Report: Solstice Coupe Cometh, CAFE Threatening Pontiac Plans

John Carder July 31st, 2007 11:20 AM Link

It’s gorgeous, reminiscent of the Alfa 8C.

Does anyone else hear echoes of the 1974 oil crisis? Suddenly all those big motors met the first CAFE, and poof, we ended up with 200hp Corvettes.

john July 31st, 2007 12:40 PM Link

Cars today are not hampered by the engineers abilities to get good gas mileage. They are hampered by size. Who needs a car the size of a Lincoln, DTS, 750L? Even the Grand Prix is too big for most people. Keep cars the size of the G6 or slightly larger, and keep the weight at around 3100lbs. Then the Solstice GXP engine could provide the power and efficiency without loosing rear wheel drive. Car companies need to stop force feeding us larger vehicles. We don’t need them.

Eric July 31st, 2007 12:59 PM Link

I agree . . . they could give us a rear-wheel drive car that is still light and fuel efficient.

jnaggs July 31st, 2007 1:54 PM Link

that solstice coupe is hawt. i have heard that GM is taking the turbo ecotec to 300 hp and beyond. no wonder they are moving the corvette up, they have to make room for the kappa coupe!

Ducati Major July 31st, 2007 3:24 PM Link

The Solstice hardtop is good news (even though I’m a diehard roadster fan), and so is everything else. To be honest, I didn’t mind the G5 or the Torrent. They may have been rebadged Chevys, but I sort of liked them in a cheap way. I don’t think Pontiac needs a CUV or SUV. It needs brawny vehicles, as it had in the 1960s. In spite of gas prices, there are plenty of people willing to own 300s and Chargers.

Don July 31st, 2007 3:33 PM Link

I agree with John…stop cramming cars with “safety” features that aren’t needed. There’s no reason a Civic should weigh close to 3,000 pounds.

jrlombard July 31st, 2007 4:03 PM Link

Wow, sorry guys I may be the only one but that thing is butt-ugly. The lines that are moderately successful as a convertible don’t translate well to coupe for me. It looks like a stink bug.

jrlombard July 31st, 2007 4:05 PM Link

Don,

EXACTLY!!! Take the new VW R32. The freakin’ thing weighs almost 3600 lbs????? That’s insane! I know that it’s all wheel drive and all, but that’s like 1000 lbs too much even WITH the all wheel drive.

Steve July 31st, 2007 4:44 PM Link

Yeah… Uhm… not diggin it. I was really excited for the day that this actually showed up, now I’m not sure how I feel about it!

dante July 31st, 2007 6:27 PM Link

The roadster looks like what any design student might absently doodle in the margin of a notebook during a lecture. This coupe looks like the doodle of the kid that didn’t get into school. The A pillar to side window has an awkward kink, the shape looks lbloated, and the B pillar too thick. That’s just what I don’t like about the new roof.

Austin July 31st, 2007 11:37 PM Link

I wish our “Small Three” would quite crying wolf about CAFE…

Do they think that the Big Three (Toyota, Honda and Hyundai) are going to stop filling every available niche — including those that the whiners would theoretically abandon because of CAFE?

Worse yet is that WR bothers to reprint all this blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know that I support the bump…but I definitely think the “threat” that GM can’t build any exciting cars because of it is complete rubbish. A silly PR campaign. WR, don’t let them use you.

Russ Bellinis August 1st, 2007 11:51 AM Link

Looks good except for that awful econobox grille. If the grille was extended past the turnsignal/parking light to incorporate them in the ends it would look shorter even if it wasn’t actually shorter. It makes no sense to build a sports car with a grille that comes off an economy car.

andrew August 1st, 2007 2:38 PM Link

i’d love a sky coupe, but then i don’t think you could call it the “sky” any longer, could you?

Russ Bellinis August 1st, 2007 6:34 PM Link

I also think GM, Ford, and Chrysler need to think it terms of what sort of cars do Americans want to buy, not what can we build to meet cafe standards. If the car is something Americans want to buy, they will buy it and pay the gas guzzler tax. If they don’t want it, they won’t buy it even if it meets cafe standards.

smokefreak2003 August 1st, 2007 7:14 PM Link

I cant wait until the CAFE standards eat into the middle age crisis cars=performance cars. Come on people, the climate is changing and we are past the half way point of expected world oil consumption. It is 2007 35 mpg or less wont cut it anymore, Cars get almost twice that in Europe, Korea, and Japan, and they have been selling cars with 30+ MPG in the U.S. for 20+ years. A North American market Toyota Corolla might be bigger than it was 20 years ago, but it still gets the same gas mileage as a 2007. What does that say about the American market=we are selfish a-holes that do not care about the environment.

-Always Buy Foreign,
Less Customers will Teach the Big-3
How to make real cars again.

Winding Road » Archive » New York Auto Show ‘08: Pontiac Solstice Targa March 6th, 2008 4:26 PM Link

[…] reported back in July that Pontiac was indeed bringing a fastback coupe version to the market in 2009. Now, maybe that […]