[Ahnuld]

Right now the Solstice has considerably more cars and orders out there. But it was a year ahead of the sky, and I think a chunk of the solstice sales were from people who liked the idea of new inexpensive 2 seater, solsitice was thier only choice, and if the sky was around back then the numbers would be different. Example: I wanted a solstice but wasnt in a position to order at the time, but quickly switched to sky and got my order in when redline was released...

SKy is getting all the "It looks great" press now. It was chosen to be rebadged.

So.... over time, a few years down the road... What car do you think is going to be the most popular coming out of Wilmington?.

Would be interesting to post this at the Solstice board also.

 

[StarlightSky]

Tough question since the production numbers on the Sky will be lower continuously year over year than the Solstice. I think the Sky will remain a more "desireable" car to obtain regardless of whether it's a Base Sky or a R/L. Interesting question though.
IN MY GARAGE 8/31/06
VIN#8059/Midnight Blue/Tan Leather/Tan Top/Manual/LSD/6 Disc Monsoon/Chromed 18 in Chome/Windscreen/Wheel locks/CAI/Splash Guards

 

[Inwo]

The Sky looks much better and has a broader appeal but Pontiac will pump out Solstii for anyone who wants them so in the end the Solstice will sell much better.

 

[Ahnuld]

...the production numbers on the Sky will be lower continuously year over year than the Solstice.

Why is that... why would it continue.
Wouldnt orders dictate that? My spin has nothing to do with the factory, I think once the sky is out there and people are seeing them the orders placed by consumers will start leaning towards the sky. When 70% of the orders are Skys in a few years and the sky backlog builds, they would be idiots not to reallocate production... no?

 

[deluke]

The Sky looks much better and has a broader appeal but Pontiac will pump out Solstii for anyone who wants them so in the end the Solstice will sell much better.

See it depends on personal taste. I love the looks of the Solstice better then the Sky. And you will find most Solstice people would never change to the Sky because they prefer the looks of the Solstice. Alot of Solstice people are getting the GXP and selling our Base Solstice, but you won't see hardly any switching to a saturn Red Line whick we could of if we wanted that look.The Solstice is the classic roadster look like the Jag XKE which to me was the greatest looking car, the Sky looks like a mini vette.

They Sky will never be more popular then the Solstice because of the production figures. They rebadge the Sky but I don't think that was a good thing in my opinion. Because it only took away production from the Sky. And you have to remember there are around 2800 US pontiac dealerships and only Around 480 Saturn dealerships. The reason being at this point more people would demand a Pontiac over a saturn.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the Sky is a great looking car. And if I wanted a second roadster would consider getting one. I think it would be fun owning one of each !!

 

[StarlightSky]

Deluke has a great position on this, the numbers support the long range sales/resales. Availability is a player in the computation also. I'll stick with with my original post though and say over time that the "limited" numbers of Sky's will make it a more "desireable" Kappa to get into if you can find one. Sales though will more than likely head the Solstice way. In either case though WHAT A GREAT SET OF VEHICLES:cheers: I'm gonna get the heck out of here now that Barb's up and take her to Bodega Bay!! Let's go :driving:

 

[Axel]

The number of dealerships (Pontiac vs. Saturn) is a strong argument (at least initially) in Pontiac's favor. And the "performance" image of Pontiac vs. the "practical...family" image of Saturn will also favor Pontiac.

But I can't imagine that GM will forever decide what quantities they build of which car irrespective of the market... it will be the consumers who decide, not GM. If it wasn't, then GM certainly wouldn't deserve to stay in business.

I can see potential buyers of either of these two roadsters becoming less and less bothered by the "Saturn" brand stigma. Unless Pontiac truly refocuses their entire brand name on performance... totally RWD, no "Azteks", SUVs, etc. Surveys seem to show that Pontiac has for some time been seen just as another GM brand, nothing special "performance-wise". Most people hope they do not get a Firebird version of the new Camaro.

I believe more and more potential buyers of a Sol or Sky will not be influenced by the "brand" name... I think they will base their choice primarily on their judgement of the "style". Whether they prefer the classic "Jag" look of the Sol or the "mini-Corvette" look of the Sky (as deluke states) will be influenced by their past experiences and perceptions, and by their perceived notions of the public's opinion.

