Pontiac Solstice Review - Cheap Sports Car - GM Builds a Miata -Test Drive | Everyday Driver

gm built a miata i mean kind of they looked in the early 2000s bob lutz was in charge of gm they thought miata's really cool and bob lutz likes small sports cars gm who was building trucks and monster things decided to build a sports car he fought for it and the result is this the pontiac solstice you're watching everyday driver we make a tv show podcast and youtube channels helping you find a car you'll love this is our second cheap car challenge and with the help of autotempest we're doing a year of adventures in 7 500 sports cars subscribe so you don't miss a thing what a great car very cool imagine the entire pontiac brand yes what a great thing yes to start off the reimagined brand right before 2009 when the economy pretty much collapsed and they stopped making this car yeah was on the block and this was one of the companies and brands that just went away along with all future thinking that really could have been something because this feels like a version 1.0 and you can tell when you get in this car you can feel the old thing you can feel the the first time we're doing small we're going really small yeah small what do you mean small how small are we going we're going under 3 000 pounds yeah small yep 2 900 pounds here which on one level i'm really impressed that it's that light yeah on another level i kind of think it should be 25 or 2600 i'd like it to be smaller still yeah i agree but this is this is such a really cool car i've always liked these i think the design is aging very well you just don't see them for sure and because they are the unknown car they are available for cheap this is not the turbo model you can get it in turbo which is about 250 horsepower and torque this is the naturally aspirated four-cylinder this four-cylinder as well as most of this car was out of other gm cars yeah the significant thing here is this was a four-cylinder that only had been ever been mounted transversely for front wheel drive they've turned it longitudinally sports car thinking five speed manual one of the craziest most complex top mechanisms you'll ever see which leaves you with almost no trunk space but it looks great and you know what it drives really well it really does i've forgotten how well it drives yeah we drove one of these cars very early on in everyday drivers history yep and it has been since then it's been over a decade it's been over a decade yeah now pontiac in their wisdom gm in their wisdom decided to make a sister car to this it was under the saturn brand it was called the sky the red line it has the turbo the gxp as todd said is the one with the turbo on this car but i'm glad that we don't have that kind of power to cover up any glaring qualities or sure you know things issues that this car might exhibit but it feels small and light although it still feels like it could be lighter it does way down in there it does yes sitting everything is pretty tall around you even though this instrument panel slopes towards the driver and passenger it drops away pretty quick but in comparison already to the miata which feels that's the fastest bigger plate yes this feels robust it also look at my space now look the wind is over my head i'm looking completely through the windshield this one's definitely added down it could be a little bit a little bit but i can fit well in this car i have space it is a roomy cabin i fit completely in it my head's completely in it i don't have any of the problems that i had in the nb now this doesn't feel as light on its feet as that nb but 177 horsepower is decent it's decent what it does is it creates that same momentum think that you have in the miata where you have to earn your speed this one the engine doesn't feel as willing as it does in the miata it feels like you kind of gotta convince it to go for something but then once you get this car moving you get up in the high part of the rpm what's interesting is it does turn in really well yeah and the balance here i i promise you that the balance of this car is better than you think whatever your preconceived notions are of this car it drives better than you expect yeah it actually it turns in pretty quick and it's wonderfully progressive there's just you turn in and the body rolled everything just follows exactly as you anticipate it will you think it's going to feel like this and then it feels that way or better i'm so impressed with the dynamics of this i i really wish this car had survived for a what's the next gen not to mention the thinking behind this car not just the fact that the car would continue to exist but that small car thinking that sports car thinking yes we wish that would have continued now there are many versions of this as far as where and age yep and how well it's been kept yeah this particular example is as perfect as you can it's pristine it's personal it's yes but many of them are as low as five yes and at that point well you've just got a gm it's like buying a small corvette yeah probably just gonna run absolutely and it's probably not gonna cost you very much to do it the weird thing about the solstice and the sky the problem is that the parts are never what you think they are they probably came off of something in the gm lineup that is a surprise to you outside of the body there's very little bespoke in this car most everything came off of something in the gm lineup which is why they made it in the first place so that means there's a little bit of an easter egg hunt to try to find your parts yeah but everything is out there that's what's great and it's all gm inexpensive which is really nice we've said it on the podcast before i have to mention it one more time i have to say it all right this should have survived this should be lesser corvette the corvette could be a three model lineup this is the base the front engine corvette the update of the c7 becomes the middle corvette and the big mid engine is the top one you have a three model corvette lineup this should be the corvette solstice i totally agree keep advancing it it would be wonderful they kind of did with the solstice coupe which was very rare owners are hanging on to them even yes and speaking of beautiful this reset pontiac's entire look there weren't just typical shapes around the car it was just clean and surface and the proportions really do work well i remember driving this car when we the first time around we drove it yeah yeah we just thought at that time sports cars lightweight sports cars are always just going to exist and then this was taken from us yeah you're right look at the interior i will say that it looks a lot like the toyota a80 fourth generation supra interesting very driver focused and it's just a flat panel with the knobs just kind of stuck on it almost feels kit car in a way yeah and the issue with the solstice is that it's not like the miata community there's not going to be the parts availability right right so if you choose this if we choose this you have to acknowledge well the parts aren't