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In the 1980s, the Chrysler minivans have dominated the American minivan market. Despite General Motors’ attempt to topple the Chrysler minivans with their own Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari pair, they have not been so successful. And as the domination of the Chrysler minivans continues toward the 1990s, General Motors can’t find any other alternative but to produce an innovative and a radical styling minivan. And so they did by introducing three radically styled minivans: the Chevrolet Lumina, the Oldsmobile Silhouette, and the Pontiac Trans Sport Van.
The Pontiac Trans Sport van was first introduced as a concept vehicle in 1986. The Pontiac Trans Sport concept vehicle was a futuristic minivan, with gull-wing doors, extensive use of glass in its body shell, innovative interiors and many other futuristic car designs. The concept minivan was largely appreciated and warmly received by the people, prompting General Motors to approve the project and get it into production. But just like other concept vehicles, the original features and Pontiac Trans Sport Van parts never really made it to the production model.
The production model of the Pontiac Trans Sport Van debuted in 1989 as a 1990 model. The minivan actually took the shape of the concept vehicle, but without the gull-wing doors and the glass body panels, the vehicle look awkward. It did introduce a lot of innovative features, like its intensive use of composite plastic materials for its body panel instead of the usual sheet metal. But its rather too radical front fascia styling, which resembles an anteater’s snout and termed by critics as a “dustbuster”, was not well accepted by many. The controversial styling did made a lot of noise during the first year, but in the long run, it did not help the sales of GM.
Due to poor sales, the Pontiac Trans Sport, together with its GM siblings, was given a redesign for its second generation beginning the 1997 model year. For its second generation, the snout of the vehicle became shorter and the composite plastic body was replaced by the conventional sheet metal body design. An upscale Montana trim was also introduced the same year, which would eventually replace the Trans Sport for the 1999 model year because of its popularity.
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