Wow,is that a glimpse of the actual future? thats impressive

Oh, they're not gone. They're just waiting for restoration.

My father- the same man that's owned such automotive excellence as a black on red 65 Bonneville 'vert and a 48 Roadmaster- lists his 94 Trans Sport as his favorite car. Once a dustbuster van has its claws in you, you're done for.

These minivans were time machines. You thought you were watching them fall apart in time-lapse, but it was happening in real time.

Yeah, Kevin's folks had one of these when we were youg'uns. I thought it was goofy then. Too bad GM gave up on designing their vehicles after common household small appliances. I guess Toyota picked up the slack with Scion Toasters, and that is why Toyota is passing GM.

Anyone made a 'mino out of one of these yet? That could be interesting.

The Silhuette? That's the Cadillac of Mini-Vans.

My family was in the minivan market in the very early 90s. I remember really liking the Dustbusters when I was 12-13 years old. The styling was so aerodynamic-looking. The Previa was also popular at the time, but RWD was still sort of being vilified as unsafe (especially in the rain) and the AWD versions were hard to find. We ended up with an '88 Caravan ("sport" with V6, the short wheelbase version before they all became GRAND). A couple years later I thought the Dustbusters were the ugliest cars ever.

Plus, they really opened my eyes to badge engineering more than any other vehicle of the time.

Those vans were an amazing feat in engineering. The space frame seemed to have the rigidity of perfectly-cooked Ramen noodles.

But still... I remember the first Dustbuster I saw in person, like it was yesterday. It was an '89-'90? Pontiac TranSport. Black. Loaded. Enough plastic on it's sides to supply the Lego factory with material for a good four months...

But as far as Oldmo'buster commercials go, I prefer the one featuring Paul from The Wonder Years...

I remember that our Formual SAE team got a couple of these as loaners to go to the competition one year. At the time they had the lowest cD of any vehicle that GM ever made, probably still do. Makes for a good top end speed, just takes a while to get there.

The weirdest thing about them (I thought, visually) was the enormous expanse on the top of the dashboard. You could play pool on that thing. There would probably be a lot more of them on the road but you couldn't tune the bastards up. The process for getting the plugs out was one of the all time ugliest that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure it involved unbolting and rotating the engine. That's never good.

Now the only dustbuster design we have left is the new Civic, which fills the vacuum nicely (ba-dum, ching)

One of my drunken neighbors just mowed down another neighbor's mailbox with his Transport. Good news is that the plastic body panels were unharmed. Bad news is that the drunk is still out there...

Here in Central Florida, they're the official vehicle of "undocumented independent contractors". I see them everywhere. They're usually loaded up with tile, 2x4's, or weed whackers. How those poor bastards keep them running is a mystery to me.

@sliderule: A Get Shorty reference. That takes me back.

Those who cross with fear in their heart will be killed.

@mytdawg: And I heard that the huge windshield was apparently expensive to replace.

Christ, Spock's daughter is f-ing boot, ooofffaaa

i remember the trans sport concept at the auto show. It was sort of an articulated vehicle that you could drive the front half away and leave the rear in place, sorta like that vehicle from damnation alley, the terra x i think? I actually like the concept, hated the execution.

The dash was kinda the antithesis of the 60s rear package shelf - you could sleep 3-4 small children up there.

You also needed a very small, well trained child to retrieve anything that happened to slide to the glass under braking.

Hey, I had a TranSport and I liked it. Bought it used, (blue over silver), added 15" alloy spoke wheels and 70 series tires and drove that thing till the BSU decided she wanted out of the "minivan Mom" look and bought a T-Bird.

The only problem with that Pontiac was with the Autozone alternator that seemed to fail about once per year. It wasn't tough to change and AZ kept warrantying it, so- no problem.

We drove that thing across the country and back with no complaints.

@smalleyxb122: It doesn't quite count, but I had a 1:64 Trans Sport, all the "glass" and roof behind the b-pillar were a single piece of plastic, that ended up breaking off. Instant Transamino!

Also, I'd really like to find one of the first generation vans and drop in a 3800 Supercharged, since it should theoretically fit (as much as anything fits in there). I think I have issues).

I've grown fond of these vans over the years. At the time, they were an atrocious choice as a brand-new, full-price "serious" car. Now they score major points for sheer weird factor and they're probably cheap as dirt.

Plus, GM fwd vehicles of this era have absurd parts interchange potential. Do W-body chassis components fit this thing?

We once saw a white one of these, maybe the Pontiac version, painted up like a Starfleet shuttle from Star Trek.

