Every car enthusiast has a guilty pleasure, a car that he or she secretly likes, but it might be better to keep that to themselves. In this section, AutoWeek editors reveal which cars these are for them. We start with Michiel Willebrands, who expresses his secret love for the Pontiac Trans Sport.
To understand this car, you must have consciously experienced the 1980s. Otherwise he literally seems to have fallen from outer space, although many people had that idea at the time. General Motors had to work hard in the middle of that decade to catch up with the unprecedented success that Chrysler and Dodge had had since 1983 with their MPVs Voyager and Caravan. What the SUV is now was then the Multi Purpose Vehicle: everyone wanted one. Renault was right there in Europe with the Espace and eventually every self-respecting volume brand had such a multifunctional passenger van in its range. In the US, GM initially responded in 1986 with a spaceship-like concept car under the Pontiac flag, including a huge gull-wing door.
When that car rolled off the line three years later as a normalized production model (the gull-wing door was replaced by a sliding door for practical and financial reasons), the public reacted much more lukewarm than the fair visitors at the time. Unfortunately, this is how it often goes: the daring concept car receives applause, but no dog buys the end result. With its extremely sloping front, leaning B-pillar and enormous glass surface – which, when tinted darkly, contrasts strongly with the plastic body parts – the modern MPV is much too intense for the conservative buying public. It is used to straightforward Voyagers and does not like the futuristic petty thief on wheels, even if it is packaged as a cheaper Chevrolet Lumina APV (All Purpose Vehicle) or a more chic Oldsmobile Silhouette. As a result, the model today (and in fact even in the past) occupies a place of honor in the automotive cabinet of curiosities, because now it is pure cult. My first memory of the Trans Sport is a somewhat curious one. I have an image on my mind of Henny Huisman next to an American exotic. A white one, if I’m not mistaken. It must have been a photo from the Private or the Story. No idea whether Henny had chosen the car himself or whether he had been put in it by the importer in exchange for some publicity. Not a bad ambassador in itself, although the solid presenter was not known for his flashy lifestyle. By the way, I can’t find anything about the Trans Sport-Henny Huisman combination. I didn’t make this up, did I? If anyone can update me on this, I would really appreciate it!
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