Photo: Garage Kept Motors
Pontiac has been dead for over thirteen years, with General Motors pulling the plug on it close to the end of 2010. However, some of its models are still popular among the right crowd, with Trans Ams still keeping certain enthusiasts up at night.
This story is not about a muscle model from Pontiac's past but something a bit more different: the Solstice. Designed to compete against the likes of the Mazda MX-5, it was made from 2005 to 2010 at the Wilmington factory in Delaware. It is estimated that a little over 65,000 copies saw the light of day in total.
Designed by Franz von Holzhausen, who was also responsible for the styling of Tesla's modern-day lineup, including the S3XY series, the second-gen Roadster, the Cybertruck, and the Semi, the Pontiac Solstice came in two body styles: coupe and roadster. Both were based on the same underpinnings, shared with the Saturn Sky and Opel GT, featuring one of the two straight-four gasoline engines available, a manual or an automatic transmission, and rear-wheel drive.
The copy pictured above is a 2007 model that packs the 2.0L turbo. The mill was good for 260 horsepower (264 ps/194 kW) and 260 pound-feet (353 Nm) of torque back in the day, delivered to the wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox in this case. The spec sheet reveals that the Solstice GXP took five and a half seconds to sprint to sixty mph (97 kph), and it was slightly quicker with the available dealer tune that bumped the output and thrust to 290 hp (294 ps/216 kW) and 340 lb-ft (461 Nm).
Since it only has 46,788 miles (75,298 km) under its belt, this Pontiac Solstice GXP should still have most of those horses running free under the hood. It features a white paint finish, a black rag top, five-spoke alloys, and a black interior with lots of leather, especially on the sports seats with their integrated headrests and GXP embedding. The car looks all original to us, and that's good news for anyone interested in this model, especially since it does not break the bank.
Quite the opposite, in fact, as it costs less than America's cheapest new car, the Nissan Versa. The latter has an MSRP of $16,390, and a nice copy should set you back close to $20,000. As for this Solstice GXP, it is much more affordable than that. Garage Kept Motors advertises it here, and they're asking $14,900 to let it go. We don't know about you, but we'd get this roadster in a heartbeat instead of a brand-new subcompact model, and we'd use the rest of the money for gas, insurance, and maintenance. But would you do that, too?
Designed by Franz von Holzhausen, who was also responsible for the styling of Tesla's modern-day lineup, including the S3XY series, the second-gen Roadster, the Cybertruck, and the Semi, the Pontiac Solstice came in two body styles: coupe and roadster. Both were based on the same underpinnings, shared with the Saturn Sky and Opel GT, featuring one of the two straight-four gasoline engines available, a manual or an automatic transmission, and rear-wheel drive.
The copy pictured above is a 2007 model that packs the 2.0L turbo. The mill was good for 260 horsepower (264 ps/194 kW) and 260 pound-feet (353 Nm) of torque back in the day, delivered to the wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox in this case. The spec sheet reveals that the Solstice GXP took five and a half seconds to sprint to sixty mph (97 kph), and it was slightly quicker with the available dealer tune that bumped the output and thrust to 290 hp (294 ps/216 kW) and 340 lb-ft (461 Nm).
Since it only has 46,788 miles (75,298 km) under its belt, this Pontiac Solstice GXP should still have most of those horses running free under the hood. It features a white paint finish, a black rag top, five-spoke alloys, and a black interior with lots of leather, especially on the sports seats with their integrated headrests and GXP embedding. The car looks all original to us, and that's good news for anyone interested in this model, especially since it does not break the bank.
Quite the opposite, in fact, as it costs less than America's cheapest new car, the Nissan Versa. The latter has an MSRP of $16,390, and a nice copy should set you back close to $20,000. As for this Solstice GXP, it is much more affordable than that. Garage Kept Motors advertises it here, and they're asking $14,900 to let it go. We don't know about you, but we'd get this roadster in a heartbeat instead of a brand-new subcompact model, and we'd use the rest of the money for gas, insurance, and maintenance. But would you do that, too?
Google News