[hoffman]

For those of you who want a Solstice as a "daily driver" and have reservations about the lack of trunk space, lack of cup holders, top up/down procedure, lack of instrumentation, and no golf club storage (use the back seat which seems reasonably sized) should check out the pictures and text of the new 2006 Pontiac G6 GTP (240 hp, lots of options as standard, retractable hardtop convertible).

Negatives: not as fast as the Solstice, not as good looking as the Solstice and not as inexpensive as the Solstice. Major negatives, but there are a host of positives (see above).

One site for viewing a review is :

http://tuningnews.net/news

I haven't been able to obtain the MSRP for this auto but I did find one site that said it would be available in the Winter of 2005. I did see her at the LA Auto Show and witnessed the top up/down procedure. It seems to work well. :cool

 

[Fformula88]

Unfortunately the G6 isn’t that much better off than the Sol. With the hardtop up it will have just over 5 cubic feet of space in the trunk, and top down it will have only 1.8 cubes! At least it will also have the back seat where you can toss some stuff.

 

[hoffman]

Exactly. And that's a bunch of cubic feet (whether the top is up or down!).

 

[Lyonmt]

Pictures always help.

:thumbs

 

[hoffman]

Two more pics. Not a bad looking machine.

 

[achieftain]

Is that a gated shifter? Maybe a slap-shift left down right up. I don't recall any other GM products needing other than a straight-line shifter. Or is this a plow by towing companies, along with the idiotic step-on-the-brake-before-you-shift setup all cars now have. I'd like to have that person pushing me out of a snowbank when all I need is to be able to rock the car back and forth between R and D a few times. Oops, my foot slipped. I do like the looks of the retractable, up or down. I don't think it will be a big seller, but maybe it doesn't need to be, if it boosts sales of the normal G6 by getting traffic in the door. Anybody have or can get figures on Ford's retractable as a percentage of overall for model? Anyway we digress, but picture this for a moment - the kids are gone, grandkids on the way but not yet, no more minivans!, SUV's are overkill, she needs a car, you need a car - voila!!
A Soltice for you/him/her, a G6 retractable for her/him/you. (just trying a little pc-ness). Fun in the mountains or to the beach, and fun to the grocery store. At this time next year we'll be discussing the Saturn equivalent making the rounds of the auto shows and wondering why GM can't get the G6 Retractable in anyone's hands to drive.

 

[Fformula88]

Is that a gated shifter? Maybe a slap-shift left down right up. I don't recall any other GM products needing other than a straight-line shifter. Or is this a plow by towing companies, along with the idiotic step-on-the-brake-before-you-shift setup all cars now have. I'd like to have that person pushing me out of a snowbank when all I need is to be able to rock the car back and forth between R and D a few times. Oops, my foot slipped. I do like the looks of the retractable, up or down. I don't think it will be a big seller, but maybe it doesn't need to be, if it boosts sales of the normal G6 by getting traffic in the door. Anybody have or can get figures on Ford's retractable as a percentage of overall for model? Anyway we digress, but picture this for a moment - the kids are gone, grandkids on the way but not yet, no more minivans!, SUV's are overkill, she needs a car, you need a car - voila!!
A Soltice for you/him/her, a G6 retractable for her/him/you. (just trying a little pc-ness). Fun in the mountains or to the beach, and fun to the grocery store. At this time next year we'll be discussing the Saturn equivalent making the rounds of the auto shows and wondering why GM can't get the G6 Retractable in anyone's hands to drive.

The extra gate is probably a manumatic tap-shift feature for the slushbox. Slip it into that side, tap forward and backward to manually shift gears. It probably would have steering wheel buttons too (as on the Grand Prix GTP).

 

[DreamerDave]

At this time next year we'll be discussing the Saturn equivalent making the rounds of the auto shows and wondering why GM can't get the G6 Retractable in anyone's hands to drive.

But at least we'll have seen it with the top up!

 

[AeroDave]

Anybody have or can get figures on Ford's retractable as a percentage of overall for model?

Here you go, 1957 - 20,766 Skyliners out of 1,655,069 total, 1958 - 14,713 Skyliners out of 950,053 total, 1959 - 12,915 Skyliners out of 1,394,687 total.

These total figures include all models sold in those years except Thunderbird. That's about 1.2 percent of all Ford sedan chassis production. A tiny percentage as you can see, but remember in the 50's Ford only had two platforms, the sedan and Thunderbird, so those totals include wagons, 2 doors, 4 doors, the Sunliner convertable and even sedan deliveries. The G6 retrac is only a percentage of one platform out of several offered by Pontiac, so it's percentage to regular G6 production will be higher. The down side will be that Pontiac will not be able to absorb the cost of the retrac as well as Ford did.

By the way, I love the old Skyliner. :cheers

 

[eatoninside]

Is that a gated shifter? Maybe a slap-shift left down right up. I don't recall any other GM products needing other than a straight-line shifter.

At this time next year we'll be discussing the Saturn equivalent making the rounds of the auto shows and wondering why GM can't get the G6 Retractable in anyone's hands to drive.

That is not a gated shifter. If you are in drive and move the shifter to the right it puts you in manual mode. Move shifter up for upshift, down for downshift. The shifter is straight line. The G6 GT currently for sale has this same feature.

This time next year the G6 Convertible should be on dealer's lots.