The Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky were small, 2-seat sports cars offered by General Motors from 2006 to 2010. The Solstice was Pontiac’s first 2-seater since the demise of the mid-engine Fiero in 1988. The shutdown of the Pontiac and Saturn divisions was the end for the Solstice/Sky pairing, as no other GM division decided to pick up the models. Located in De Pere, Wisconsin, this 2006 Solstice may have been a weekend car, as the noted mileage is less than 18,000. You can drop the top and cruise around once you hand over $13,000 for the little automobile marketed here on Facebook Marketplace.
Pontiac found more success with the Solstice, which outsold its Saturn equivalent by about 2 to 1. The cars were powered by a 2.4-liter engine that was rated at 177 hp (naturally aspirated). They were built on the GM Kappa platform, which was also employed on the Opel GT and Daewoo G2X sold overseas. The Solstice had a good reputation in the Sports Car Club of America and was in the hunt for the North American Car of the Year Award in its first year.
This sports car has a 5-speed manual transmission, which could help deliver 26 mpg on the highway. The vehicle has changed hands at least three times, so perhaps the history of the automobile isn’t well documented. The Pontiac sports Summit White paint with a black leather interior. Everything looks shipshape, and I believe the body panels are made of plastic materials like most of the rest of the Saturn population.
An upgraded sound system was installed in the little drop-top, and the seller has a current CarFax report that would-be buyers can inspect. This sports car has spent a great deal of its time in the garage, which is a shame because these machines were made to be out zipping around, not hibernating. I can’t recall the last time I saw one of these cars, even though Pontiac sold 65,000 Solstices and Saturn 34,000 Skys. Thanks for the tip, T.J.!
I had one of the very first Sky’s sold in TN, I loved the look and it was fun to drive. A little underwhelming in the power category, but the 5-speed manual was really good. Had a large tree limb fall out of the sky heading down a road to the lake – at 45 it almost decapitated us. Top off- it bounced off the hood, into the windshield frame, over us and onto the back deck. My wife was never comfortable in it again. I’d buy another if she’d let me…..
You SHOULD buy another one. You’re “pre-disastered” – what are the odds of that happening twice? (World According to Garp – plane into house being sold.)
First off, I love these. Having driven Fiat X1/9s, Porsche 914s and Boxers and Toyota MR2s. The driving feel of these is totally different than any of the cars mentioned. And that’s in a good way! The closest to feel is the BMW 2 seater roadster. And the handling (although different) I believe is better than the BMW. (I got to really wring out the coupe version of the BMW that was in this country for test before being available for sale.) And the boosted 4 cylinder is an absolute riot to drive! I dearly would like to own one of these. (The closest I got was my demo for a week.) But my wife is scared to death driving in a small car. We spent a couple of days in a C6 Corvette and she was a nervous wreck.
On my way to work one morning. My heart skipped a beat as I saw a Solstice that lived in my neighborhood off to the side of the road with some obvious front end, windshield and roof damage and 2 dead horses in the middle of the highway. (Dead horses and highway are not that unusual in the highest population of 4 legged Mustangs in the country) The driver of the Solstice was in our dealership that afternoon ordering a new one. She was so impressed with the way the car help up and loved driving it. That she wanted a new one. And yes the car was totaled.
over riced Saturn. building crap like this no wonder Pontiac got the axe
I have to disagree with you there hairy. I bought a low mile used ’06 for my wife and we had zero issues with it during our ownership. It was fun to drive and got compliments all the time. I guess anything thats not a hairyolds is crap though . . .
Ironic that Olds got the axe before Pontiac. Were they even more crap?
These are really nice cars. A friend had the GXP version that put out 260HP what a great car handled like it was on rails and never a bit of trouble.
“over riced”? Are you sitting me?
The Pontiac version came first, entering production before the Saturn by several months.
Ever driven one, hairy?
Thats no crap i can tell you that
The grill treatment of the Solstice was far better than the Sky in my opinion- and the Sky left me in the wanting for the earlier version as the Sky was a backwards design element. My thought about this design is (in my imagination) is that vehicle design will eventually evolve into no visible headlamps and tail lamps- and that the smoother lines of the vehicles of the future will eliminate every external addition, and illumination will simply emerge through the skin of the vehicle using properly disguising one-way reflective skin. This body I think deserves such a design- as does the Jaguar XKE Coupe.
