Tuesday, 9 of February of 2010

Solstice could come back … as a DeLorean?

DeLorean Motor Co., has this image at the top of one of its Web sites promoting what it is calling the DeLorean Solstice.

DeLorean Motor Co., has this image at the top of one of its Web sites promoting what it is calling the DeLorean Solstice.

Call Michael J. Fox, DeLorean might be back in the business of making new cars. And the car? A redux of the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky, which ended production in July.

The Deleware News Journal reported Sunday that DeLorean, now a Texas company that sells parts for the defunct sports car and also makes new versions of the original, has toured the Wilmington, Del., plant where the Solstice and Sky were made. To read the story click here.

DeLorean Motor Co., which was purchased by entrepreneur Stephen Wynne in 1997, wants a new product to resurrect the name. Wynne told the News Journal that the company has shown a slightly reworked version of the Solstice and received an encouraging response.

Deleware economic development officials are also showing the plant to other potential tenants, including India automaker Tata and Fisker, a new company that is set to introduce a extended-range electric vehicle late this year. Fisker is developing a second car, that presumably could be made in Wilmington.

OK, so anybody can draw up a couple of sketches and throw up a Web site. The question will be whether Wynne can get the funding for such a massive undertaking.

Wynne’s plans have to start with the car and the basics are fairly good. The Solstice is among the most beautiful automotive designs to come out of Detroit in decades.

So, if the Solstice is so good, why did General Motors kill it when it decided to close the Pontiac brand?

The Solstice suffered from ergonomic issues that turned off buyers. Problem no. 1 is the balky softtop that is difficult to fold and takes up virtually all of the already limited trunk space. The only place to stick a cell phone or wallet is a small pocket on the front edge of the driver’s seat bottom. Noise, vibration and harshness is severe.

The bottom line is that a reintroduced Solstice would have to address those issues or the Mazda Miata will continue to eat it for lunch on the showroom floor. The Solstice has always been absolutely beautiful, but beauty isn’t enough to sell cars.

DeLorean was started by renowned GM engineer John Z. DeLorean — who ironically started the musclecar revolution at Pontiac with the original GTO — in 1975. It built 9,200 DMC-12 gullwing sports cars before going bankrupt in the mid ’80s.

Later, Fox turned the DeLorean into a cultural icon in the “Back to the Future” trilogy of movies where the car became a time machine.


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