This clean-looking 1993-96 Oldsmobile Silhouette was recently spotted by therightpedal in my home town of Boston. Despite being a New England car, its infamous plastic body panels have made it relatively immune to rust and corrosion. The angle of this photo seems to accentuate the sheer length of the nose and windshield. And the fact that this example is white only reinforces the Dustbuster similarity.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the GM “Dustbuster” minivans, but I can always find a way to appreciate a design for its uniqueness. This Silhouette is no exception. I certainly think that the ’93-’96 Silhouettes are the best looking of all the 1990-96 U-bodies. The ’93 front bumpers were an improvement over the original shovel-nosed look. Despite its shortcomings, the Silhouette was certainly a sleek and futuristic take on the minivan, and a look that has not been duplicated since. The more I look at this photo, the more its looks seem to grow on me. Maybe a spaceship van isn’t so bad after all?
The commercial that killed Oldsmobile. I couldn’t even look at it again. I like Leonard Nimoy, but I hated him for this.
I recall my wife renting one of the Dustbusters and reporting that the bizarre windowed A-pillar made driving it very difficult.
Okay, I looked. It’s not “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile,” (which, of course, was the problem) but I think Nimoy did one of those as well.
I liked this series of ads, it seems cheesy now, but for 1990, this was pretty cool.
where the Previas have really grown on me, these still have not. Look how sloped that windshield is? a russian t-34 ain’t got nothing on the olds.
It looked like one of the shuttles from the Next Generation series to me.
Got a feeling that his daughter might have talked him into it.
There used to be a white Trans Sport running around town that was painted up like an Enterprise Shuttle Craft, I haven’t seen it a while, but it was a perfect use for one of those.
I see that the Galileo 7 from NCC-1701D has landed in Boston…
There is an IT guy here at work that has a worn out one of these, oh it runs, but not without its problems. I think he bought it cheap as a get around mobile. Don’t know how long he’s had it, but he’s had to shovel money into it to keep it going, still cheaper, for the time being since he’s shelled out even MORE money marrying off 2 daughters in 2 years.
Anyway, once the outgoing expenses subsides, he’s replacing it, and I have not noted if it’s an Olds or one of the others, but it’s a Dustbuster van nonetheless, in green.
I joke with him about it being a Dustbuster as I DO agree it rather looks like one.
I have never owned one of these or even ridden in one, however, a favorite uncle in Pennsylvania drove the Chevrolet version for at least the last 10 years of his life and he seemed to love it. In his retirement he drove Amish families on their errands and to social events like weddings as well as driving Amish farmers and businessmen throughout the northeast and midwest to lumber conventions etc. He was well paid for these trips and probably could have driven any kind of van he wanted but he kept driving the Chevy all those years. No doubt the plastic body was a big factor as those of us who grew up in western PA got mighty tired of fixing rusty bodies. Uncle Dean passsed away last year and I don’t know what became of the maroon dustbuster.
There was also an Oldsmobile ad featuring Mel Blanc and his son Noel. I poked around on Youtube for a while, but I couldn’t find it.
I’ll always wonder about the name “Noel Blanc.” Was it an accident, or did Mel name his son “White Christmas” on purpose?
I was able to find an ad for a 1989 Cutlass Ciera, featuring Frankie Avalon, and Frankie Avalon, Jr. I have mercifully avoided providing a link to that video. I’d hate for one of you to accidentally click on it.
There was a brief moment when cheap plastic was put into cars to emulate cheap plastic video game components. This was that era. “Modular” was in vogue at GM, and it was taken to an extreme, resulting in tacky, cheap nasty interiors and vehicles like the Saturn S, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, and of course, Chevrolets. Finding flimsy tacky plastic in a Chevy could be expected, but not in upper level GM vehicles attempting to reach a better paying market.
This design look has not aged well, and worse, it has resulted in poorly made products.
Never seen one now i dont have to
GM was being retarded when these came out and they only had the 3.1 narrow angle 6 and iirc 3-speed auto avaliable at first. These vans became vastly improved when the 3800 with an extra gear became available.
My mother bought a transport new in 91. These things where much moee comfy to be a passenger in than any of the offerings by chrysler. All five rear seats where low mounted buckets and had a lounge chair comfortability to them. A touch tricky to get into tge way back but once there it was a good spot to be.
These things where decent enough that three years later my grandfather bought a 93 in early 94. With each of them the problems arose around five years old. Wiper switches and qhatever was on the other side of the gauge cluster started to fall out of their spots, the blower motor control melted down, the rear wiper ceased to wipe and one of them har constant altenator problems. While bothe vans aged seperatly they both had all of the same issues.
My grandfather still liked the versatility of these things (last of the dustbusters)and bought another which was his last vehicle. My mother inherited it and it went on to be nothing likethe other two. It still had its problems but none of the electrical issues at all.
Everyone harped on the look of these things – clearly many still do. I am convinced that the same style had it come from an import manufacturer would not have received the same amount of scorn – but it came from GM and GM isn’t supposed to build weird looking things. Weird looking is for the imports – see Toyota’s first two minivan efforts or the Element or the Cube.
Deep dashboard = wasted space. So, had the windshield been steeper and that space used for a longer hood, the space wouldn’t have been wasted? (okay, it would have looked more “normal” then so perhaps not wasted as a hood after all)
I think GM should have waited until the 3800 and 4 speed were ready before introducing these things as well as beefing-up the brakes.
