[FirebirdHank]

I'm very seriously considering buying a Solstice. I'm wondering what owners or previous owners have to say about them. What to watch out for, what problems they might have had. I am aware of the lack of storage and the power window switches seems to bug a lot of people.
I'm thinking the GXP-5 speed is the way to go.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Hank

[Lee]

My neighbor bought one for his son. I helped the son install a Borla exhaust system, pretty straight forward job and the kid LOVES it.

My wife and I have toyed with the idea of maybe getting rid of our Cobra replica, and getting a Mallett Solstice or Sky. We are not as young as we were, and having a roof and a/c is starting to sound appealing to us :-)

[nytrainer]

Originally Posted by FirebirdHank

I'm very seriously considering buying a Solstice. I'm wondering what owners or previous owners have to say about them. What to watch out for, what problems they might have had. I am aware of the lack of storage and the power window switches seems to bug a lot of people.
I'm thinking the GXP-5 speed is the way to go.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Hank

Bought a 5 spd GXP as a summer toy for my wife some years back with about 25k miles on it. Triple black. Fun car. We store it from Oct-April as we have summer hi perf tires on it and she has her DD suv anyway.
It has barely 40k miles on it now and just about every one of those are fun ones lol. I drove it to the PY open house, with my then 16yo son, a couple years ago and had a blast on the Pa country back roads.
My son, now older, got into autoX with some of his pals. He asked if he could use the Solstice at one event because his car was not ready. He's a quick study and good driver and between that skill and the light weight, rear wheel drive turbo power he put many of the other drivers in their place. Most of them were 40yo's with various BMW's and Porsches lol.
I'm 6'5 300 lbs and probably look like Herman Munster at the wheel but I drive it as often as I can, with the top down of course, and really enjoy it. You can get a low mileage GXP for well under 10k I would bet.

[yahooskidoo]

If you can find a coupe buy it!

[Half-Inch Stud]

Rally like the Solatice; any reason that it wouldn't handle better than a Miats?

[dataway]

I seriously think they are one of the best looking sports cars ever built.

[camerjeff]

I bought a Mallet V8 Conversion last year, you pretty much covered the major issues they have, almost Zero cargo space, power window switch's in a stupid location, also the 3 cup holders are almost useless, the 1 pop out one on the center console (passenger side) will break if you have a 16 oz bottle in it and you hit a bump. And the other 2 are behind the center console and as awkward to use as the power window switch's.
Also the convertible top is awkward to raise and lower, I was spoiled by my last 3 convertibles that you just undid the latch's and pushed a button to lower, and reverse the process to raise. You have to open the trunk, unlatch the top, get out of the car and carefully lower the top, push down both sides to make sure it is fully lowered, than close the trunk. Otherwise you can damage the top material or frame.

All my little bitch's go away when I drive it. I think it handles better than my 1989 Miata did, and with the 400hp 6 liter V8 under the hood it suprizes almost everyone. That being said the GXP's are pretty fast stock, and can be made to make as much HP as the v8 in mine with out that much modification. I would have to have a manual trans (But I am a snob when it comes to automatic transmission's in sports cars)

The things to look for are just normal used car issues, Like signs of abuse or neglect, and inspect the convertible top carefully, they are easily damaged and are no longer available thru GM, no aftermarket company has taken up the job of making a replacement top for them yet, and it may never happen. Inspect the top for rips or wear, also check its fit when raised, if it has sags or wrinkles when raised there can be a problem with the frame or it may just have stretched cables that tighten the top when it is raised and the flying buttresses are snapped down.

But the way they drive seems to make all the other issues with them go away, they stop and handle like a go cart. There are few aftermarket vendors but the few there are seem to go above and beyond to help people out so I would not let that deter your search.

As for a Coupe, yes they are rare, and that seems to drive up the prices to silly levels, a very nice convertible GXP with around 50,000 miles should sell for $8,000 to $12,000 depending on condition and mods done to it. A coupe in the same condition will sell for at least 2 times as much $$$$. Probably 3X. I also find the removable targa top clumsy (I know the top was made removable so it could still be titles as a convertible and would not be required to re crash test the body style for the feds) but the fact that you can not store the top in the car, and that they have practicly no rear vision to speak of makes me leave the 1200 or so coupes for the collectors and speculators. That and replacement parts for the coupe specific parts just do not exist. Coupes have been totaled out for fairly minor side impacts only to find that the doors & tail lights do not exist.

I love mine, and I would suggest you buy the best and newest example you can find, the 2006 cars (like mine) have some issues that were corrected for the following years, so I would suggest a 2007-2010 (yes they did make and sell about 60 2010 Solstice's) but they only made turbo's 2007-2010 if you want a GXP that eliminates the 2006 model year anyway.

Just FYI I think it is the 2008 model year that GM changed something to do with a vacuum pump (my V8 does not have one so I did not pay to much attention to the issue) and it causes some issue with the power brakes for the 1st couple of minutes the car is running, I think it is a hard pedal due to no vacuum pressure available until the engine runs for awhile. They changed it back to the original condition for the rest of the production run so if nothing else if you are looking at a 2008 model you could use the issue as a bargaining chip.

[GT182]

Not many Solstice coups were made. I believe it was only 400 or so as the Boxwood plant here closed up when Pontiac was shut down in 09. IF you can find one it will cost you as they are now considered collector cars. I've only seen 2 here in Delaware and the owners will not part with them. Yeah I asked, and it was a definite NO.

