2007 Pontiac Solstice
The only route west through the Pinal Mountains into Phoenix is via two-lane U.S. 60, which passes through the old mining town of Superior. I arrived to find weekend traffic backed up for miles due to an accident. This called for a decision. Option One: endure a possible hours-long wait for the road to reopen. Option Two: make a 180-mile detour south over narrow twisting roads through the Mescal Mountains and almost into Tucson. Then reverse course, heading northwest across the desert and into Apache Junction, to rejoin Highway 60 there.
I was driving a Pontiac Solstice, making this one an easy call. Roads like this are precisely what the compact roadster was created for. Peeling off from the endless line of fuming motorists sitting gridlocked, I turned south, heading out over deserted roads that soared over mountain peaks and wound through vast open pit copper mines.
It was a good choice. The nimble little roadster was in its element, giving me the opportunity to make full use of its four-wheel high-winding engine, double-wishbone suspension, beefy disc brakes and slick-shifting manual transmission. For all I know, the road might have opened again ten minutes after I'd headed south. But sometimes you just have to say, who cares?
You won't mistake the little Pontiac for anything else. That includes its mechanical twin, the Saturn Red Line, whose bodywork is different enough to prevent confusing the two. The Solstice sits low, like the Mazda MX-5 Miata. But in styling terms, it's less of a chick car, the flared wheel arches, twin-nostril fascia and big five-spoke alloys helping it to exude more of a butch presence.
Pontiac's strategy is to base-price the Solstice at a low $19,915. That gets you the car and not much else, which is the reason for a long list of options. The test car had the Preferred Package that includes powered locks, windows and mirrors and remote keyless entry. The Convenience Package added cruise control, driver information center (trip computer, engine diagnostics and maintenance information) and steering wheel-mounted controls for the sound system and driver-information center. The Premium Package included leather surfaces for the seats and steering wheel plus brightwork for the pedals and scuff plates. Other major options included the premium audio system with in-dash, six-CD, XM radio and MP3 capability, ABS, polished aluminum wheels, A/C and a limited-slip differential. Including shipping, the total came to $26,490.
Inside, the driver is treated to comfortable bucket seat with good lateral support. There's a big tach and speedometer with a tiny gas gauge in between that's buried at the far end of a long tunnel. The gauge is tough to read in daylight; I depended instead on the distance-to-empty feature on the optional driver information system. No other gauges are provided. That's a bit odd in what's billed as a wind-in-the-hair sports car. Like a lot of guys, I prefer to monitor the engine's health with gauges for oil pressure, coolant temp and volts, at the bare minimum. Anybody who's had an oil pump fail or suffered a blown head gasket will appreciate knowing about it before the engine has entered meltdown mode. But the product guys probably figured they'd be wasting money on gauges that most drivers won't check from one year to the next anyway.
Ergonomics are generally good. Three big rotary knobs control HVAC functions and the primary switchgear is equally well located. There are a few notable exceptions, though. Door panels leave a paper-thin gap next to the seats, meaning you'll need a two-foot-long pair of forceps to reach the backrest-adjustment knob. The awkward location of the only 12-volt outlet, on the lower left center stack, means the power cords of windshield-mounted radar detectors or nav systems must be strewn directly over the HVAC controls and primary instruments. And there aren't enough storage nooks; the single cubbyhole in the rear bulkhead is impossible to reach while in motion and the vestigial door pockets are too small to be useful.
I can live with that; it's a small car, although Mazda does a better job with the storage issue in the Miata. One major miscue I found infuriating is the autolocking doors. They lock at 5 mph and refuse to unlock when stopped unless the key is removed from the ignition. Automatic-transmission models equipped with the optional Driver Information Center can be programmed to defeat this nitwit feature. But in a manual-transmission car, if you want to open a door with the engine running or with key in ignition, you'll be forced to reach behind your left shoulder and pull up the lock knob or fumble with the keyfob switch. There's no electric door lock switch inside the car.
The steering wheel-mounted controls for the sound system and driver information system are somewhat useful. But you'll need to memorize their position since they're small, flush-mounted, most are identically shaped and none is backlit, making them tough to find, particularly at night.
There's a meaty three-spoke wheel to operate the hydraulically-powered rack-and-pinion steering. It's acceptably accurate and reasonably well-weighted but I'd prefer more feedback from the front wheels.
The body structure is exceptionally rigid with cowl shake almost nonexistent with the top up and scarcely noticeable with it down. At speed it's noisy inside-I measured 77 dB(a) at 70 mph, most of it wind noise, despite the presence of the $150 "premium acoustic headliner" option. At still higher speeds the optional Monsoon sound system struggles to overcome the din although speed-sensitive volume control does help somewhat. Top down, even at moderate speeds there's a substantial amount of wind buffeting in the cockpit. To reduce the turbulence, dealers have begun offering an optional mesh wind deflector that mounts behind the seats. I'd recommend buying it if you venture much above 45 mph with the top down on a regular basis.
