THE just-introduced (and just-canceled) Pontiac Solstice coupe is already assured a place in automotive history, and not only because its fleeting production run lasted mere months.

This new targa-top Solstice is the last of the Pontiacs, the final breath of a brand that failed to adapt to a changing world. Once-proud Pontiac is being phased out by General Motors, its parent, and will be gone in 2010. The Solstice coupe, a fixed-roof variation of the four-year-old roadster, is Pontiac’s last new model.

It could become something of a collector’s item.

“We expect that total production will be in the neighborhood of 1,100 units when we cease operations at the Wilmington plant by the end of July,” Jim Hopson, a Pontiac spokesman, wrote in an e-mail message. All Solstice coupes will have sequential ID numbers, so owners will know exactly which car of the 1,100 they have.

The coupe I tested was the hot GXP version, which comes with a 260-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. Its window sticker of $31,045 created an expectation of polish and comfort that I felt, considering the price, it failed to deliver.