going to be there to upgrade it to make it better you want to either get the gxp and go get that turbo or this is the car you're stuck with but is that a bad thing it's not a bad thing it's a very good thing i think this interior is the one place that says early 2000s gm because it is this this will not where it's plastic fantastic in here where happened that's too bad this stereo was dated the day they put it in it's still very dated that is too bad but you're right the durability here is going to be through the roof and if you can find the parts and pieces you have something unique you just don't see and it dries you have to drive it it drives so well it does and now when people see it they go oh yeah yeah pontiac and gm tried that mini corvette it'd be awesome it'd be amazing it should be you have to drive this i can't i'm excited for you to drive it drives so well i'm excited oh yeah this heat is really down i think we found the winner the car that really can't store anything it cannot store your little glove box here cup holders there's one other cup holder that folds out of the side here but i think gm allowed themselves to throw out any notion of storage or practicality or anything like that they just said let's do this it does feel like a fight though don't you think yeah the way it's constructed the the plastics and the fact that that motor really doesn't rev too high i mean it can redline's almost 7000 rpm but it finds the personality at the top but the first like three or four thousand rpm there's nothing there it has nothing to say about itself other than barely moving and then all of a sudden it kind of wakes up at the end which is nice but man when you set up from a stop there's no personality at all i agree it's almost as if you can feel the meetings yeah many people wanted this car to be one thing and then other people said no no no if we're going to build a small car and we're going to do this we're going to win you can tell everybody pick their battles yep you're right that does just hang on cool it just hangs on so much oh it gets better there's road feel in this car proving gm can do it yes there is road feel there's precision and that means there's just fun to be had in this car yeah and the transmission's good too it is i mean i can heal and toe in this car i know i know and well that was a fun that's exciting gm had a way they'd actually place their pedals at the time and they discarded that for this car to allow you to be able to heal toe that's how much group think is being fought in this car you can really feel that and the people that buy these and want to take them racing they can there have been people yeah many people have decided to ls swap it because that just makes sense shoot it's a gm problem put an ls in there why not yeah the compromises of this car though that's a struggle for me because there's not going to be upgrades or mods to it you think well this is how the interior is yeah these are the seats i suppose if you just want a fun to drive convertible then we'll say this is the backed off one this is this six seven tents yeah it's just a fun beautiful car to look at and it does i think it's one of the prettiest cars of our lineup i agree i think it looks great i actually debate what between whether or not i think this one or the saturn sky looks better i think the saturn sky interior is a little bit better it's a little bit better i just can't stand the saturn name it's attached to the but it's a very cool car and i i think it is aging wonderfully well i i see what you are saying there is an issue with the fact this is such a moment in time it really is oh nine and then they never return and there's no support and to make it happen 509 out of so many other parts of other gm cars you don't have the well i'm going to go buy solstice stuff there's not that dig in some of these others go through the solstice catalog and buy all the cool bolt-ons all right so we're way down in this car this feels like i love it it really is interesting even though it's light it feels heavy because everything is up so high around you so you're down on it sure it does feel big in a weird way but i love the styling i love these twin humps i love the crisp line on top of the shoulders on top of the fender humps up here it looks great and the downshift you start to get to know this car think okay you're a gm fan it does start to feel like a mini corvette i like that you could go around this car see it's a momentum thing for sure the engine doesn't just pop into the next you know higher rpm it just rolls into you have to earn it in this car your speed is seriously earned here yeah yes it really hangs on through corners yes it does exhibit really great driving dynamics yeah it took a decade for me to come back and realize this is great this is a great car to drive it's not a car where you just fight for that corner accelerate harden in the corner hard brake downshift into the corner and then accelerate hard out this is just the cruise machine it feels that way to man you can cruise at high speed you can't i don't want to tell you the fact that this is a car that can actually hammer its way down a back road but i feel like you build your way up to it yeah you just kind of hold that speed you're not you're not fighting for i drive a little bit more you just hold that directly yeah feel the road happen underneath you and the car responds wonderfully agreed i suppose you could do that with the turbocharged cars yeah but it's almost the sweet spot for this car if you do that you just hang on to your corners sight through and you just kind of relax a little bit it's a little bit more of the cruiser here i think but i think it kind of competes against the slk in that sense that's the cruiser this almost feels middle ground between the miata and dressage like this is the midpoint i think you're right and the miata look it it is little and it's flighty and so this doesn't have some of that demeanor but i every time i drive this i'm surprised by how well set up it is yeah and i think it is seriously overlooked as a fun car but the good news is the real cheap ones still exhibit these driving dynamics and the ones that are expensive convertibles of this are still not that expensive the only ones that are really any money these are those coupes sure they're so rare they are but this interior is not aging well and there isn't support and these are the things that are keeping the prices of these down sure and if you're shopping under eight thousand dollars there is a there is a litany of these available and they're gonna be great i haven't found my want yet oh okay i like the dynamics i love how this car looks i haven't found the want okay it hasn't pushed me over the edge yet do your own 7 500 or less search click the auto tempest link in the video description and tell us in the comments what you've come up with

Channel: TestDrive

Views: 53,561

Keywords: Pontiac, Solstice, Cheap Sports Car Challenge, Test Drive, 2021

Id: AF5ftbiiuPk

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021