Sports Car Review

Comparing 2009 sports cars

Naturally, reviewers love to test sports cars. Writers at well-known car magazines (Car and Driver, Road & Track, Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine, et al.) pilot just about every available sports car on all kinds of closed tracks and public roads. Consumer websites (ConsumerReports.org, ConsumerGuide.com) give more weight to practical matters like safety and fuel economy. Websites devoted to cars (TheTruthAboutCars.com, Autoblog.com, LeftLaneNews.com and Jalopnik.com) test fewer cars, but the writers usually do a very in-depth job -- and they often manage to stir up some interesting controversy.

Buyers looking for a bargain may be tempted by the 2009 Pontiac Solstice coupe (*Est. $26,225 to $30,375), the cheapest car in this report and one of the sexiest, according to critics. It's one of Car and Driver's 10 Most Beautiful Cars for 2009.

Unfortunately, if you crack the door you'll see one of the most wretched interiors ever perpetrated on a car, at least according to the reviews we read. Jerry Garrett at The New York Times declares he's seen comfier accommodations in a minimum-security prison. Besides the ill-fitting plastics, testers complain that they can't see the gauges in broad daylight, there's virtually no storage for anything anywhere, the cabin is so noisy it seems like there must be a door ajar, it's cramped in there ...; the list goes on.

Until now, the Solstice has come only with a ragtop (a cumbersome and ill-fitting one, according to critics), but the new-for-2009 coupe fixes that flaw. Testers like the coupe's removable targa top, but they hate that there's nowhere on board to store it. Pontiac sells an optional emergency soft top -- for $1,100 extra, reviews point out.

The Solstice coupe is the last new car for the dying Pontiac brand. Production has already ceased for the 2009 model, and there will be no more Solstices. Experts predict the 1,100 or so numbered Solstice coupes will become collectors' items, but they still don't recommend them.

For this report, we restrict our coverage to vehicles that fit the image that most people conjure up when they think of the term "sports car" -- the highest-performing hardtop coupes, some of which also come in convertible form. You'll also find performance cars in our separate reports on convertibles and sports sedans. We're leaving out the truly exotic -- those mostly Italian supercars with prices that can easily reach past $300,000. While cars from manufacturers Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati represent the upper tier in the sports-car pantheon, they are produced in relatively small numbers and sold through limited dealer networks, and are aimed at a very wealthy target audience.