How about we go to Europe for a vintage Car Carrier of the Day? And with a load of “dustbuster” Pontiac Trans Sports in Italy. But take a close look: they’re actually Olds Silhouettes, with Pontiac badging. That’s how these vans were sold in Europe; Mother GM knows best. And these had two engine/transmission options that were also exclusive to Europe: the 2.3 L Quad Four and a Peugeot 1.9L diesel. And a 5-speed manual transmission, of course.
The truck has the same face as the cars.
Dang, I would have bought a dustbuster with a Quad 4 and 5 speed!
Kind of my thought, as well. Heel-toeing one of these spaceships around town sounds like a unique automotive experience.
Not so sure about the Peugot diesel. Seems like it would have been SLOW. I liked Peugot bikes back in the day, but my friend called the cars Pigouts.
Sorry to disappoint you the XUD would have been faster, PSA seem to produce the most widely used passenger car diesel engines on this planet beginning with the older 1905 engines and continuing today with the PSA/Ford diesel engine range and the sharing goes both ways,
I talked with the owner of a 2011 C5 estate/break/wagon recently his car has a 3.0 V6 diesel which is a Ford derived engine most of them have the twin turbo 2.7L Pug V6 diesel.
Buy a diesel Suzuki 4wd or a Lada diesel parts are easy to get both use PSA engines.
Thanks for the note. Was the Peugeot XUD turbocharged in the European Trans Sport? HP? The domestic Trans Sports and Silhouettes were initally slow, but received 170 HP V6 after a couple years. Still not a racer by any means.
Who else wonders if this photo is showing 50% of the total number of units sold in Europe? 😂
Actually those were moderately popular. Not as much as the Austrian made Chrysler Voyager but considerably more than Ford’s Aerostar. The V6s were known for their capacity to accumulate biblical mileages and they were not THAT bad consumption wise as one would think. You can still find them here and there, the one in the linked ad is probably as near as perfect as one can get…
https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/d/auto/pontiac-trans-sport-3-8-455017960
The Euro Trans Sport: it’s the Oldsmobile of minivans.
lol!
No animosities but I’d rather an Iveco big tractor rather than a Pontiac Trans Sport and Oldsmobile Silhouette .
Should say undoubtedly that Iveco is quite much appealing .
These Pontiacs were outsold by the contemporary Mopar minivan (Chrysler Voyager, where I’m sitting), but they certainly weren’t as rare as hen’s teeth.
Our Chrysler Voyager sales numbers:
https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/chrysler/voyager/
Ditto, Pontiac Trans Sport:
https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/pontiac/trans-sport/
So BuzzDog must be surprised 🙂
It was stated more as a joke than with any seriousness, but 4,271 units over five years isn’t all that many, particularly when compared to US sales.
What really mystifies me is why there weren’t branded as Opels.
I know.
In the second half of the nineties, the Chevrolet Trans Sport (the Euro-name for the second gen) was offered alongside the rebadges by Opel and Vauxhall, called the Sintra.
I guess the design of the first gen was a bit too much for an Opel showroom, back then.
Yeah, i though these were quite cool growing up in Norway – very sci-fi and futuristic looking.
There were a couple of them around, so they probably sold ok.
I’d prefer to drive the Iveco, I had one as tractor unit pulling a long short B train on a high speed parcel post run, Awesome truck quiet, comfortable and handled great dry, wet, snow or ice.
My Uncle had a Transport back in the day, he worked for GM and still only buys GM vehicles.
What day?
The Trans Sport vans for the European market went through three different versions:
The 1990-1993 export version wore the same Pontiac attire as in the United States. The 1994–1996 was a rebadged Oldsmobile Silhouette.
The 1990-1991 used the 92mm x 150mm H4703 capsule headlamps with headlamp bezels similar to 1988-1989 Chevrolet C/K and 1989-1991 Chevrolet Suburban. This capsule headlamp design was pretty common for early export versions of Chevrolet Beretta and Corsica, Pontiac Grand Prix, and a few others.
The 1992-1993 received the form-fitting T84/T85 export headlamps with glass lens and different output pattern and the side turn signal repeaters. The front turn signal indicators are amber colour, and front side retroreflective element white colour. The taillamps received separate amber-coloured turn signal indicators along with red rear fog and reverse lamps affixed to the tailgate.
Pontiac redesigned and truncated the front end for 1994-1996, giving it the “Pug” look. Perhaps, the long Dustbuster look was Trans Sport’s strong selling point in Europe, and Pontiac was wise to continue with Dustbuster look by switching to the Oldsmobile Silhouette design. The rub stripes running lengthwise on the side and rear were added for Europe, which is probably pointless given the fact that body was covered with plastic “sheetmetals”.
The Trans Sport in the photo are 1994–1996 Oldsmobile versions…
The 1990–1991 version:
I’ve seen the export headlights like this on Berettas, but never on the van or a Corsica. I actually like the way it looks on the Beretta.
Here’s Corsica…
The 1992–1993 version:
There are too V6 3.1/3.8 in Europe.
Actually these were only 2.3 and V6 in Europe. Not sure from where the Peugeot diesel info comes?
Anyway not all the countries got all the permutations. For example Italy got them only from 1992 so never the double headlamps version. Always liked these!