I didn’t even know they made a coupe!

In reply to NickD :

...or better yet...

Are you saying if I bought it for $20K, that YOU could sell it for $38K if I offered you a $3000 seller's bonus? 

NickD said:

SVreX said:

That one is a turbo GXP. 260 hp. Manual. 
 

If anyone is interested, they are asking $24,900.
 

I think all the Coupes were GXPs, but I'm not certain. Also, that price is honestly low for what I see these going for. I see a lot of them for sale for $38-40k.

"he Pontiac Solstice Coupes are considered to be quite rare: There were a total of 1,266 Solstice Coupes that were able to be manufactured before the production line in Wilmington, Delaware was shut down: 102 pre-production 2009 models, 1,152 sequentially vin'd regular production 2009 models, and 12 pre-production 2010 models. This is in contrast to over 64,000 of the Pontiac Solstice Convertibles that were manufactured."

There were definitely non GXP coupes, I think rarer technally. 

SVreX said:

In reply to NickD :

Are you saying if I bought it for $20K, I could resell it for $38K??

Hmmm...

Before Corona, probably true. Now??? 

Let's hope this is not a Corona based sell off.  I could see it being a small business owner offloading assets to keep a business afloat. 

John Welsh said:

SVreX said:

In reply to NickD :

Are you saying if I bought it for $20K, I could resell it for $38K??

Hmmm...

Before Corona, probably true. Now??? 

Let's hope this is not a Corona based sell off.  I could see it being a small business owner offloading assets to keep a business afloat. 

Locally iin the last 4-5 days, bunch of NSX and 911 Turbos came on for sale. Prices are NOT low, but all of them say "need money for business, give best offer"

I am hoping to pick up an NSX (yellow or orange) if more people get desperate to offload. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Not me. 
 

It was sitting on a back road in front of a mobile home park in a very rural town in SC. I'm pretty sure if it was a business owner trying to raise cash, he would have put it in a better location. 

So, nice example Corvette C6 coupe money?  Wonder what Flyin' Miata could do with $25k and a clean NC...

I get that they're rare but it seems like it would be very hard to rationalize that kind of cash.

Peabody here said:

NickD said:

 I remember being so hyped on these and then the first time I got to drive one when I started working for GM, I walked away disgusted. Soooo disapppointing.

That was my experience after test driving one. I was really interested. That changed about 45 seconds in.

To be fair, the one I drove was a turd, but even if it wasn't I don't think I would matter. Underwhelmed was the word that came to mind.

Lets point out that Peabody is something of a GM fanboi who has extolled the virtues of Cavaliers and Cobalts in the past. So this is saying something. 

I always loved how they looked, both coupe and convertible. But the coupe never got cheap enough, and the convertible has so little trunk space it is a non-starter. I looked at one, and it effectively had less trunk space than an MR2 spyder because of the shape of it with the top down, not to mention the fact that the trunk opened backwards making it harder to load. That top and trunk were just stupid packaging, as Nick mentioned.

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

Hey, our review of the Solstice GXP coupe is still online. 

And a Solstice GXP coupe Reader Ride as well. 

In reply to mtn :

You have a much better memory than me.

And while I may have extolled the virtues of my automotive choices, I'm not blind to what they really are. But you're right, the Solstice did get the benefit of the doubt, and it failed miserably

mtn said:

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

I've always heard the rumor that GM will never let anything compete against the Corvette which is why the Fiero came with a 4-Cylinder as opposed to a turbo'd 6 and the Solstice didn't have a V8.

-Rob

rob_lewis said:

mtn said:

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

I've always heard the rumor that GM will never let anything compete against the Corvette which is why the Fiero came with a 4-Cylinder as opposed to a turbo'd 6 and the Solstice didn't have a V8.

-Rob

I think the main reason the Solstice didn't come with a V8 was it would have been hideously unsafe and GM didn't feel comfortable unleashing such a terror on the public. Also, keep in mind, this was the era where GM was pushing the Ecotec 4-cylinder as the small block V8 of the future (their words in fact)

rob_lewis said:

mtn said:

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

I've always heard the rumor that GM will never let anything compete against the Corvette which is why the Fiero came with a 4-Cylinder as opposed to a turbo'd 6 and the Solstice didn't have a V8.

-Rob

Wrong.  The Fiero came with a 4-cylinder because John Z. sold it to GM brass an economy car, so putting anything other than a 4-cylinder would have killed it before production.  This is also why it didn't get upgrades or improvements to make it faster/better/more expensive until much later because it was an economy car.

Stefan said:

rob_lewis said:

mtn said:

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

I've always heard the rumor that GM will never let anything compete against the Corvette which is why the Fiero came with a 4-Cylinder as opposed to a turbo'd 6 and the Solstice didn't have a V8.

