We all know what car “is always the answer,” but it’s really just an answer, and others have done their best to attain at least some of the answer status the Miata has enjoyed so long. We have two such cars today via Pontiac and Toyota, each with their own faults and fandoms, but none of the staying power of Mazda’s seemingly eternal roadster. Which of these might you choose? We’ll get there.
First, let us consider the results of Monday’s Showdown (I’ll leave results coverage of David’s Showdown to him) betwixt an Opel GT and C3 Corvette, which was a study in contrasts between two visually similar cars. Steel body versus fiberglass. V8 versus inline-4. Green versus orange. All there versus no door skins and woodshop dashboard. You can see the long line down there, the Corvette got trounced.
I get it. While the Opel GT left unanswered questions of its own, the “somebody else’s project” factor (and the incompleteness / dubious repair solutions of said project) really did the poor C3 in. I thought perhaps the built engine might be a saving grace, all painted-red and all, but that too was as much a red flag as it was red Krylon.
Now let us turn our attention to today’s contestants.
2007 Pontiac Solstice – $6,200
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter EcoTec VVT DOHC inline-four, 5-speed manual transmission, RWD
Location: Carrollton, TX
Odometer reading: 109,000
Operational status: “Great running, driving, and looking car.”
Looks pretty good, right? From this distance, sure, but if you check out the full ad (or look closely at the rear angle farther below), you can see Bob Lutz’ baby is marred by some clearcoat issues. That’s a bummer for parking lot inspection, but when you’re cruising down the road looking all cool in your convertible roadster, no one’s gonna notice. And I think I’d take the Solstice over its Kappa platform mate Saturn Sky in otherwise identical nick – that one never gelled with me.
The interior looks pretty good, especially for the mileage, and minus that dreadful steering wheel cover. Has it protected the wheel? Is it hiding damage? Has it caused any? Of course, when I say the interior looks pretty good, I mean condition-wise. Styling-wise, ehhhh, not so much. It’s aughts GM at its finest, sarcastically speaking.
This ain’t no GXP model, so you’re getting a naturally aspirated 177-horsepower Ecotec engine. It’s fine, especially when mated to a manual as this one is. A 0-60 time of about seven seconds flat makes the Solstice a match for the same-year Miata, if you care about that (I wouldn’t).
You can see the clearcoat there where the bumper cover meets the trunk lid, and that top is looking a bit scruffy, but it’s all there and appears undamaged, if a little stretched out.
2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder – $6,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter VVT-i DOHC inline-four, 5-speed manual transmission, RWD
Location: Tyler, TX
Odometer reading: 167,282
Operational status: “Drive good.”
Where my fans of the bug-eyed Mister Two at? I know I’m supposed to gush over the baby-supercar W20 even if it does want to kill me, and yeah, they’re great, but I’ve always felt the W30 was closer to the original MR2 spirit. And hey, the top goes down. This one looks like the hood’s fitting a bit goofy, but maybe the owner just forgot to fully latch it before taking pics. Side note: I will never not be baffled by what sellers consider “good enough” for ad photos. Gee whiz.
This looks like a nicer place to be than the Solstice “IMO,” and I’m sure your eyes went straight to that stick. Then again, what else would be there? You could only get the car with a manual, after all (OK, fine, there was a sequential gearbox later, but there weren’t any torque-converted-equipped W30s). Everything looks to be in good shape for 160,000+ miles.
Here we are in the back of the MR2 – it’s mid-engine, remember? I’m sure 100% of you do. Things are looking pretty grimy back here, but the description says “drive good” (is that a description or an instruction?), and it’s a Toyota 1ZZ, so the VVT-i engine with its sixteen valves and variable timing should be pretty OK if maintained at all. And performance? You’ll be neck-and-neck with the Solstice.
I’d argue this MR2 looks even better from the rear than the front, even without the addition of nicely manicured nails. I don’t recall the W30s bulging light treatment being well received at the time, but I’ve always liked the car’s friendly, froggy looks.
So, what’s it gonna be?
Top graphic images: Facebook Marketplace
If I’m going to be cramped I may as well be able to share parts with my matrix.
I test drove a Solstice once and found it too cramped for my body. (Surprisingly, an ND Miata on the same lot fit me just fine.) So the Solstice is out, sadly, and I have reluctantly voted for the MR2.
I was driving home last night and happened to think of the Solstice coupe. Those are rare, and I always thought they were cool.
Then, believe this or not, I SAW ONE! Honest to God. I saw a silver coupe at the gas station later that night and I figured the universe was like “Heard you bro, have a look at this!” Very cool, and it made my night.
Voted Solstice here just because of mileage, and that generation MR2 never really *did it* for me.
MR2 because it doesn’t have a black interior.
Easy choice for me, because I live in a front plate mandate state. I’m picking the MR2 because the license plate goes RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SOLSTICE GRILL. Face. Whatever. It’s ugly. The plate placement, not the Pontiac nose. You think Lutz and Co would have realized the front plate’s gotta go somewhere.
Solstice!
I’m going to make it a twofer for the Opel GT today, as the Solstice was also available overseas, wearing mostly Saturn Sky bodywork (which in my humble opinion is a far more attractive car) as a new iteration of the old GT.
We had a 2003 MR2 and I miss that quite dearly at times. With good tires it was a delight to drive. We even drove it year round with snow tires in Maine, it was surprisingly good in the snow. Just be careful drifting, it’s still a mid-engine car!