The trunk is accessible by a rear-hinged lid and most of the area is occupied by the gas tank and suspension bits. With the manual top folded and stacked inside, there's just enough cargo room for a bite-sized overnight bag and a morning newspaper. There's no spare tire, only a can of tire sealant and an electric air pump. But this isn't the sort of car you'd choose for a cross-country trip, so who cares?
The near-50/50 weight distribution and quick, accurate steering deliver sharp turn-in and minimal body roll. Even on all-season tires there's enough lateral grip available that most won't experience the tail stepping out unless they've done something truly stupid. Even then, a dab of power and some opposite lock will easily set things right.
There were no electronic safety nannies on this early production car, no traction control, no computerized stability program, meaning the combined competence of the car and driver were all that was available to keep matters under control. That suits me just fine. This purity in driving was a refreshing experience in an age of electronic overkill, when even a complete klutz can grossly mishandle a car without serious consequences. (But StabiliTrak, GM's stability control system, arrived on the '07 cars, saving the klutzes of the world-and the rest of us who do occasionally make mistakes.) The brakes have superb pedal feel and are very progressive, making them easy to modulate. Maximum braking just shy of engaging the ABS returned die-straight stops from 60 mph in a scant 134 feet, an excellent showing.
The DOHC four-valve 2.4-liter Ecotec VVT uses variable valve timing on both intakes and exhausts to flatten the torque curve and the green engine on the test car developed adequate thrust through 6400 rpm. Although it redlines at 7000 rpm and the specs say peak power occurs at 6600, low-end punch is less than spectacular and the engine gets coarse at higher revs. I found myself short-shifting into fourth at 6400 rpm to speed up passing maneuvers. (The test car had less than 1,000 miles on the clock; with a well broken-in engine I'd expect marginally better performance at the high end of the rev scale.) Fifth is a long 0.73:1 and strictly for cruising. Using fourth, I saw a maximum speed of 123 mph and it took a couple of miles to achieve that.
The shifter is accurate enough but when hurried it requires concentration and a powerful tug to get it into second. The other gears are easily reached although it's happier when shifted with deliberation. You'll never miss a gear, but it's still no match for the Miata's toggle switch-like shifter action. Clutch effort is light and takeup is progressive, making the Solstice an easy car to drive. (For the vast majority of American drivers, pitifully incapable of mastering a manual transmission, a five-speed autobox is available, making the job even easier.)
Acceleration up to about 80 mph is reasonably good but it takes an aggressive launch with plenty of revs to extract the performance. The 0-60 mph sprint was dispatched in 7.30 sec. and 0-80 mph in 10.15 sec. One item of note is the influence of gasoline octane rating on performance. There were no advisory stickers on the early-production test car so, ignorant of the engine's 10.4:1 compression ratio (what, you expected me to read the owner manual?), I filled it with 87 octane. A later check of the owner manual revealed that Pontiac merely "recommends" using 91-octane fuel, saying that the engine will run acceptably well on the cheaper stuff. True, it did run without complaint, but it felt more lethargic than the rated 177 hp would suggest. After conducting a series of acceleration tests, I refilled the empty tank with 91 octane and repeated it. The net gain was 17 rear-wheel horsepower, translating into a quarter-mile time of 15.77 seconds at 87.4 mph. On 87 octane it managed only 16.48 sec. at 83.4 mph. 0-80 mph times dropped from 14.8 sec. to 13.05, a significant difference. Moral: buy cheap, go slower. Overall fuel economy averaged 20.4 mpg in very hard driving.
Pontiac released some go-fast bits for the Solstice nearly as soon as it was introduced.
Through your friendly GM dealer you can order a complete sport suspension kit,
for instance. Included are fatter anti-roll bars, tuned Bilstein gas shocks and higher-rate coils that lower it 7mm. There's also a tuned air intake and cat-back exhaust. With all three added, I'd surmise that the Solstice will go and handle with far more alacrity than it does in its as-delivered, lounge lizard configuration.
The Pontiac Solstice is a refreshing blend of retro-roadster nostalgia and thoroughly contemporary powertrain and chassis. Although it's a new model and destined for future tweaks, it's already within a whisker of the Miata in nearly all the key areas. Bolt on some of the extra parts and it'll easily match the Miata in performance. And most of my bitches about horsepower and handling will likely disappear in the bargain. If that's not enough, the new turbocharged GXP model is almost certain to give Mazda some heartburn.
