The Last of the Pontiacs

THE just-introduced, and just-cancelled, Pontiac Solstice coupe is already assured a place in automotive history, and not only because its fleeting production run lasted mere months.

This new targa-top Solstice is the last of the Pontiacs, the final breath of a brand that failed to adapt to a changing world. Once-proud Pontiac is being phased out by General Motors, its parent, and will be gone in 2010. The Solstice coupe, a fixed-roof variation of the four-year-old roadster, is Pontiac's last new model.

It could become something of a collector's item.

"We expect that total production will be in the neighbourhood of 1,100 units when we cease operations at the Wilmington plant by the end of July," Jim Hopson, a Pontiac spokesman, wrote in an email. All Solstice coupes will have sequential ID numbers, so owners will know exactly which car they have.

The coupe I tested was the hot GXP version, which comes with a 260hp, four-cylinder engine. Its window sticker of $31,045 ($45,173) created an expectation of polish and comfort that I felt, considering the price, it failed to deliver.

The cabin is spartan and the seats tolerable, but neither supportive nor particularly adjustable there is no place else for them to go in the cramped cockpit. Plus-size drivers should shop elsewhere.

There is virtually no convenient storage: no handy place for a cellphone or coins, and no storage in the enormous console, no cubbies or map pockets in the doors. A package shelf under the rear hatch is large enough to hold the bare essentials for a weekend getaway. But if you pop the fabric top when the roof panel has been left home (there's no place to stow the 14kg targa panel), the area is used to store that.

The power window controls are perfect for someone with six-inch-long forearms; otherwise, use your elbows. The dashboard instruments are partly eclipsed by the adjustable steering wheel, regardless of its position. The gauge faces and the radios digital display panel can be difficult to read, but it's only a problem during daylight.

The shifter for the five-speed manual transmission clanks. Wind and road noise with the top shut is enough to warrant checks that the windows and doors aren't half-open.

The turbocharged Ecotec two-liter four-cylinder makes an industrial whine but it is capable of pushing this 1,368kg car from zero to 60mph in 5.2 seconds. Fuel economy with the five-speed manual is 19 miles a gallon in town and 28 on the highway.

The suspension is too soft for hard driving. Despite standard Bilstein monotube shock absorbers, there is too much bobbing and weaving on grip-challenged 18-inch Goodyears.

The stability control can be turned off, but avoid this or be prepared for oversteer in spirited driving. In normal driving, the GXP is pleasant and stable.

Despite its many faults, the little coupe is sexy. Outward visibility is atrocious, but that's the price of being so stylish.

Creature discomforts aside, friends and family all wanted to ride in the coupe, the longer the trip the better. Beware of straying too far from home, though: Consumer Reports rated the reliability of the Solstice convertible as dismal.

So what sort of epitaph, if any, does the Solstice GXP coupe suggest for the once-mighty Pontiac? In many ways it is a rolling testament of GM's shortsightedness: a pinch of pizazz, a dash of panache, all mixed into a combined package of unmet promise.

New York Times