That factory radio in the MR2 is atrocious but the same era Scion radios bolted right in and usually had more power and a generally better setup. That and shifter bushings were the first modification we did to the car.
Brown seats, brown top. Drive good? Me want.
MR2 no question. If it was a sky harder but still MR2. I always thought MR2 Spyders were under appreciated but also have been sort of overpriced.
The general vibe of the ads made me think the Solstice is a better deal.
And after all, I haven’t gotten to drive a Pontiac since high school!
They’re both lame, one is a Toyota.
You know what? Solid take!
Every red car my family has owned (dating back to my parents’ late 60’s Bonneville convertible) has died a horrible death.
Mister Deuce wins by default.
I have a similar aversion to primary red as a car color. I owned five Saab 9000s and all but the red one lived to be towed away after they were no longer worth fixing (usually b/c of manual gearbox failure). About three months after buying the red one and six hours after thoroughly detailing it, I got drowsy, went airborne over a berm and landed it on its hood. I avoid superstition but red cars just look like a hot stove to me. No touchy.
Dark metallic red is fine.
My folks lost the aformentioned Bonneville (crash), a 70s Toyota Corona (engine fire), an RBBB MG (rollover accident), and an 84 Honda Civic (crash). To the best of my knowledge, they only had one non-red vehicle die in a crash.
I’ve personally lost a 62 bug and 86 Subaru – both red. After the Subie got hit, I joined my parents in swearing off red cars forever.
Superstitions are easy to follow and readily supported by confirmation bias. Like Pascal’s wager, following the rule is just as easy as ignoring it.
I once caught a snippet of a “Cops”-type show in which a detective responded to a call about a body on a front stoop. It was pretty clear-cut… the guy had fallen off a stepladder while changing a lightbulb. The detective fished out the deceased’s wallet to check for ID and then fanned out the cash inside. “Can’t tell you how often I see this,” he said. “Thirteen dollars. I never carry thirteen dollars. I’ll buy something or just leave one in the glovebox.”
Yeah, it was reality TV, but it was still a cop show so who knows if he was playing for the cameras. Maybe it was his last day at work.
I bought the only bright red car I’ve owned – a five-speed Volvo 850 wagon – with a pre-crunched cranberry hood. This should have tipped me off that the throttle would stick, and that once I fixed that, it’d decide it didn’t really need to stop, either. I managed to sell it [edit: without crunching the replacement hood/header panel/headlamp] before it got any more ideas.
I would be happy with either, but one always wanted a solstice/sky, though I prefer the Saturn. It’s also a color, even I’d the clear coat is failing.
Both cars I like, but have no interest in owning. MR2 is too kit-car looking and this one has some questionable condition issues in the photos. Solstice is the most high schooler’s notebook margin generic sports car doodle brought to life. MR2 is likely the better drive, but I prefer engines in the front, the Pontiac looks like it’s been better tended to, and I can probably fit better in it, so I’ll go with that.
A rare “both is good” day.
The Toyota is on the right side of the ugly/fun/reliable matrix today. But I would be happy with either one.
I’m going with the MR2 all day. Its quirky, it has tan seats and top, and that interior looks like a better place to be.
Going with the Solstice. Love the looks of those – I’ve wanted one since I first saw it at the Chicago Auto Show. I feel like there’s something more going on with that MR2 – so grungy underneath the hood and frunk, and “transmission works” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
My other issue with the MR2 is that anytime I see one of that gen for sale I think that for a little more money I could be in Boxster territory and I’d rather have one of those.
The Solstice isn’t bad (RIP Jazz), and they look better with the top down, but I like MR2s. This froggy version would get plenty of looks driving around.
This is tougher than it ought to be. Normally, the mid-engine car wins hands-down. But it’s an ugly mid-engine car in a nasty color. OTOH, the Solstice is not exactly handsome, either, and it’s a GM car with a GM interior and maybe questionable GM reliability. In the end, I’m going with the ugly mid-engine car just because I’ve never owned one of them.
Yeah zero interest in the Solstice for me. I never liked them, and always thought the sky was a good looking car until you get inside, but would never be able to get over either of those interiors.
For the money, I wouldn’t say no to either one. But I’ve heard about the quality issues the GM Kappa cars had.
So given the Toyota isn’t much more expensive, the MR2 is my pick.
I would pick the Solstace if it was 2-3 grand cheaper.
Purely from a parts availability perspective I’m going MR DOS today, the Solstice parts are becoming hard to find, and I suspect that top will be unobtainable when it’s ready for replacement. They didn’t look great at 5 years old, I’d hate to deal with one today.
I don’t know that the Toyota will be any better, but I’m leaning on the reliability to make that less of an issue.
The top is already there. The parts unique to the Kappas are getting hard to find (if findable at all). But good news, just under the skin is a GM parts bin. Most mechanical parts were used in a gazillion other cars, easy to find and cheap as dirt. FUN FACT the pwm cooling fan controller was also used on the Crown Vic and millions of cop cars and cabs… so you can find a new one for like 20 bucks.
If it was the Sky I’d be more inclined to vote for it. i’m not a fan of the rounded off front end of the solstice. So I went MR2
Me, always knowing but just in your comment really *realizing* that the Sky and the Solstice were two different cars.
Pontiac’s death may have been sad to some, but as 90s kid, every time GM decided to limply fart out another model that was pre-diluted by badge engineering on day one my response was more of a surprised “..her?” than delight that Pontiac was hanging around.