<VV> Late to Market, Over Priced and Over Weight

[peter koehler]

Sitting in my garage out here in Slippery Rock (Slippery 
Driveway today) is a Solstice GXP. I don't have a really 
good excuse for buying it. It hardly sees any use (2700 
miles in 2 years). Was it late to market? I dunno. When it 
showed up I liked it and tried to buy one but was thwarted 
by demand. After waiting 6 months I lost interest and said 
"no" to the dealer that ordered it for me. Just a short 
time later the GXP version was announced and it sounded 
pretty good with 260 horsepower out of a 2 litre 4 banger. 
I was offered a chance to get one at employee price so I 
jumped. Was it overpriced? Looking back with all the deals 
and discounts being offered by my ailing former employer 
my "deal" doesn't look quite as good now, but the deal is 
done as they say. Is the car overweight? Why is that an 
issue? I can go from zero to ohmygosh in about 5 seconds. 
I can eclipse any posted speed limit in the Northern 
Hemisphere by a factor of 2. And I can realize 31 MPG when 
driving like a sane person trying not to get pinched by 
Johnny Law. Does all this make GM the bad guy? Is there 
any Corvair content in this message? I did have to arrange 
other storage options for my fleet of caveman cars to make 
room for Mr. Solstice and his garage mate, a 1976 Corvette 
with a whopping 210 HP out of 5.7 litres. I think we are 
making technological progress here. - Pete K