Thanks for the offer Sting. Picked up a copy @ B&N. The review comes across as being mostly accurate facts wise, but review wise still contains some of the same standard regurgitated complaints. In fact, after reading it it made me wonder if he had actually every driven one. Also, it doesn't appear he even read the Solstice book. Because if he had, he would have learned that Kappa engineers were tasked under very tight time frames, financial constraints, and expected to hit a very specific and very low price point for a sports car. All with knowing the finished product was going to be reviewed and compared with a vehicle that has been in continuous production since 1989 (Mazda MX5). So instead of auto writers acknowledging that GM engineers had achieved some positive accomplishments (under the circumstances) they instead took them to task for NOT only not delivering a perfect car but not delivering one that didn't surpass the competition. Point being auto reviewers never seem to acknowledge or recognize how difficult it is to engineer a new vehicle based on the limitations that management sometimes places them under.
Now if GM taken the much longer industry time frame of bringing a concept car to production and market, then chances are GM may well have been forced to cancel the Kappa program before it was released. Considering that GM was already in the middle of hemorrhaging car sales and money.
Having said that, could GM have addressed some of the more popular criticism during Kappa's production; probably. But those are answers we'll probably never get answers too. Maybe its because it was considered a low-production product (similar to the Corvette). But unlike the Corvette which is considered within GM to be their premium halo sports car, the Kappa's was just an entry-level sports cars (niche models) that wasn't going to be producing the same amount of profit, or return, the same halo effect that the Corvette program does for Chevrolet, but more importantly for GM.
Whatever, we still have nice sports cars. OK, they aren't great sports cars, and they aren't perfect sports cars, but they still are nice looking sports cars that perform adequately and give a level of satisfaction to their owners without having to mortgage your life, appendages, or give your first born away. They are more similar to what many of the sports cars of the 50s and 60s were and they still managed to become very collectible. A lot of them weren't perfect either but still managed to give owners a lot of satisfaction, a lot of smiles, and make a lot of memories...in spite of their inherent flaws and weaknesses.
Long live the underdogs. :lol:

:lol: