Pontiac | Pontiac Trans Sport Parts
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What is the history of the Pontiac Trans Sport?
The Pontiac Trans Sport and its siblings, the Chevrolet Lumina APV, Oldsmobile Silhouette and Pontiac Montana were a set of minivans that débuted with radical styling in fall 1989 as 1990 models. The Trans Sport and its sibling models were produced by General Motors to compete with the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager. Because the larger Chevrolet Astro and the GMC Safari "mini-vans" were based on a body-on-frame, rear wheel drive truck platform, they appealed to a different segment of the market and did not put a significant dent in Chrysler's almost complete dominance of the minivan market in the late eighties. The GM minivans, while more successful than the Astro/Safari duo in terms of market share, were able to capture a large chunk of the market away from the Chrysler models.
The design of these minivans was controversial. At the time that the Pontiac Trans Sport and its siblings were conceived, no one had tried to market a stylish or sporty minivan, and GM felt that this represented a potentially large market segment that the class-leading Chrysler minivans failed to address. They styled these minivans to be lower and sleeker than any of the competing brands on the market. The extremely large, long and sloped windshield and the resultant long distance to the base of the windshield when sitting in the drivers seat made for a disconcerting driving experience until a person could adjust to the "different" proportions. Automotive magazines christened the new minivans "dustbusters" after Black and Decker's trademark for handheld vacuum cleaners, since the minivans shared a similar side profile to the handheld vacuum cleaners.
For the 1998 model year (1999 in Canada), along with the roll out of this new generation of minivans, the Pontiac (Trans Sport) Montana was first debuted, which had special cladding and wheels intended to give it a more rugged SUV-like appearance. In the 1999 model year (2000 in Canada), the name "Trans Sport" was dropped due to the popularity of the "Montana" appearance package. By the time the "Trans Sport" moniker was dropped, the "Montana" package accounted for over 80% of total Trans Sport sales.
