NY Times Reviews the GXP

[reedred]

Thanks to gmowner8 on the Sol Forum for the heads up!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/au...=1&oref=slogin

Around the Block | 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP
Adding a Bit of Brute to Cute


2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP

By EZRA DYER
Published: July 8, 2007

TESTED 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP

WHAT IS IT? Two-seat convertible sports car.

HOW MUCH? $27,115 base; $30,284 as tested with air-conditioning ($960), OnStar with one-year subscription ($695), AM-FM stereo with 6-CD changer ($495), high-performance Monsoon speakers ($395), rear spoiler ($275), XM radio ($199), premium acoustic headliner ($150).

WHAT MAKES IT RUN? 2-liter turbocharged in-line 4-cylinder with direct fuel injection (260 horsepower, 260 pound feet of torque) with five-speed manual transmission.

IS IT THIRSTY? E.P.A. mileage rating is 19 m.p.g. in town, 28 on the highway.

ALTERNATIVES BMW Z4 3.0i, $37,175; Honda S2000, $34,845; Porsche Boxster, $46,395.

AS a car enthusiast, the worst thing you can possibly do is recommend a particular car to a friend or relative. It’s a lose-lose proposition. If the person likes their new car, then so what? They were supposed to like it. But if the pendulum swings the other way and the engine shoots a piston through the hood on the way to the hospital to deliver the baby in a snowstorm — well, guess who’s taking the rap for that? You are, Mr. Car Expert.

Rewind to last summer, when I gave my father-in-law a ride in a Dodge Viper. He was in the market for a sports car, and I made an offhand comment to the effect of, “If you like the Viper, a Saturn Sky Red Line gives you 80 percent of the performance for 30 percent of the money.” The next thing I knew, he’d ordered this factory hot-rod version of the Sky. I immediately began researching real estate in places accessible only by floatplane. If the Red Line turned out to be more like the Flat Line, I might have to go off the grid for a while.

My recent drive in the Sky Red Line’s Pontiac twin, the Solstice GXP, indicates that I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. This is a car that’s a bit rough around the edges, but for the money it offers a compelling blend of style and performance. The GXP costs $5,000 more than the $22,115 standard Solstice, but for that you get an 83 horsepower boost over the 177 horsepower base engine, along with additional creature comforts, a sport suspension and a stability control system. Discounting the items that are available on the base car, the GXP package adds about $3,000 of exclusive performance gear.

If the naturally aspirated Solstice feels a bit sleepy, the GXP treatment injects a megadose of No-Doz. The main difference is under the hood, where the GXP houses a world-class little motor, a 260-horsepower direct-injected turbo four-cylinder. Bequeathed unto a two-seater, 260 horses gives 0-60 times in the mid-five-second range, which is snappy by any measure, but especially so for a $30,000 convertible.

The Solstice GXP is properly set up to harness that power, too.

Joining the General’s on-again, off-again charge toward rear-wheel-drive, the GXP’s limited-slip differential is nestled between the rear tires, where nature intended. Under throttle there’s some fun exhaust chortle and turbocharger exhortation — neither really loud, just vocal enough to let you know it’s a sports car — but tire chirp from out back is as infrequent as guitar solos at the Pops.

The five-speed manual transmission feels either notchy or direct, depending on whom you ask, but it always finds the right gear. With 260 pound-feet of torque between 2,500 and 5,250 r.p.m., the Solstice GXP is flexible enough that it doesn’t leave you wishing for a sixth gear.
While many cars struggle to hit their E.P.A. numbers in the real world (which is why the E.P.A. revised its measuring standard for the 2008 model year), the Solstice GXP actually delivered right in the middle of its E.P.A. numbers, returning 26 miles a gallon under enthusiastic driving. When I mellowed out, however, it blew the E.P.A. highway number out of the water, returning 41 miles a gallon over about 15 miles of mixed 60-mph cruising and stop-and-go traffic. Direct fuel injection is a boon to economy, and if you’re not indulging in the turbo, the GXP could function as a pretty thrifty commuter car.

My only issue with the GXP’s performance is its suspension tuning. The car is set up to provide a firm ride commensurate with its sporting aspirations, and that’s fine, but this suspension feels as if it’s designed for the track at the expense of the real world. Midcorner bumps are more unsettling than a Chuck Palahniuk reading at the local 4-H club.

While the Solstice GXP is undeniably a Pontiac — any car that offers colors named Mean and Aggressive must, after all, be a Pontiac — it somehow conjures notions that are typically applied to older Italian exotics. Namely, it has some ridiculous foibles, including a lack of interior storage and a comically convoluted top mechanism, but because of its power and style you want to forgive it.

If it were an ugly car, or a slow car, or even a particularly expensive car, it would matter more that the cup holders are positioned for people whose elbows bend in the wrong direction. But the GXP offers that overachieving turbo motor, it looks sexy enough that people stop you in traffic to ask about it, and believe it or not, you can actually fit a set of golf clubs in the trunk with the top down.

I’d recommend it, even to people who know where I live. EZRA DYER

[mbeardsley]

Wow, a pretty good review.

Interesting that the only real complaint he had was the suspension tuning. Coincidentally, one of the few differences between the Sky and the Sol is the suspension tuning.

[jayman]

A set of clubs with the top down ...yeah, if you're going to mini golf