Why I think the Sky will overtake and be the more popular is that the angular "Corvette look" sells more sports cars in North America than the rounded "Jag look". The Sky gets overwhelmingly more praise in the looks department from auto magazines, newspaper reviews, and tv stories.

I think give it a few years when the numerical advantage of Pontiac dealerships is shrunk or consolidated with other GM brands (including GASP!! Saturn) as GM continues to downsize, the "brand" argument will fall by the wayside against the "style" argument... and Skys wil be the more plentiful. (Probably to the chagrin of current Sky owners who would rather see less than more on the road!!)

 

[deluke]

The number of dealerships (Pontiac vs. Saturn) is a strong argument (at least initially) in Pontiac's favor. And the "performance" image of Pontiac vs. the "practical...family" image of Saturn will also favor Pontiac.

But I can't imagine that GM will forever decide what quantities they build of which car irrespective of the market... it will be the consumers who decide, not GM. If it wasn't, then GM certainly wouldn't deserve to stay in business.

I can see potential buyers of either of these two roadsters becoming less and less bothered by the "Saturn" brand stigma. Unless Pontiac truly refocuses their entire brand name on performance... totally RWD, no "Azteks", SUVs, etc. Surveys seem to show that Pontiac has for some time been seen just as another GM brand, nothing special "performance-wise". Most people hope they do not get a Firebird version of the new Camaro.

I believe more and more potential buyers of a Sol or Sky will not be influenced by the "brand" name... I think they will base their choice primarily on their judgement of the "style". Whether they prefer the classic "Jag" look of the Sol or the "mini-Corvette" look of the Sky (as deluke states) will be influenced by their past experiences and perceptions, and by their perceived notions of the public's opinion.

Why I think the Sky will overtake and be the more popular is that the angular "Corvette look" sells more sports cars in North America than the rounded "Jag look". The Sky gets overwhelmingly more praise in the looks department from auto magazines, newspaper reviews, and tv stories.

I think give it a few years when the numerical advantage of Pontiac dealerships is shrunk or consolidated with other GM brands (including GASP!! Saturn) as GM continues to downsize, the "brand" argument will fall by the wayside against the "style" argument... and Skys wil be the more plentiful. (Probably to the chagrin of current Sky owners who would rather see less than more on the road!!)

But the reason the corvette out sells the classic look is because for the first time they are finally making a classic looking roadster . So you really can't compare vette sales now to a Jag XKE that hasn't been made in 30 years. Or to the new 2 seater Jag whick just came out. My opinion. Lets give it 5/8 years sown the road then we could compare sales.

But I still say one of each would be great.

 

[GetAboutRL]

Car sales are like water ... they will find their own level :lol:

 

[deluke]

Car sales are like water ... they will find their own level :lol:

Your so right ! Time will tell.

 

[SkyMan 08]

Did everyone forget that GM said they would limit the production of both cars, 20000 per year for the Solstice and 10000 per year for the Sky...or is all that out the window now?
i think they will keep production numbers low to keep the desire for them up... the Sky was never supposed to sell more than the Solstice... Period.:thumbs:

 

[brentil]

Remember these are low volume halo cars. They're not meant to be sold in droves because GM doesn't make that much off these cars. They're meant to drive buyers into dealerships and buy the higher profit more sensible cars.

 

[Eye on Sky]

Time will tell

If next year there are Skys sitting on dealers lots and there is a backlog of Pontiac orders or visa versa, within the 30000 production space changes would be made based on demand. If there is 20,000 Solstice and 10000 Sky capacity then numbers could move to meet demand. If Solstices are not moving off the lots they could increase Skys to 15000 to get it in line with demand. I would rather see the Sky stay low production for resale value.

 

[belletire]

Solstice is the higher production car and the Sky is the more refined and therefore desired car.

I hope they never ramp up production as it only adds to resale value.

