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Last Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roll off the line

 
5 4,123 views Jul 29, 2009

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The last car to roll off the line at GM’s Boxwood Road assembly plant in Delaware was a silver Pontiac Solstice

The last car to roll off the line at GM’s Boxwood Road assembly plant in Delaware was a silver Pontiac Solstice

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General Motors’ announcement back in April that the Pontiac brand would be phased out by the end of the year and Saturn sold off, many of the automaker’s top models were immediately given a death sentence. Some of the cars that will be missed the most include hot items like the Saturn Sky, Pontiac G8 and of course, the Solstice Coupe and Roadster.

One of the first of many reports to come, Delaware’s The News Journal reports that production at GM’s 62-year old Boxwood Road assembly plant ceased on Tuesday. The facility will close or idle 14 plants in the next three years, and claim tens of thousands of jobs.

Workers at the Boxwood Road built the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky models. Sadly, the workers only found out the plant would be closed at the start of June, when GM filed for bankruptcy.

“It was so quick, you know?” plant veteran James Graves told reporters. “That’s what hurt everybody.”

GM spokesman John Raut confirmed that the last model, a silver Solstice, rolled off the line Tuesday morning.

The Pontiac Solstice (and its Saturn Sky sibling) caused quite a stir when it was launched in 2005, even winning the North American Car of the Year award back at the Detroit Auto Show in 2006. One of the car’s flaws was its expensive Kappa platform, which meant GM made very little money from each model sold. There were plans to launch a second-generation version on a cheaper ‘Kappa II’ platform but with the demise of Pontiac and Saturn those plans have been shelved.
2009 Pontiac Solstice Coupe

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Comments (5)

  1. ma_Mike avatar Mike Posted: 7/30/2009 5:05am PDT

    I wonder how many coupes have been sold? I've definitely never seen one and I'm guessing production was low, since it was only out one year. Collector car of the future?
     
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  2. ma_54chevyman avatar 54chevyman Posted: 7/30/2009 5:37am PDT

    Sexy car. Platform costs issues aside. I drove this girls new one and stalled it. Talk about a touchy clutch and all around weird driving experience. She loved it! Get it fixed and get it back with a Buick version! I read an article about putting Corvette as a stand alone brand complete with sedan, then add one of these to the lineup! Interesting just get it back in the lineup soon with a more user friendly feel! Don't loose the look!
     
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  3. ma_Christopher Jensen avatar Christopher Jensen Posted: 7/30/2009 6:27am PDT

    A major correction. Neither the Sky nor the Solstice ever won the North American Car of the Year.
     
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  4. ma_Layne avatar Layne Posted: 7/30/2009 3:03pm PDT

    They should rebadge one of them as a Chevy and the other a Buick or something. A shame to see them go completely.
     
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  5. ma_Roy avatar Roy Posted: 7/30/2009 8:29pm PDT

    I agree they look great, but I took one for a test drive when they first came out. Lousy driving position, terrible uncommunicative steering, not enough power (I didn't get to try the GXP version, though), and when I pulled the door shut, the interior trim pulled away from the door! It was a brand new car, still on the dealer's lot!
    I was profoundly unimpressed. It's a classic case of an uncohesive American car, where the body, chassis, and engine are all designed separately in the hope that they will combine well.
     
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