-Rob

Wrong.  The Fiero came with a 4-cylinder because John Z. sold it to GM brass an economy car, so putting anything other than a 4-cylinder would have killed it before production.  This is also why it didn't get upgrades or improvements to make it faster/better/more expensive until much later because it was an economy car.

And then, in typical GM fashion, they finally got it perfected and killed it off. Thus I call this trend Fiero Syndrome. Even more frustrating, for '89 they were looking at adding a convertible option as well as dropping the Iron Duke for the Quad 4 and the 2.8L for the 3400 Twin Cam, which would have given it some real punch

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

So, nice example Corvette C6 coupe money?  Wonder what Flyin' Miata could do with $25k and a clean NC...

Chuck Mallett did wicked things with these and LS motors.  Twin turbos at the rear, mini-tubs to fit fat, sticky tires, and other things.  He spent a couple hours showing a few of us his shop when it was in Cleveland.  

NickD said:

Stefan said:

rob_lewis said:

mtn said:

EDIT: Thinking about it, GM just keeps failing at a Baby Vette. Opel GT had the same issue, except it had no trunk that you could access from the outside. My dad had one to replace his totaled MGB when he was in college. It lasted for about 6 months before he replaced it with a Firebird, and the trunk was a leading reason.

I've always heard the rumor that GM will never let anything compete against the Corvette which is why the Fiero came with a 4-Cylinder as opposed to a turbo'd 6 and the Solstice didn't have a V8.

-Rob

Wrong.  The Fiero came with a 4-cylinder because John Z. sold it to GM brass an economy car, so putting anything other than a 4-cylinder would have killed it before production.  This is also why it didn't get upgrades or improvements to make it faster/better/more expensive until much later because it was an economy car.

And then, in typical GM fashion, they finally got it perfected and killed it off. Thus I call this trend Fiero Syndrome. Even more frustrating, for '89 they were looking at adding a convertible option as well as dropping the Iron Duke for the Quad 4 and the 2.8L for the 3400 Twin Cam, which would have given it some real punch

It was killed because it didn't meet the sales numbers set by management.  Basically, John Z sneaked it past management by calling it an economy car, then GM treated it as such and it died on the vine because all of the people who wanted one already had one.  If John hadn't been such a slimeball and played ball, he might have gotten a decent product produced with proper support.  I mean the Camaro and Firebird were relatively well supported, so there's precedence.

There's a shot of John Z working on the styling of the Fiero with cutaways of the X-1/9 and 914 on the wall, so he knew what he was doing.

RevRico said:

GM did that? Really? Wow.

No.  Technically Daewoo did it with the help of Opel designers in Germany.

GM put it in their lineup, which is, like, 10% as good

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

So, nice example Corvette C6 coupe money?  Wonder what Flyin' Miata could do with $25k and a clean NC...

I get that they're rare but it seems like it would be very hard to rationalize that kind of cash.

Pretty sure Keith has said that FM isn't building cars anymore.

I'm still tempted by the non gxps/redlines asking for 5-6k now, and the turbo cars for 7-8k. 

There was a wrecked coupe on my local Craigslist for about 5 min. 2 bad pics, but it looked like a mild rear end hit.

Wanted 1100 for it with a salvage title.

I missed it by about a minute......and the guy that bought it got it for $900

I much prefer the Solstice coupe to the convertible, hence my ownership of one of the 292 cars that came with turbo engine and manual transmission as my daily driver (it sits beside my alternate modern summer use sports car, a BMW Z4MC).

I have a hard time leaving anything stock, so my suspension chassis is all upgraded and my engine now puts out 375 bhp/375 Tq (without needing to go inside the engine). And it still gets great gas mileage when you keep it out of boost.

PS - a Chev V8 fits in there very nicely and the rest of the driveline is up to it, but I agree that GM would never have allowed a version with it to go forward as it would have equaled or bettered the Corvette, for less money.  I was going to say that GM wouldn't commit financial suicide but I guess that isn't true any more, is it?

Fits right in with much more expensive stuff at car get togethers.

And with the rest of the 'equipe' (some of which have now passed to new ownership).

I saw one in traffic last week and tried to get a picture, but couldn't get any closer.
 

They're so close to being really good looking. Something about the wheel wells makes it difficult to get a really tasty stance, and the details (front and rear lights, grille) are oversized and cartoony. But the overall shape is really well done. Love the short overhangs.  The coupe is so much better looking than the ragtop. 
 

Never driven one, but that's true of a lot of cars :)

We bought a black on black GXP coupe new.  It was a great car.  We had a gxp convertible prior and liked the targa coupe much better.  We sold it a few years ago with 9900 miles and got around 30k for it.  

My 5 year old has a pullback plastic car that came inside an Easter egg and it took me a bit to realize it but it's a Solstice coupe!