We had a first-year Transport in the family purchased new which offered-up dependable service the entire time we had it (seven or eight years.) Biggest complaint beyond not having the 3800 was the ability of the van to eat front brake pads. Got very good at swapping those out.
The problem with that steep, huge sloping nose is that the vehicle had the external size of a Grand Caravan but the usable internal size of the shorter regular Caravan. As for the style, GM had been the style leader for generations, and was used to setting the trends with new, cool styles. The TranSport concept was, indeed, cool as could be. However, not many people bought minivans for their style. People forget today what an ingrained anti-Chrysler prejudice there was in new cars in the 1970s-80s. For anything by Chrysler to be the kind of hit that the minivans were, the vehicle had to be something special. Likewise, for GM, with its huge dealership footprint and huge base of long-time satisfied customers to lag in a popular market segment says something significant about the merit and appeal of the Dustbusters.
You bring up a fundamental problem with the whole minivan concept. It was, and essentially remains so today, an exercise in taking a fwd sedan architecture and placing a tall heavier body on it. That probably equated to 600 lbs more in the 80s and today it’s 1000+ when you compare whatever parent sedan to the minivan derived from it. When the drivetrain and brake components don’t get beefed up in the weight gain transition to minivan, the inevitable is reduced component longevity. The issue with eating brakes is still happening today especially with 5000+ lbs Honda Odyssey that has Accord-size brakes.
These minivans worked better as a concept vehicle than an actual vehicle driven on a daily basis. That was their problem.
At any rate, the Toyota Previa didn’t sell well. It wasn’t as though buyers flocked to the oddball Previa while shunning the equally odd GM minivans. It’s telling that the Previa is gone and Toyota’s current, conventional minivan has a new name.
The Nissan Cube and Honda Element were vehicles that looked “different” but did offer useful attributes to owners.
I will always remember this van for being Rodney Dangerfield’s choice of transport in the movie Ladybugs…”I’m here to pick up my daughter Martha.”
Like Carmine said these commercials may seem cheesy now but they were unique when they were first aired…besides the “celebrities” mentioned about does anyone remember William Shatner and his daughter, Priscilla Presley & Lisa Marie??? These commercials picked up where Dick Van Patten and his family left off..now I really am dating myself..does anyone remember Dick Van Patten and his love of the Olds 88??
I remember those ads…didn’t Dick Van Patten appear in ads during the early 1980s, before the Delta 88 switched to the front-wheel-drive platform? Wasn’t the tagline “The family car that didn’t forget the family”?
Yes!–somehow the commercials just weren’t the same with the 86 FWD body style.
Back in 1990 we were one of the first in town to have a Lumina APV. You’d think we had a Ferarri with all the attention we got. At least until word of the mediocre performance and poor build quality got around. My dad ended up so annoyed with the squeaks and rattles he disassembled the dashboard and put it back together using rubber tape. The three speed automatic was a joke. All in all it had its issues but the drivetrain was actually pretty reliable and we used to get 25-26 MPG with it.
I still like these from a styling perspective. It’s arguably better looking than any minivan sold today. And the plastic body panels were a great idea. Too bad they never got the paint to stick all that well to them.
I think some people forget just how highly anticipated these vans were. The really were ahead of their time in style and seating flexibility.
Back in the day, a friend of mine had one of the Olds dustbuster minivans (in that ubiquitous teal-ish green). I want to say it was the one of the post mid-cycle-enhanced ones, with the 3.8 Buick V6 and the 4 speed auto box. He really liked it and it seemed to work well for him. He really liked the fact that the body panels were plastic and seemingly impervious to dents. Here in rust country, that was a big plus.
After several years of ownership, however, he got the new car bug and traded it for an early Toyota Sierra. This is going back about 10 years or so, so I don’t remember if the Dustbuster developed problems. Regardless, the Sierra only lasted a couple of years in his stewardship, though. The Sierra got traded for a Jeep Grand Cherokee when the last of the kids didn’t need to be chauffeured everywhere.
Sound familiar?
The Sihlouette in that white w/black striping was the most common livery I saw. There used to be one in our neighborhood years ago.
A friend has a 1996 Trans Sport bought new, bright red-orange w/gray interior. He has the 3.4, I believe. He uses it as the family truckster now.
The only issue I have with these is the too-low, eat-your-knees seating position in the 2nd & 3rd rows. Other than that, I always liked these and was pretty excited when they came out in the Lumina guise.
It looks like a Deadly Sin to me.
My parents bought a Plymouth Voyager LE back in the early 90s when these vans came out. They did briefly consider buying the Silhouette, mainly because of the individual seats feature, but the huge windshield was a turnoff. The Previa was equally goofy with a nearly as large windshield and was slow compared to the V6 in the Voyager. Plus, the Voyager just made sense for most middle class Midwestern families at the time. So its no surprise that, eventually, all of the makers fell back to the Chrysler formula and came out with more conventional vans. And saw sales improvements, at least relative to their previous sales. Its like the KISS principle – Keep It Simple Stupid. Its a freakin’ minivan…
Reduced to shilling minivans in faux sci-fi settings, Mr. Nimoy longed for the good old days of genuine acting gigs and genuine cars, like his ’64 Riviera…