 

[eldeeko]

Right now the Solstice has considerably more cars and orders out there. But it was a year ahead of the sky, and I think a chunk of the solstice sales were from people who liked the idea of new inexpensive 2 seater, solsitice was thier only choice, and if the sky was around back then the numbers would be different. Example: I wanted a solstice but wasnt in a position to order at the time, but quickly switched to sky and got my order in when redline was released...

SKy is getting all the "It looks great" press now. It was chosen to be rebadged.

So.... over time, a few years down the road... What car do you think is going to be the most popular coming out of Wilmington?.
Would be interesting to post this at the Solstice board also.

I cannot even imagine who cares! Solstice is always going to be less expensive and I hope the Sky continues to look more upscale.

 

[Rustyknight]

I think GM made choice they let the guys design a low cost roadster for pontiac remember the absolute law during design was to not let the solstice go over $20,000, then they let saturn/opel design a somewhat upscale version and let the price climb slightly. They are both very nice looking cars when I looked at them originally it was a tough choice but I finally went with the Sky because I preferred the way it drove. I would be very surprised if they played to loose with the production numbers on the cars, when they first started they invested alot of money to produce the tooling to support the estimated production, to change mid-stream and invest more funds to raise the production capacity of the Sky and let the solstice capacity go underutilized does not make much sense. Espescially given everything I 've heard says the solstice/sky/gt are on 5 year re-design track, there would just not be enough time to recoupe the additional capacity costs.

 

[denette]

we've got both in our club and with a 50 50 mix at the Pavillions car show the public, like the owners seems to like each for it's shape. Most people seem to have a preference and non owners are divided. Owners have made their choice and when asked by a Sky guy if I wished I'd waited for the Sky I didn't know how to answer. I love my Sols....:lol:

 

[Crimson Avenger]

It is a matter of personal taste. Keep in mind that this group on this site is largely self selected and prefers the more angular styling of the Sky.

Along the same lines, Anne Asensio, Executive Director of Advanced Design for GM, also notes that Cadillac has been quite successful with the bold angular styling.

Now, having said that, don't forget that the entire reason that we have the Kappa platform at all is that the reception of the Solstice at the 2002 International Auto show was so overwhelming that Bob Lutz felt they had to put it in production. The original Sky concept (which looked more like an Audi TT) didn't attract enough attention. The Sky was introduced in its current form as a production concept in January of 2005. There was some press, but nothing like that of the Solstice 3 years earlier.

There have been other concept cars based on the Kappa platform, including the Saturn Curve, the Chevy Nomad, and the Vauxhal Lightning.

It is a matter of taste, and arguing about which is better is interesting, but will never be a winnable argument. It will be the demand and the production numbers that determine how many of each are on the road.

As brentil said, it's a halo car designed to attract attention to the brands, and GM really knocked it out of the park because both models sold out with very long waiting lists.

In point of fact, the waiting lists at the Pontiac dealerships were pretty much the same size as those for the Sky dealerships (mostly between 8 and 20--even for smaller dealerships), so just comparing the numbers, with 480 Saturn dealerships versus 2800 Pontiac dealerships, the numbers do have something to say.

Of course, there's a self limiting effect, much beyond 20, most people will give up and decide it's too hard to get one, so the upper bound for the total number of people on the waiting list is about what you would expect.

One final thought: this is the first time that any manufacturer has made their halo car an affordable car. That in itself is a new concept. It has clearly worked, and these cars will be very popular for a long time to come.

 

[Ahnuld]

...
In point of fact, the waiting lists at the Pontiac dealerships were pretty much the same size as those for the Sky dealerships (mostly between 8 and 20--even for smaller dealerships), so just comparing the numbers, with 480 Saturn dealerships versus 2800 Pontiac dealerships, the numbers do have something to say.

Of course, there's a self limiting effect, much beyond 20, most people will give up and decide it's too hard to get one, so the upper bound for the total number of people on the waiting list is about what you would expect....

aahh.... very very valid point.

 

[deluke]

Solstice is the higher production car and the Sky is the more refined and therefore desired car.

I hope they never ramp up production as it only adds to resale value.

I think the statement lower production means higher desire makes no sence. Time will tell which one will be more popular.

But I agree with Crimson Advenger 100%.