As for the Sky I don't think there was a coup. Only the Pontiac.

[unruhjonny]

I love the Solstice GXP coupes.

My only complaint (towards GM) about them was that GM built the more aggressive one as a Saturn(!??!) - and that they too quickly diluted the waters by introducing the Saturn Sky when the Solstice was still selling out on pre-orders.

Other than the two seater bit, that was an absolute home run on the coupe form as far as I'm concerned, and if the nutty prices ever go away, I just may seriously consider getting one;
Currently my daily driver shares the GXP's engine, and I have absolutely zero complaints about that engine - to this date I still have fun in my car... I can only imagine how much funner it would be as a RWD Pontiac

[shawn e.]

Friend had a GXP let me drive it....it was a blast I got on it a few time put me back in the seat but easy to handle. He traded it for a new Vette and took me for a hair raising ride then asked if I wanted to drive it. I said No LOL.

[dhcarguy]

I ordered a 2007 Soltice GXP on the morning of May 2nd. The first day Pontiac was open for GXP orders. The car came in the 2nd week of Nov. We paid sticker price for the car which was good because the other two closest dealers were putting a $10K premium on them. Ours was the first privately owned GXP in the Tri- State area.(Pa., NJ., Del). when our car did come in, the pontiac sales manager took us in his office and told us that one of the other dealers offered us $5K to NOT take delivery of the car. I am glad we turned them down.
I loved that car, and was by far the best performing car(and fastest 13. in the 1/4). It did have some quirks, but minor. SO MUCH fun to drive. Because we did not have a place to keep it garaged, I sold it in 2015 for $9300.00 with just 23,000 miles on it...I am still sorry I sold it, I should of tried to find a garage to rent. I do however recommend it NOT be your daily driver.

Dave

[GT182]

Kinda tight in them aren't they Dave. The Solstice GXP looked kinda hard to see out of too. I've never had the nerve to ask the 2 guys I've seen with them if I could sit in theirs. At 6 foot I don't know if I could get in and out without getting hurt. Well maybe call it crawl in and out. LOL

[dhcarguy]

Originally Posted by GT182

Kinda tight in them aren't they Dave. The Solstice GXP looked kinda hard to see out of too. I've never had the nerve to ask the 2 guys I've seen with them if I could sit in theirs. At 6 foot I don't know if I could get in and out without getting hurt. Well maybe call it crawl in and out. LOL

Yes Gary, It was not the easiest to get in and out of, unless the top was down. 2 of my sons-in-law are over 6' and they had I tough time getting in and out for sure.
I did'nt think it was too bad to see out of ....using the mirrors.
One Sunday morning around 6:30 I told my one son-in-law to come over and race the Soltice against my GTO on 263(York Rd.) around the corner from me. Nice straight road with no intersections. He beat me by a little over a car length.
It was also a great handling car but could get away from you on a turn if you were not careful.

Dave

[camerjeff]

I'm 5'10" and 220lbs and getting in is a little tight but better than other sports cars I have owned, my 6'3" father in law can drive the car but it is a tight fit. He could not even get into my old 1st series Miata.
As for handling the original tires were junk, even the GXP's original tires were not the best. When I bought my 2006 last year it still had the original Goodyear tires on it. They only had 18,000 miles on them but they were 11 years old. I was told they didn't have much grip even when new. My wife spun the car on here 1st drive in it, and won't drive it anymore, but she will ride in it. After that I replaced the tires with a set of new performance Michelin PS3+'s and the grip went from soso to fantastic.

[critter]

I drive a 2007 GXP every day. All of the faults have been covered. I would ad in that parts can some times be hard to locate.

My wife ordered this car and drove it for 70,000 miles. She then bought a Subaru BRZ so I inherited this as my daily driver. I'm 6'2" and 235lb. so it is snug. Then again, my daily driver before this was an 88 Fiero so I've become adept at getting in and out of tight spaces.

If you buy a GXP I would suggest getting a computer tune done. Once the car was out of warranty we did a basic tun that took it from 260 to 310hp. World of difference.

[Chief of the 60's]

I don't have one but a guy in my club has a turbo coupe.

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by critter

...
If you buy a GXP I would suggest getting a computer tune done. Once the car was out of warranty we did a basic tun that took it from 260 to 310hp. World of difference.

/\ this!

GMS1 was rated 290hp & 320ft/lbs
I good tuner can exceed that on a safe tune, on a bone stock car.
My signature says an estimated hp number, but quite frankly it's low - I have a pretty mean tune on it, and select upgrades that were installed before getting an aftermarket tune.
I was for a period where my warranty existed on GMS1.

[Chief of the 60's]

I would like to own a Mallet version

[unruhjonny]

V8 is great, but I needed something with better mileage for my daily driver.

I used to daily my Firebird, and I'm plain old done with going broke driving a fun V8 car daily.

[camerjeff]

I understand the MPG concerns for a DD, my V8 5-speed manual averages just over 20 mpg, a 2.0 turbo will get over 30mpg on the highway and average around 38mpg, the 2.4 N/A will get a little less about 28 highway and 26 average. But I don't know how what a tune will effect the mpg, but it will up the fun level greatly.