@sliderule: "Yeah well, I hope you drive better than you fucking spell, jack-off."

Loved that movie.

Great ad. It was important that they showed her a) lugging out the seats and b) displaying the all-important cup holders. If you only have 30 seconds or so to capture the buying public's interest, you have to have your priorities straight.

Whoever designed these dustbusters must have eventually taken acid in order to come up with the Pontiac Ass-Trek

@MazdaEric: Like pudgy version of the ol' man in drag.

@P161911
At the time they had the lowest cD of any vehicle that GM ever made, probably still do.

I looked it up: 0.26! That's impressive, though the Opel Calibra came out in 1990 and also had a 0.26 cD. Like today's Prius.

@MR42HH: Pretty spiffy. Unlike the Prius, my Passat (B5 version) has a Cd of 0.27, and managed it without resorting to Prius-like measures. Most of it has to do with lots of underbody paneling.

So it's not that hard to do without making the car look like shite, but style still sells over substance in most cases.

My friends Dad has one in perfect condition. He calls it a collector car and whenever he sees one on the road he waves. The other driver invariably waves back. They're like Jeep people. It's really great. We refer to it as "The Starship 'Transport'"

I had one of those and it had three pluses:

1. Very comfortable to have the window open at speed - good thing too 'cause the A/C could not keep up with the greenhouse effect.

2. It felt the same at 100 MPH as it did at 50 MPH - once you got there.

3. You could toss a large pizza on the dash without blocking the defroster - an open laptop would fit too!

John Travolta cemented himself as totally cool when he repeatedly poked fun at himself with his "Cadillac of Mini Vans" in Get Shortie.

Having Nimoy and fille do this commercial seems quite apropos to me... in spite of the "Dust Buster" moniker, I always thought their profile reminded me of Star Trek shuttlecraft...

This one didn't even make it to the crusher.

Photo by Troy Paiva at www.lostamerica.com

I always thought the Dustbuster vans were kinda cool, in a bizarre, uglytastic kinda way. Sadly, I had a few as rentals and structural rigidity was virtually non-existent. The only vehicle I have driven that exhibited a more disconcerting lack of structural soundness was the Ford Tempo.

the 'Cadillac' of minivans last seen in 'Get Shorty'

Now if you guys can dig up the Oldsmobile Toronado Troféo ads. You will be gods amongst men.

@mytdawg: we had one in the school shop for a tuneup a few months back... we didn't pull the engine, but we did have to remove the front engine mount... took something like 8 hours to change 6 spark plugs. needless to say, i've stayed far away from the pair of Lumina APV's we've had in more recently.

but if i could get one with digital gauges, more of the Trans Sport concept's styling, and someone else willing to maintain it for me, i probably wouldn't hate it...

Small window in the A-pillar? Shitty.

And everyone is doing it now. Again. Didn't we learn?

Small window in the A-pillar that OPENS? Best idea ever. Can't today's engineers find a way to make wings work again. Jesus!

Nobody would know that it was Julie Nimoy without the title.

@Молотов: It's a Trofeo, but look how well it defies gravity!

+ Watch video

@Maymar:
Oh dear, it appears the video is no longer available. Would this be the ad sung to the tune of Day-O by Harry Belafontez?

I wonder how bad the gas millage was on this van, but it holds a lot of people, as spock would say "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..."

I don't know why you would think these are all gone, I see these often enough. One of the ugliest vehicles ever though.

@Молотов: No, it's got an '86 Toronado driving through the desert, and getting enough airtime to get a slow motion shot of the Oldsmobile badge on the door before it hits the ground again. It you search Youtube for "Oldsmobile Toronado" it should come up on the first page.

@Maymar: I did the exact same thing to the my toy Transport, and dreamed of having one in real life when I grew up.

I do see these things tooling around Fargo all the time. People have a penchant for GM products up here that really makes me question their sanity.

Fond memories. The most rewarding vehicle I ever owned.
I bought my '94 Pontiac TransSport as a beater second car for $200 from a coworker w/ 130K, gave minimal maintenance (blower motor, window motor, muffler, wheel bearing, tires, shocks, battery..OK maybe not minimal, but the parts were cheap, and I did all my own work), drove it until almost 200K, and then sold for $400 to another coworker! It still runs great to this day, and I beat the living snot out of it. It got about 22-25 mpg the whole time, with WOT acceleration and 80+ cruising speeds a given. The 3.8 was fairly torquey, and moved well with all the back seats removed. I hauled 960 lbs of cement mix in it no problem from the orange box, and it'd fit a 10 foot pipe with the hatch closed. It also didn't have a bit of visible rust, since that was impossible.