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Walk Around

When the Solstice stole the 2002 Detroit auto show, it was displayed in two body styles: the now familiar roadster and a sleek coupe. Both shapes were created by Franz von Holhausen, a young GM designer who went on to star at Mazda and now works for Fisker. The official assignment to GM's design staff, handed down by Bob Lutz, was for a compact roadster. Von Holhausen's sketches dutifully answered the assignment, and obviously emerged, from dozens of design submissions, as the choice for the show car. But he also submitted variations for a slick two-seat coupe, which he actually preferred over the roadster.

Both body styles were shown in Detroit, but the coupe was a mere fiberglass mock-up, with no interior, while the roadster was a complete car, capable of moving under its own power. And it was the roadster that went into production, while the coupe concept simmered on a far back burner, never quite abandoned, but never green-lighted for production. Until now.

Like the roadster, the coupe has classic sports car proportions: long hood, wide track, limited front and rear overhangs, a look that's sleek, low, and ready for action. The coupe's rear hatch blends nicely into the shape, and the glass rear hatch lends a distinctive touch.

There's not a straight line, flat surface or right angle on the body of this car. The only body panel formed by the traditional stamping methods is the small section behind the front wheel well. The rest are created with a process called hydroforming, which uses extreme water pressure to press sheet metal into a mold. Hydroforming increases rigidity without adding weight, which in turn results in a stiffer platform, the key to responsive handling, reduced vibration and a smooth ride.

The GXP versions of both body styles can be distinguished by their black honeycomb grilles and small chin spoiler in front. They also feature expanded brake-cooling ducts around the fog lamps, polished dual exhaust tips and standard polished aluminum wheels.

The coupe has a targa top, with a removable roof panel, adding versatility to the package. There's also a convertible top option, a squarish piece with support bows that fills the gap left by the absent roof panel.

The roadster's convertible top is a triumph, stylistically. Granted, this car looks best with the top down, but even top-up the profile is stylish. The key to the slick look is a couple of Ferrari Dinoesque sail panels, or buttresses, book-ending the vertical rear window and snugged down over the teardrop fairings behind the roadster's seats.

These sails have a downside, however. They add complexity to opening the trunk or raising and lowering the top, which tucks under the rear-hinged trunk lid covering the entire back part of the car. Click the remote or a button in the cockpit and three latches pop loose: one in the center for the trunk lid, the other two outboard beneath the roof sails.

When it works correctly, the sails pop up and the trunk opens of its own volition. However, an owner will sometimes find himself pushing the sails up and lifting the trunk lid. To close the trunk, reverse the process, remembering to re-latch both sails. The entire job takes less than a minute, but it can be cumbersome just to drop a bag into the trunk.

Also, since there's no warning light on the dash, to be absolutely sure the trunk lid closes you have to stand behind the car and put hands as close as possible to the far corners of the trunk lid, then slam. Then you have to walk from side to side and make sure both roof sails are attached. When they're not properly planted in their attachments, they can look wrinkled and awkward.

The same process applies to opening and closing the top. There's a single release lever inside the car in the center of the windshield frame. Unlatch it to pop the trunk lid and you can heft the top back and drop it into the trunk from the driver's seat, but you still have to get out to close the trunk. It's not conducive to opening the roof at a stoplight if the urge strikes, or raising it quickly when the rain starts. And with the top stowed, luggage space diminishes to almost nil.

Interior

2009 Pontiac Solstice

Like all coupes and convertibles, the doors on the Pontiac Solstice are long, making climbing in and out relatively easy for a low-riding car, though not so handy in close-quarter parking lots. Driver and passenger sit hunkered down, with shoulders below the tops of the doors, Corvette-style. Some will love the feeling; others may feel uncomfortable with forward sightlines. The power height adjustment for the driver's seat will mitigate this problem for most.

We found the seats felt comfortable after two hours at the wheel. The seats are supportive in normal motoring, with a one-piece back and integrated headrests, but lateral support is just so-so for extreme driving such as a track day or autocross event.

For people space, particularly elbow room, the Solstice compares well with the Mazda MX-5 Miata, and its seats can accommodate fairly tall frames. The Premium Package leather in a Solstice GXP coupe we drove was well tailored, with GXP embroidered on the seatbacks.

Most materials are good quality, particularly the leather, soft plastic and trim plastic. However, the hard plastic on the doors and dash looks and feels too much like hard plastic.

The three-spoke steering wheel could be thicker, but the optional leather-wrapped rim feels great. Cruise-control and audio buttons are embedded in the spokes. The dash design is simple, handsome and effective. The panel sweeps up from the center console, over the gauges and into the door panels. The gauges sit at the bottom of deep tubes, and while they're nicely shielded from reflection, they could be better aimed toward the driver's sight line. Four circular vents move plenty of air.

The three climate control knobs are big and easy to find. The square stereo face plate stands out oddly from the flowing curves everywhere else in the car. The volume and tuning knobs are large and covered with the same soft, grippy material as those for the climate controls, making them easy to adjust when the car is in motion. A row of buttons sits to the right of these gauges for hazard lights, traction electronics, fog lamps and dash lights, right where fingers stretch from the right hand when properly wrapped around the steering wheel.

The window switches are awkward to reach. With forearm flat on the driver's door arm rest, and the left hand resting at the door pull, the window switches sit somewhere under the wrist. It's difficult to slide the arm back to reach them (or the mirror adjustor), because the elbow is blocked by the seatback bolster. The driver must contort his or her left arm to try to get fingers on the switches.

Although the coupe is better than the convertible in this respect, small object storage space is seriously lacking in this car, probably the biggest single strike against the Solstice as a daily driver or a long vacation drive. There's a decent-sized glovebox, and small a bin between the front seats on the rear bulkhead that will accommodate some CDs, but you can't get into it while driving and the plastic latch is easily broken. The coupe adds a pair of small covered bins behind the headrests.

The cupholders, which pull out from under the bin on the bulkhead, are as good as useless for the driver. Door pockets are conspicuous by their absence. And aside from the coupe's covered bins, there's no room directly behind the seats.

The roadster's trunk is tiny and the space is oddly shaped. Doubling as storage for the convertible top, it provides 5.4 cubic feet of space with the top up, and just 2.1 cubic feet of space with the top down. Those numbers don't truly tell the tale, however. The elephant in the trunk is the gas tank, a big box that leaves barely enough room around the edges for small, soft-sided, duffel-bag-type luggage. While storage space in other small roadsters may not look significantly greater by the numbers, the practical, usable space in most is significantly better.

There's no room for a spare tire. As with the MX-5, the Solstice comes with an emergency inflator strapped to the back wall of the trunk; in other words, air up that flat tire and continue. Or call a tow truck.

Stowage is better in the coupe. Because they didn't have to accommodate the large folding convertible top, the designers were able to move the fuel tank evaporative canister down several inches, creating a bigger storage well capable of holding at least a weekend's worth of clothing in duffels. However, this space diminishes substantially if the owner adds the convertible top option.

OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation is available on the Solstice. Turn-by-Turn allows subscribers to talk to a live advisor, who in turn sends complete step-by-step directions to the vehicle through the OnStar system. These audio directions automatically play through the vehicle's stereo as needed, triggered by OnStar's global positioning system capabilities and ultimately leading the Solstice to its destination. OnStar calculates the route and relays it to the car, rather than leaving the calculations to an onboard computer and displaying them as directions or a map.

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