GM Could Reap Harvest Of Cars Off Solstice
Chicago Tribune

By Jim Mateja

December 08, 2003



General Motors will use the Detroit Auto Show next month to announce that it not only has approved production of the two-seater Pontiac Solstice, but also that it will start assembling the open top, rear-wheel-drive roadster soon, according to Auto Horizon, an Internet automotive information and research newsletter.



Solstice, you may recall, was introduced as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show just two years ago and proved to be an immediate hit.



Auto Horizon says GM initially will build 20,000 annually and work up to 40,000 units of the car.



It also says that a new four-seat Saturn, an unnamed four-seat Buick and perhaps a small open-top Hummer are candidates to share Solstice's new rear-wheel-drive small car Kappa platform.



Bob Lutz, vice chairman of product development for GM, recently told us that the return of the Pontiac Firebird is a dead issue.



But Auto Horizon says now that the GTO is here and because Solstice soon will be, Firebird's cousin Chevy Camaro is still a live issue and a small, rear-wheel-drive model could appear in late '06 off a new platform from GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia.



GM insiders, however, insist that while a small rear-wheel-drive Chevy sports car may be under consideration for the near future, it wouldn't carry the Camaro name if it did appear.



Stay tuned.

Interesting. Thanks! :thumbsup:

I had heard the Saturn Sky and Buick Bengal were dead, but it sounds like they'll be making some form of them if this is accurate.

If the Buick and Saturn variations are four seaters, it sounds like the Pontiac will remain the "performance" variant.

i am finding myself increasingly interested in a 4 seat version of this car, the wife is winning far to many arguements about the practicality of a convertible. if the coupe was 4 seat, i could be in the clear but otherwise i may have to settle for the chevy