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Can You Daily Drive A Pontiac Solstice

The Pontiac Solstice is an underrated cool and fun two-door sports car that seems to be forgotten by time. They are uncommon enough to make them interesting, but can you make one a daily drive? The Solstice is comfortable The Pontiac Solstice is overall a comfortable car. It wasn’t designed to be luxurious or fast, …

The Pontiac Solstice is an underrated cool and fun two-door sports car that seems to be forgotten by time. They are uncommon enough to make them interesting, but can you make one a daily drive?

The Solstice is comfortable

The Pontiac Solstice is overall a comfortable car. It wasn’t designed to be luxurious or fast, so the plush vinyl seats are comfortable but not so expensive you’d be constantly concerned about ruining them. They are low to the ground, but not so low that they are difficult to get out of. The large doors and ability to slide the seat back makes getting in and out of the car quick and easy.

The Solstice doesn’t have back seats and therefor isn’t great if you carpool to work or have a consistent need to drive around additional passengers. They are spacious enough to accommodate most passengers without feeling too cramped or claustrophobic.

The Solstice has a stock suspension that’s not too stiff and not too soft. It handles well around corners and has enough horsepower to make zipping through traffic entertaining but not so much power that it becomes unsafe. For a car, you can be used for less than $10,000 it has a decent ride quality that won’t rattle you around too much and drives more like a life-size Barbie car than a race car.

MIAMI BEACH, FL – OCTOBER 10: A Pontiac Solstice GXP is displayed at the 36th Annual South Florida International Auto Show at the Miami Beach Convention Center on October 10, 2006 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Victor Malafronte/Getty Images)

Practicality

The Pontiac Solstice loses a lot of points for practicality. It has minimum storage available and it was one of the biggest complaints owners have about the car. In the cabin of the car, there is no storage other than the small glove compartment. The back of each seat has a small pouch that could fit some papers or small items but isn’t ideal for storing anything large or that you would easily forget was there just to find weeks later when cleaning out the car.

The trunk has little to no space as well and has led me on multiple occasions to stack my groceries on top of a disappointed passenger. The Solstice is typically a convertible, and even with the top up there is still very little room in the trunk. With the top down, however, you not only have less space but it is harder to access the little bit of room available.

The Solstice has some of the most inconvenient cupholders of any car you could possibly imagine daily driving. In most models, there is a single cupholder that pops out of the center console at the top of the passenger-side footwell. In just about every use Solstice you will find that this piece is broken and rendered completely useless as your morning coffee would just fall over. Some models have two cupholders that slide out from a cubby located centrally between the driver and passenger seats, but they are inconveniently behind you and require a small amount of contortion to reach.

NAIAS-01/07/02- Pontiac Solstice roadster at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Tuesday. (Photo by David Cooper/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

The Pontiac Solstice is a great daily driver if you can live without useful cupholders and cargo space. It’s ideal for drivers that want something fun and sporty that is comfortable to commute in. If you don’t drive with a passenger often you can make up for the lack of storage space by piling groceries or your briefcase onto the passenger seat, so it’s not the worst daily driver option after all.