The stock Solstice, like any car, is a compromise crafted by the marketing arm so as to suit the maximum number of consumers. That means that fanatical driving enthusiast like me will find them to be a bit too soft and usually to have a little too much understeer at the limit, but if they'd set the cars up to suit us, all the little old ladies (and I include many reviewers in that) would have cpmplained that they were too stiff etc.
The easy solution is to add readily available after market and factory parts that accomplish tuning the suspension to suit yourself. I bought the car, but before I took delivery, I had already ordered the factory upgrade to send the power from 260 to 290 BHP and the TQ from 260 ft-lbs to 340 ft-lbs.
I drove the car a lot in the first couple of weeks of ownership in order to decide just what I wanted to do to the suspension (I have lots of experience in setting up race cars) and then added heavier factory sway bars front and rear (part of the mentioned ZOK kit - nothing magical about having had the car special ordered with those parts, BTW as anyone can add them later). I added 3 different parts that all seve to add torsinal stiffness to the chassis, and a set of adjustable race struts with stiffer springs and then left well enough alone, being very pleased with the results. Mild undesteer easily countered with power.
The traction control and Stabilitrak controls on the modern GM cars are very, very good, and unlike some cars, are also defeatable - either to go to competition mode (no traction and reduced stability control inputs) or to turn them off completely fro track use. Which is why the cars won T2 a couple of years running - they make very good solo competitors.
They make an excellent enthusiast car but like mblommel said, that sure doesn't come through in the article.
The Fiero was different - they went cheap on the suspenions just to talk GM into allowing production - Citation front cradle moved to the back and Chevette suspension up front in 1984. Finally in 1988 they went to a commpletely different suspension,the one they should have had to start with. I still own an 88 Fiero and also owned an 87 (old suspension style) at the same time so I can say from experience that the 88 was far superior.
There was no bodging like that with the Solstice. They simply set quite sensible suspension settings and left it to the after market, or their own parts easily available foor the purpose, to serve the relatively few owners that would want to go that way.
Where I feel they did sort of blow it was with the power. All the magazine comparison tests found the GXP to be comparable in performance with the peer group they tested them against and conclusions vared depending on the other cars in the tests. Had GM released the GMPP tune that kicked it up to 290/340 as mentioned above, the cars would have cleaned up in the performance category on all the tests and that might have been very beneficial to sales.
Nonetheless, the handling is good, and the engine is a small (2 litre) marvel, the highest specific output engine ever produced by GM, and with after market tinkering, you can get around 400 BHP before you have to start going into the inside of the engines to strengthen various components. Getting, say,350 BHP and th torque of a small V8 with minimal work, plus gas mileage of 28+ mpg is a rather nice combination.
No one should dismiss these cars as possible purchases without driving them, and certainly not on the basis of a recycled article with some facts but a fair bit of inaccuracy. It is the first American vehicle in 20 years I'd want to own, an I say that as a die hard British car owner.
