydroformed frame, yet it's reported to be perennial money-loser because it is complex to build.

3. GM chose to compete with itself by producing two different roadsters, rather than the Chevy Nomad concept which people might have cross-shopped against the Mini Cooper. (I'm just amazed and surprised GM didn't badge-engineer a version for Chevy, Saab, Buick, Hummer... they actually showed some restraint.)

Mazda continues to churn out Miatas, three generations and counting, while Pontiac is biting the big one, never getting beyond the first wave. There should be a lesson here, but GM has never bothered to open its eyes for the last 30 years. Why should anything be different now?

James2:
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The comparisons to Miata you mention are far from the major issue-- when the EV-1 a decade ago showed strong public appeal and customers were willing to be arrested rather than turn them over after the leases were up, GM chose to ignore its appeal, deciding they did not want to sell any car that it knew it could not sell lots of parts for over its useful life; that an EV is likely to outlast a gasoline car by several years only made GM less willing to go electric.

EVs only have one moving part in their drive train other than the transmission and differential, and even the EV transmissions do not need anywhere near as much service since they never have to sit at stop lights with their engines running, clutch bands engaged, slipping and wearing the whole time until the car starts moving and the clutch bands lock up.

Tranny rebuilds are the most expensive work today's cars are likely to ever need, since most engines usually last as long as the car itself so long as they receive all of the expensive maintenance-- tune-ups, adjustments, smog tests, oil changes, etc.-- they require.

It's that clutch slip at idle, and the slip it endures before lockup in first gear, that is responsible for most of the wear that requires tranny service and rebuilding. Since EVs do not idle, there is no such wear-- they take off fully engaged, and experience no slip in reverse, either-- there is no reverse gear, since EVs just need to reverse the rotation of their electric motors to back up.
Some EVs may use some forward gears, but will never need several gears, will never be as big, heavy and complex as gasoline powered cars, may not need rebuilding in the useful life of the car, and if rebuilding is needed, such rebuilds will be far cheaper and are likely only to be done only after more than 20 years of use. Even some Tesla sports cars, despite their outrageously high performance, had no transmissions at all.

In GM's view, no mufflers, catalytic converters, spark plugs, filters, or other parts to replace in electric vehicles mean less profit once the car's out of the showroom, and GM continues to appear to be just too greedy to abide by such a thing.

Even now, GM still does not want to produce a true electric car-- even the Volt is far more complicated than a real EV. The Volt is still less advanced than the decade-old EV-1 in that respect. The Volt will still need engine maintenance and smog tests, and stale gasoline in Volts chronically driven short distances may prove to be a problem.

I'd rather buy a Tesla Model S at twice the price than to buy a Volt or other GM product, since the Model S is full electric and so will save its owner significant cash while gasoline prices continue to climb; electricity prices may actually drop due to key advancements in renewable energy technology and "V2G" implementation.

Make no mistake: had Pontiac (or GM) wanted to "build excitement" as their old slogan boasted, the most direct way to have done it would have been to deliver a well-designed electric-- to have produced a car with even half the torque and horsepower of the Tesla would have created a firestorm, and it could have been done for less than half the price.

Not so long ago, GM's former top mouthpiece, Bob Lutz, acknowledged that killing the EV-1 was perhaps the worst mistake they ever made, but what did they do about it? Did they return to their winning number? No, they responded with something measurably less potent-- the Volt, with its engine, its complexity, and its inferior efficiency. Had they done nothing more than dust off the EV-1, called it an EV-2, given it lithium iron phosphate batteries already available and put it in showrooms, it would right now be sold out with a long waiting list just as the Tesla has... but that's not what they did.

Solstice? Ugh.

GM still shows no unmistakable sign they intend to produce a true electric other than mere words to that effect. GM will still fail despite all the current belt-tightening and monstrous government loans unless it gets serious about delivering a real EV. They cannot afford to deliver an EV years down the line... if they do, even if they are somehow still alive in some sense, they will be years behind the likes of much smaller, leaner, hungrier companies such as Tesla, Zenn, and even tiny Electric City with its modest Current sedan. Yes, GM and Pontiac continue to blow it, and they show no signs of willingness to overcome their own sad, pathetic inertia.

Its a shame that the negatives in both comments tie to Lutz. I'm amazed that GM hasn't been able to shed him given his role in the destruction of the company.

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