# Designed by Franz...



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Yesterday a co-worker and I took a 400mile work road trip in my Solstice (also designed by Franz von Holzhausen) to add to the solo 200 mile work trip the day before. 
Along the way conversation of the future Model 3 came up along with various observation of the Solstice ranging from how the supersized Sonic drink cup barely clears the window opening, the trunk 'only' holds a a large roll of construction drawings, a box of cultured stone, a carpet sample, hard hats and if you have an oversized laptop bag it'll be sharing your footwell. I pointed out the couple things I have issues with (window buttons closer to your elbow than hand on the armrest, main cupholder at the passenger's knee, extra cupholders between the seats on the back wall (driver needs to reach behind you with your left hand - not exactly the easiest move while driving) and blind spots.
When the conversation turned back to the Model 3, he said, "well, it's a good thing the new car will not be designed by the say guy that designed this one!". I debated for a few seconds, then told him it actually has the same designer. He first was awed by the chance that one could buy two totally different cars designed by the same person then said "I hope he makes it more practical than this one." I don't know why he thought the Solstice was designed to be a practical car. 
I think it's pretty obvious practicality was not one of the things Franz set out to design the Solstice to be.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

In the back of the July 2018 edition of Road and Track, Bob Lutz had this to say in a Q&A section:

Q: Are there any killed-off cars you would like reintroduced?

A: Not many - most deserved to die. But I wish the need to close a plant hadn't killed the Pontiac Solstice. The car looked good, had superb performance, was highly tossable, and returned great fuel economy. With normal evolutionary tweaks, it could have sold for decades.​


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## 3V Pilot (Sep 15, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> Yesterday a co-worker and I took a 400mile work road trip in my Solstice (also designed by Franz von Holzhausen) to add to the solo 200 mile work trip the day before.
> Along the way conversation of the future Model 3 came up along with various observation of the Solstice ranging from how the supersized Sonic drink cup barely clears the window opening, the trunk 'only' holds a a large roll of construction drawings, a box of cultured stone, a carpet sample, hard hats and if you have an oversized laptop bag it'll be sharing your footwell. I pointed out the couple things I have issues with (window buttons closer to your elbow than hand on the armrest, main cupholder at the passenger's knee, extra cupholders between the seats on the back wall (driver needs to reach behind you with your left hand - not exactly the easiest move while driving) and blind spots.
> When the conversation turned back to the Model 3, he said, "well, it's a good thing the new car will not be designed by the say guy that designed this one!". I debated for a few seconds, then told him it actually has the same designer. He first was awed by the chance that one could buy two totally different cars designed by the same person then said "I hope he makes it more practical than this one." I don't know why he thought the Solstice was designed to be a practical car.
> I think it's pretty obvious practicality was not one of the things Franz set out to design the Solstice to be.


Solstice = Franz's brain on Pontiac's management limiting drugs

Model 3 = Franz's brain unleashed by Elon to do what should be done!


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

garsh said:


> In the back of the July 2018 edition of Road and Track, Bob Lutz had this to say in a Q&A section:
> 
> Q: Are there any killed-off cars you would like reintroduced?
> 
> A: Not many - most deserved to die. But I wish the need to close a plant hadn't killed the Pontiac Solstice. The car looked good, had superb performance, was highly tossable, and returned great fuel economy. With normal evolutionary tweaks, it could have sold for decades.​


Not so sure about his idea of what is "really great fuel economy"
Here's my fuel summary for the past 7 years (purchased the 2nd week of July 2011)










My normal mpg is 19-22 and upper 20s to low 30s for road trips.
($10k in 7 years! Damn)


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