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The Pontiac Trans Sport dustbuster van or other weird cars you like.

Kind of a broad response, but I like most of the year 1960-1961 american cars. Detroit was going through a weird transition phase and the cars are just kind of awkward, but also cool. You hardly ever see them around which makes them even more interesting when you Do see one.
 
Dave6T4 said:
Pontiac Aztec! I remember reading a drive test on one of those at the time. The tester stopped at gas station to refill. A lady at the next pump asked if he was getting paid to drive that ugly thing. ( he was )
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In his book, Bob Lutz (while he was working at GM) said the Aztec design made it sales proof.
 
Photon440 said:
In his book, Bob Lutz (while he was working at GM) said the Aztec design made it sales proof.
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my then brother in law talked his wife into one for her....she wanted a SUV...wasnt long after she left him and got a BMW SUV....he is not my brother in law any longer..lol wives step sister...we have not seen her in 12 years at least.
 
Detective D said:
Here ya go:
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These weren't a failure. They sold really well in the midwest, because they handled snow very well and especially in WI the zealotry of the bowtie is fierce.
I had two of them in extended family garages, aunt drove it to 200k, gave it to cousin who lived near Milwaukee. She junked it when the windshield cracked at 430k miles. Original engine, second transmission. The other was bought used and sold at 300k+miles to buy a downsized Buick sedan when the kids were older.
The trick was to get one with the early 3.1 Multi-port EFI v6. That engine rivals the 3800 in longevity and has stupid ft lbs for it's size, enough to squeel the heck out of 14 and 15" 175 series car tires anyway.
It is basically a W body car with some..... bonus... sheetmetal and glass. LOL windsheild wipers too.
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I don't know what "sold really well in the midwest" means over-all, but a lot of people reacted negatively to the loooong dash board and the view out of the front, not to mention the 120 hp. that the 3.1 squeezed out and the air conditioning that struggled against all of that glass area. As a comparison, the first year (1990) Trans Sport sold 29,875 copies. The Plymouth Caravan, which was already several years old and ready for a new model, sold 175,518 that year.
 
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That last one, I know people like Mustangs but the SN95 is generally hated on, despite the 94/95 models having the 5.0 yet. To many sour grapes from people with the anemic, detuned 4.6 cars that came after.
I had a 94, sold to my boy, in that color (Opal Frost) but I put silver 5 spoke Steeda Ultralights on with 315 rubber in back and tuned the shat out of it(for road touring, not drag strip) and it really is a fun car. I just got to the point where I was getting annoyed trying to get in and out of it so I moved on to other rides and sold to my boy. It's still in the shed.
 
Photon440 said:
I don't know what "sold really well in the midwest" means over-all, but a lot of people reacted negatively to the loooong dash board and the view out of the front, not to mention the 120 hp. that the 3.1 squeezed out and the air conditioning that struggled against all of that glass area. As a comparison, the first year (1990) Trans Sport sold 29,875 copies. The Plymouth Caravan, which was already several years old and ready for a new model, sold 175,518 that year.
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They were everywhere in rural WI. Like I said, WI chebby zealotry is real. People bought them simply because they wanted the van and "no way dodge or ford!" 1980's Dodge trucks did not exist in NE WI. 20:1 vs Ford, 25:1 vs chevy. They didn;t start to show up until cummins and the second gen, and then suddenly Dodge had a market here.
The 3.1 multiport would roast the tires on many vehicles it was put into. It wouldn't pass anyone going over 60 but in town they were hilarious. My older sister had a '90 Lumina sedan with 14" tires, it would leave 15 foot blackie's from a stop sign.
And the vans did take to snow extremely well.
 
Like a lot of ugly cars, the transfer of design drawings of the Aztek to the actual vehicle was extremely flawed. As an industrial designer, I found one of the few vehicles from concept to actual vehicles was the Isuzu VehiCross. It looked exactly like the concept art. Love it or hate it, I think it's 90's Rad Cool.

