What Is The Pontiac Solstice Worth Today?

The graph of Pontiac's popularity as an auto brand has jumped up and down like the EKG of a patient in cardiac arrest, peaking with muscle car legends like the GTO and the sleek Firebird Trans Am, which got some stunning hood graphics during its run. Less universally lauded were the highly combustible (and aptly named) Fiero, and the Aztek, which was regarded as ugly upon its release but is looking better with the benefit of hindsight. 

The Solstice had a strange story as well. A pre-release appearance on "The Apprentice" jump-started interest in the roadster, which bears more than a passing resemblance to Lightning McQueen, the four-wheeled star of Pixar's 2006 animated hit, "Cars." Prospective owners paid thousands of dollars beyond the sticker price to get on a waiting list for the Solstice, and Pontiac sold about 37,000 units combined in 2006 and 2007 — the first two full years the Solstice was on sale.

The performance didn't quite live up to the car's striking design, though, and sales sunk to below 11,000 cars in 2008 and under 6,000 the next year. As part of a bankruptcy restructuring, GM dumped Pontiac as it continued to flop in 2009, and the Solstice died along with the rest of the automaker's offerings. The Solstice started at about $20,000, and the 260-horsepower GXP variant had a base price of almost $26,000. But just what is a Solstice worth today?

For investment purposes, you would have been better off putting your money under your mattress in 2009 and sleeping on it during the intervening years. The $25,995 you would have spent on a Solstice GXP in 2007 would now be worth more than $40,000 after inflation, while the car in your garage might fetch you $10,000 from a die-hard Lightning McQueen fan. Kelley Blue Book lists the fair purchase price for that particular model at between roughly $7,600 and $9,500. The real-world market is a little kinder, with 26 Solstice sales over the past five years averaging about $17,400. A 2009 model with an automatic transmission and 73,000 miles on the odometer sold last year for just $3,500, and a 2006 Solstice that had been driven just 6,177 miles sold for nearly $60,000 in February of 2022. 

Despite the impending bankruptcy, buying General Motors stock in 2009 would have scored you a much more lucrative windfall than buying a Solstice and holding on to it. Shares fell to 75 cents in May 2009, and the $32,000 cost of a Solstice GXP that year would have bought you nearly 43,000 shares of GM. As of this writing, General Motors is trading at just over $45 a share, which would have made your gutsy investment worth almost $2 million today.