Trans Sport. The name had flair. So did the vehicle, a concept of what the front-wheel-drive multipurpose hauler of the future would look like.
A few years ago, the Pontiac Trans Sport was one of the best-looking concept vehicles ever to grace the auto show circuit.
Trans Sport had a long, tubular, almost sausage-like plastic body. The roof and sides were glassy, for viewing the scenery. The front end was rounded and elongated just enough to provide a sense of security: If you hit something, you figured you`d come out the winner.
Inside, the mini-van held the entire family in individual bucket seats. The real charm, for easy entry or exit, was the pop-up gull-wing door system. The public loved it, and General Motors Corp. gave the go-ahead to build the Trans Sport, Chevy Lumina and Olds Silhouette plastic-bodied mini-vans, on a 109.8-inch wheelbase and 193.9 inches long.
The concept was transformed into reality-and reality set in, in a big way.
Make that reality as in bean counters, who won out over the stylists. In trying to describe the production version of the concept vehicle, a few words come to mind: One is civilized, as in risks avoided; the other is sterilized, as in hold the sauce and make mine vanilla.
There`s still lots of glass, but mostly along the sides. There are still buckets for 6 to 7 occupants, but rather than individual stereo headsets, as in the concept vehicle, the passengers now have to settle for seat backs that fold into table tops with cupholders. There are still doors, but the conventional slide-open side door won out over the pop-up gull-wing.
Some executives said gull-wings cost too much. Others said the doors would hit overhead hardware in garage ceilings. Still others said the gull-wings were doomed because consumers associated them with the infamous sports car from ex-GM executive John Z. DeLorean, better known around the GM building as ”who?”
Rather than strip the concept vehicle of all personality and character, GM came up with a plan to take that rounded and slightly extended nose and stretch it. Now, the first snowfall transforms it into a ski hill.
Whereas the nose on the concept vehicle left you with a secure feeling of mass serving as a barrier between you and the object ahead, the protruding beak on the finished product leaves you with a sense of insecurity as you wonder where the hood ends and the metal post begins in that parking lot spot you`ve just pulled into.
Then there`s the dash, which more closely resembles a plastic-bottom bunk bed. It`s not so much that the size of the dash is distracting, though a human being could nap on it; the real wonder comes from the fact that the dozer could toss or turn in sleep and not roll off.
Do you need to clean the picture window-size windshield that meets that dash roughly three feet ahead of you? Send out for a service or reach for a long-handled mop and swipe away.
We previously drove the Chevy Lumina APV and now have tested the upscale Olds Silhouette version of the vehicle. We had hoped upscale would mean different. After all, GM says its vehicles aren`t clones of each other anymore.
Yet Silhouette had only a few modest differences from Lumina, one being a small glove box in the dash that holds a map or two. Upscale means most items optional in Lumina are standard in Silhouette. They`re clones.
Like its GM cousins, Silhouette is powered by a 3.1-liter, 120-horsepower V-6 engine teamed with a 3-speed automatic transmission and rated at 18 miles per gallon city/23 highway.
As previously reported, a 4-speed automatic is on the way in a year, and a 3.8-liter, 160-to-170-horsepower V-6 is earmarked for 1992. The 3.1 V-6 has ample power when Dad, Dad and Mom, or Dad, Mom and a child or two are aboard. Add any more family members or guests and luggage, and the 3.8 V-6 would come in handy.
While disappointed that the production van doesn`t more closely reflect the concept vehicle, we aren`t discouraged. The fact that GM is going to beef up the powerplant shows that some progress is going to be made.
Having seat backs that fold into tables and 12 cupholders scattered throughout the interior is encouraging, too. This is a people hauler, and the conversion into a mini-diner for tailgate parties, picnics, long trips or simply the weekly run to Mickey D`s is a plus. You`d never have that luxury in a station wagon.
And the aerodynamic styling does have a major advantage: You can power down the driver`s window and still maintain a conversation with your front-seat passenger without wind disturbance, because the bends in the plastic body deposit air around and away from you.
But we`d certainly like the folks who voted aye on the ski slope up front and the king-size dash to come up with an alternative quickly.
Other changes we`d like to see are minor. One would be to replace the graphic on the hood opener, making it a van rather than the car now portrayed there, simply for a touch of class. The other would be to relocate the wiring clutter around the oil filter, to make servicing easier and the chance of destroying the wiring less likely.
Silhouette carries a $17,195 base price. Standard equipment includes air conditioning; power brakes and steering; front, side and rear defoggers; floor mats; dual remote mirrors; AM/FM stereo with digital clock; tilt wheel; all-season radials; tinted side and liftgate glass; solar-treated windshield;
and rear-window wiper.
The vehicle we drove added an option package consisting of power door locks, cruise control, power windows, power seats, leather seats and upgraded radio to include cassette for $1,750. There also were touring suspension, for $232, and electric rear-window defogger, for $160. The sticker read $19,087, plus $500 for freight.
Toyota Previa
”We haven`t had a mini-van for five years,” said Robert McCurry, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.
”When you see and drive the new 1990 Previa, you`ll know what I mean,”
McCurry added during a recent interview in Detroit.
McCurry was referring to the sorry excuse Toyota has offered as a mini-van since 1984, which will be replaced by the `90 Previa in April.
Toyota upstaged Chrysler in 1984. Weeks before Chrysler was to bring out its highly publicized Caravan and Voyager as the first entries in what was to be a new mini-van market, Toyota unveiled its own mini-van.
Toyota may have been first, but it hardly was best. The Toyota mini-van was an abomination.
”It was a van we`d been building and selling in Japan for the Japanese market for a few years,” McCurry said.
As such, it was small and narrow. Occupants had to slide over dust-, mud- or snow-covered wheel wells to enter. Then they sat directly over the axles, so every tar mark on the road was magnified to bucking bronco proportions.
With slab sides and a short wheelbase, the vehicle handled the open U.S. roads like a Ping-Pong ball. Though ideal for the congested streets and minuscule parking spaces of Tokyo, the van was out of its element in the states.
Enter Previa, which was designed specifically for the U.S.
It will make its debut at the Chicago Auto Show Feb. 10-18 in McCormick Place. Toyota was one of the few automakers to save a new-vehicle introduction for Chicago, rather than unveil it at the Detroit auto show in January.
”I felt we owed Chicago something. That show has been very good to us for a lot of years,” McCurry said of the Previa introduction.
The rear-drive Previa is built on a 112.8-inch wheelbase and is 187 inches long, up from an 88-inch wheelbase and 175.8-inch length on the mini- van it replaces. Full-time 4-wheel-drive is optional.
With the extended length come a couple of noteworthy changes. Front doors are now located behind the wheel wells, so you don`t have to climb over them to get in. Also, front-seat occupants sit behind the axle, not over it.
The body is rounded, the nose stubby. The side door slides open. There`s seating for 5 to 7. The third seat splits into two halves that fold up against the sides of the interior.
Power comes from a 2.4-liter, 138-horsepower in-line 4-cylinder, 16-valve engine teamed with 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual. The engine is beneath the floor, but Toyota says routine items that need service, such as radiator, fan belts, alternator, air conditioning, air cleaner, power steering pump, coolant, washer fluid, battery and engine oil reservoir, are serviceable from under the hood.
Standard equipment includes power steering, power brakes (antilock system optional), dual mirrors, tinted glass, digital clock and all-season radials, to name a few items. No price yet. We await a test-drive before passing judgment.