VehiCross1.jpg
 
Detective D said:
They were everywhere in rural WI. Like I said, WI chebby zealotry is real. People bought them simply because they wanted the van and "no way dodge or ford!" 1980's Dodge trucks did not exist in NE WI. 20:1 vs Ford, 25:1 vs chevy. They didn;t start to show up until cummins and the second gen, and then suddenly Dodge had a market here.
The 3.1 multiport would roast the tires on many vehicles it was put into. It wouldn't pass anyone going over 60 but in town they were hilarious. My older sister had a '90 Lumina sedan with 14" tires, it would leave 15 foot blackie's from a stop sign.
And the vans did take to snow extremely well.
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Most front wheel drive vehicles handled snow fairly well, that part is quite believable. But with Chrysler owning 2/3 of all minivan sales back then, Ford, GM (Chevy Lumina APV, Pontiac Trans Sport, Oldsmobile Silhouette), Toyota Previa and Mazda MPV were all scrambling over what was left. The multiport was available in the Lumina sedan but the minivans got the 3.1 TBI engine.

Bob Lutz, always checking out the competition, noted at the time: “I was president of Chrysler at the time, and we watched the roll-out of these ‘suppositories’ with morbid fascination, wondering if they would damage our minivan sales,” says serial Big Three executive, Bob Lutz. “They did not.”
 
SteveSS said:
Like a lot of ugly cars, the transfer of design drawings of the Aztek to the actual vehicle was extremely flawed. As an industrial designer, I found one of the few vehicles from concept to actual vehicles was the Isuzu VehiCross. It looked exactly like the concept art. Love it or hate it, I think it's 90's Rad Cool.

View attachment 1635734
Click to expand...
The original Dodge Viper remained fairly consistent from concept to production vehicle as well, thankfully.
 
I loved the Lee Iacoca commercial that said "even after we showed them how to do it, they still couldn't get it right"

About the gm and ford RWD minivans.

The place I worked had a fleet of both.
aerostars were under powered but much more comfortable than the no head room, and literally less than a milk crate of foot room gm astro and safari vans that put your knees above the bottom of the window, but the 4.3 did move those pretty good...if they didn't have that awful "pause and clunk" transmission/axle issue that no dealership could seem to fix.
 
IMG_0194.png
IMG_0193.jpeg
I had a Samurai exactly like this in the early nineties. I loved it ! It was great in the snow or in the woods for hunting. The easiest car to work on that I have ever owned. No worries about getting any speeding tickets….it’s top speed of 65 mph made sure of that. I even got a removable hardtop version for my wife. I would definitely get another if I could find one in an affordable price range. Their scarcity makes them tough to find.
…and no, they were not prone to roll over. I had to swerve one rainy day on the highway for a car that lost it hydroplaning. I was fully sideways using the passenger door window to see where I was going, no standing water in my lane, just wet pavement. It never highsided, nor had any other indication of potential rollover. I got her straightened out and continued on my way.
 
suzuki samurai has quite the cult following.
 
YY1 said:
I loved the Lee Iacoca commercial that said "even after we showed them how to do it, they still couldn't get it right"

About the gm and ford RWD minivans.

The place I worked had a fleet of both.
aerostars were under powered but much more comfortable than the no head room, and literally less than a milk crate of foot room gm astro and safari vans that put your knees above the bottom of the window, but the 4.3 did move those pretty good...if they didn't have that awful "pause and clunk" transmission/axle issue that no dealership could seem to fix.
Click to expand...
The all wheel drive aerostar was a beast... for a minivan. No it was not fast, but it acted like a 4x4 lol. People used to look for them for some parts or another, I think they had aluminum driveshafts and some other bits people looked for.
Never been in an Astro, never been in a 2wd Aero either.
 
Even though Chrysler was acknowledged as the creator of the minivan craze, Iacocca had the idea before then. He pushed the idea of a small, 6' maximum height garage-able van at Ford while he was still an executive there. The company didn't pursue the idea. If they had, they could have been first.
Ford Carousel concept: (note the 1972 date)
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Although small, this was hardly an economical little van; the prototype used a Thunderbird dashboard and a 460 cubic inch engine with rear wheel drive.
 
That snout is FUG-LEE...but the glass looks like a backwards version of an S-10 Blazer!
 
We had a couple of Ford Windstars when the kids were little. I liked them.

windstar.jpg
 
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