The 240 hp version was a significant improvement but if you really wanted to shock someone at the stoplight hammer would build you a 900hp car
The 240 hp version was a significant improvement but if you really wanted to shock someone at the stoplight Mallet would build you a 900hp car
Solstice was an Awesome looking car! Underpowered unless you see the power Monkeys dropping “LS2’s” and larger engines in them! And Hairy the Aztek was the Death knoll for pontiac! Can anyone actually picture someone at the “Pontiac” dealership telling thier partner “Hey Honey” let’s get this Aztek it’s gonna make eveyone jealous!
There are so many of these for sale, I really can’t figure how this got written up on BF. Neither old nor uncommon. I’ve seen more and more plain old used cars on BF of late.
My next door neighbor has a black one. He did have two, a white one, but he wrecked it. A few years ago I was looking for one too, but I couldn’t find any that weren’t either hammered, overpriced or both. I settled on an SLK230. Glad I did. As for the Skye, I prefer its looks over the Solstice, but those are hard to find.
The Sky/Solstce had two (2) problems that hurt it in the marketplace. First, the top was bit of a hassle to raise and lower. Not MG awful, mind you, but not as easy as the top in a Miata, either. Speaking of the Miata, that’s problem number two. By 2009, the Sky/Solstice was in direct competition with the Miata, which was a much better car in even in 1989, when it launched as a 1990 model, and now the Miata had twenty (20) years of refinement behind it. The GM twins were not exactly crude, mind you, just not quite as refined as the Miata was. Throw the Honda S2000 (1999-2009) into mix, and GM never had a chance! Only the Miata still survives to this day, so it’s game, set, & match, Mazda!
This was the second time in twenty (20) years that GM tried to build an entry-level sports car and failed (the Fiero was the first). In both cases, the cause was the same. Neither attempt could compete with Japan, Inc.
I agree. But both the Fiero (the last addition) and the Solstice were good cars. But generally GM had a poor quality/service reputation which was correctly deserved in most cases. And dealer reputation wasn’t the greatest either. It takes alot to overcome the reputation.
Lee Iacocca was right. “You can overcome almost anything except a bad reputation!”. Mr. Iacocca also observed that the American automakers were like the bad girl in town with a bad reputation. It takes a long time to convince everyone that you’re not that kind of girl anymore and have reformed. It takes a very long time before the grapevine gets the word and anyone believes her! GM has that problem. The products may be quite good by now, but because of all of the lousy cars GM has sold over the years, no one will take a chance on their new stuff now. Once burned, twice shy, seems to be the prevailing attitude regarding GM cars.
If GM can build just one car that outperforms anything from Japan, Inc., and won’t burst into flames or be the subject of an endless string of recalls, that will help, but so far, I don’t see anything coming out of GM to change my perceptions about GM’s quality, or lack thereof.
Another problem is they are niche vehicles..cars that will only sell to a narrow scope of buyers no matter how well you build them. I think GM expected the Sky/Solstice to be hugely popular despite the competition(that’s why they made two versions of the same car) but they fell far short. And they weren’t bad cars either.
True. The other big player in the space was Toyota, with the MR2, and that is no longer made either. At the time the Fiero and the MR2 were duking it out, you also had the Honda del Sol and the Mazda RX-7 on offer, and the market was just saturated with entry-level sports cars and sporty cars ( the Del Sol is a sporty car, not a true sports car IMHO, thanks to the front engine, front wheel drive configuration). By the time the Sky/Solstice twins were on sale, you still had the RX-8 and the Miata from Mazda, and the Honda S2000 as competition, so again, a small market that was saturated. Oh, and as much as I’d like to forget it, there was also the Aussie Ford sold as a Mercury, the Capri! Another FWD runabout, like the del Sol, that fell short in the marketplace.
Oh, and don’t forget, GM also sold a version of the Sky/Solstice twins as an Opel GT in Europe! The Sky was virtually identical to the Opel GT in styling, it just wore Saturn badges instead of an Opel nameplate here in North America.
Lots of comments about the underwhelming horsepower numbers. I think for what it is power isn’t terrible. It could use more but at some point you overworked the chassis.
With the money spent on trying to extract maximum horsepower from this decent chassis, check out the “Mallett” V8 conversion. A friend has one with the LS3 boosted. It exceeded 600 hp on a dyno!
As a topless lover , i liked these but they fell short with the useless trunk space , my z3 was better for that and my mr2’s had a bit of frunk space but the mid engine was unbeatable for the gocart feeling