I spent good part of last evening and a good part of this afternoon shopping with a friend of mine for a new Solstice...he has fallen in love with the car and decided that that's what he wants. ( The front end to him looks like an early-50's Corvette, one of his dream cars, even though the Solstice's twin-Bucky-Beaver-tooth grille, at least to me, looks nothing like an early 'Vette. ).
Anyhow, the production run for this year is just about officially sold out.....although if you look you can maybe find some unsold one, and ALL of the Skys are considered 2007 models. I suggested a Sky instead because I suspected ( but didn't know for a fact ) that Saturn dealers, with their history of list-only pricing, would be less likely to price-gouge and add on outrageous markups like Pontiac dealers are doing with the Solstice.
I found out today that what I suspected was generally the case....even though the official company line from Saturn headquarters is that retailers ( Saturn doesn't call them " dealers " ) are free to " adjust " the asking price slightly for market value.
The Pontiac dealers were not taking any more orders at all for 2006 models, marking them up $5000-6000 over list......and one dealer he visited showed little interest in taking orders for even 2007's. ( We did not visit the same shops together in order to to be able to cover more territory at once and broaden the search, altough we both used the Internet and telephone also ) The Saturn shops, as expected, were far more courteous and customer-oriented.
My friend visited one local Saturn dealer and found 2 Skys in stock...both pre-sold, of course. But the nice thing is that they were asking only list price for them. By phone, I found one just a few miles away on the dealer's lot that was MAYBE on the market and still available, so I went up to look it over. It was dark green metallic ( a NICE paint job, untypical of GM vehicles ), automatic ( he wanted automatic with the dense traffic we have here ) and had a black top. Turns out a woman had special-ordered it, put the deposit down, and then mysteriously disappeared. She did not contact the dealership again, and they said that if she did not come in by 3 PM today it may go on the market, so I went back at 3 PM and once again checked....they were still unsure and trying to contact her. It was a very odd situation. But...like the other Saturn dealership, they were asking only list price...except that in this case they had a paint-protection package that they did charge for ( one reason, perhaps, why the paint job on this car looked and felt so good ).
Anyhow, what I at first suspected months ago is playing out........for those of you interested in these cars, the Sky can be had at substantially better prices, and it comes with more standard equipment than the Solstice to boot. Of course, you will probably have to place an order from the next year's production run......and find a dealership ( or retailer ) willing to do so.

So...about my friend ? Well, he decided not to come out and look at the green Sky I found locally...even if that woman never shows and it does go back on the market. His thinking is now he wants to wait till September, ( he will have more cash by then ) when Pontiac dealers will start taking more orders, and order a 2007 Solstice instead...and just try and get one with as small a markup as possible. Right now it is about a 5-6 month waiting list. He is enamored with the Solstice's looks, and wants to wait for next year's optional tan convertible top instead of this year's black one. A force-fed model is also supposedly on the way...right now, the only factory engine is a naturally aspirated in-line 4.

 

Tell your friend to wait for the GXP. I believe it's the little Eco-tec, supercharged, making 260 HP.

 

Yeah...he's not a speed freak, especially with the dense traffic in this area ( one reason why he was looking for an automatic ) but he did indicate some interest in the supercharged version coming. Mostly, though, he just didn't like the black convertible top on the present cars...he wants to wait and get the tan one when it is available. With some people color is very important.