When is a Hit a Miss?

Recently, Bob Lutz, a vice chairman of global product development and de-facto design chief for General Motors, retired. The Los Angeles Times produced a photo-essay of the many cars developed under Lutz' watch and split them into hits and misses. One of the cars they listed as a "hit" - the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice - is to me a definite miss.

The first thing that's clear when you see a Sky or Solstice pass by on the street is that the front end and the back end not only do not match, they seem to have no relationship to each other. The front is low, thick and busy; the back is high and plain except for some odd accents that call to mind Bruce Wayne's Batmobile.

Then there's the black convertible tops that seem far too small, as if they'd been snatched off of the Mazda Miata production line. Yes, the alleged Solstice couple looks better, in photographs, but I've never seen one in the real world.

The Miata is still classic because it was meant to look like a '50s era British roadster. The underpowered English roadsters managed to cut through the wind due to their simple aerodynamic designs; the fewer lines and bulges the better. Sad to say, the Sky and Solstice look like Saturns and Pontiacs, products of busy American design. They may be better looking than your average Ford Mustang, but that's damning with faint praise.