1992 Pontiac Trans Sport GT - tested in the UK!

In this video, I'm absolutely delighted to put a Pontiac

trans

port, the Dustbuster, this incredible American minivan through its paces and it's made it all the way to Wales. He has a license plate that almost says bonk, it's bonk, the magic wagon he really lives with. the sea uh this is going to be absolutely wonderful so let's delve into the story so this is a

pontiac

trans

port gt it has a

sport

y look it should be

sport

y it says it has a 3.8 liter v6 engine with injection tuned port, very similar to the Holden ute i. I was driving around Melbourne, Australia, same family, not identical, but very very similar, it's one of three different cars on this U-body platform, the Chevrolet Lumina and the Oldsmobile silhouette, the oldest mobile was the version more luxurious and elegant before, unfortunately, the old name of the mobile no longer existed.

Obviously built for the American market but also for Europe, this one we believe was actually sold in France, possibly judging by some stickers on the back, we don't really know the history but the taillights are European spec and were sold here at slight. Opel Dealers Opel is also part of General Motors, but yes, we have some hints of Perrigo's Venice history and also some Austrian stickers, just for something a little different, a little unusual and baffling history, but the structure of these cars It is stainless steel. steel substructure to which plastic panels are attached, so composite panels that don't rust, galvanized structure in many ways whale proof, so it's perfect, but it ended here.

Please note we also have some large orange indicators and some aftermarket fog lights someone added which belong to my friends Alex and they are lovely people and have quite an interesting collection of cars themselves, they have only had this car for a couple of weeks The similarity to the espace, even the wheel design is very striking, but these cars came out in 1989 for the 1990 model year and As you can see, there's only one sliding door on the passenger side, but I'm freezing, so let's jump on board, oh oh. Yes, that's a relief, it's very, very cold today, but yes, a very interesting interior.

Look at this switch, so the side lights, the headlights, are a warning because the engine is off right now. We have a race indicator, cruise control. I think one might be a column adjustment, yes I think that changes the angle of the column so the fog light illuminates. You can change the brightness of the dashboard with this little slider here. Wiper washer. A very important matter on this side. A little switch down here for the back. windshield wipers, these are the fronts through several delays and then you went down and up, but one function was lost in case you only need a single wipe and the wash is that button up there, electronic heater controls, we have a fan rear unfortunately I don't think it's working, I'm not sure all speeds are working on the fan with a lot of buttons on, it's an interesting business, it works very well, I'll only be on one setting, the little rear window switch with heating, so I've got a lot of vents, a lot of cubicles of course, so you know, covered face masks mandatory, the build quality starts to suffer a little bit, it gets a little loud while driving and I mean it's not a good one quality, but at least the fuse is.

It's nice and easy to get to the power windows, it feels like a futuristic design, even now look at the mirrors, I think it's a power adjustment, oh maybe it's a broken adjustment, who knows, that's pretty cool, the mirror on the passenger is broken and Alex tried to do it. His, not entirely successful, but I applaud him for trying and there must be a little computer up here that he hadn't even seen. Let's start the engine and see if we can see what's going on there. I don't have the grips for this, come on, we have something up here.

Oh, maybe it's broken, but we have interior lights, map reading light so you can turn and see better. We have plenty of storage space here. I don't know what that means, but there's a little folding panel there for something, uh, sunglasses can go there, another panel there for various items, we have armrests on these lovely comfortable front seats, as well as just turn off the ignition before for us to stop. something and uh I think uh no, no, let's take a walk, let's see the sliding door in action, it's not electric, unfortunately, I have a pipe on because I left the key in American cars, I don't like that, let's brave the cold alone once again as we walk up and open the door, then they put in a power sliding door, um, but there we go, it opens great and it's sitting tight and now we're going to close it again, so I just have a little pop. -outside the window really hoping the air conditioning would keep you cool back here uh can't control the speed of the fan it doesn't seem like it oh it's a shame it doesn't seem to work either but yeah great for the family alex and Sean have two kids and, yes, I think little Edith really likes sitting there, but yes, a nice comfortable seat, no headrest, which I find a little strange in my vehicles.

I believe this is a

1992

model, but look closely at the forward view. space here, uh, you don't really get this with European cars, unfortunately the seats don't seem to swivel, you know, proper captain's chairs, but yeah, there's a lovely atmosphere here, it feels very nice and, if I just ping . this seat I'm going to have to open the door again oh cold we're just pinging uh I think it's this lever that we can then tilt help it's very difficult to do with one hand that's the only thing they haven't thought about very well that seat then it goes away and I can jump back so let's jump to the oh the more compact seat and uh yeah we're getting a little bit compact looking a little ashtray here the drinks can go there again the windows open in the back but uh you know, it's a total of seven seats, you can bring seven adults in here, they wouldn't feel too contained, I don't think they would be too limited by things, I have a reasonable amount of headroom, even with a hat, with enough room for the legs.

I'm about five foot nine, so yeah, that's not at all. The seats fold in several ways, which is why we have cutouts in the back. If I pull this lever, as you can see, you can do that. and then I think you can tilt the seats, you can remove the seats to turn it into a van and I think there was a van version that you could buy in America, let's leave it there, come on, we'll leave it as is, but Move back, another thing that could be designed better is trying to open that with one hand, it's a little difficult but there we go and you still have a reasonable amount of space in the trunk if you go.

On vacation, the seven of you will be cramped, but it's not that bad for a student. We'll find a way to see the engine and then we can take it for a test drive because it's going to be a lot hotter. the hood comes off, there's a foot-operated handbrake, so there we go, oh, and it goes towards the hood, it doesn't stay where it is, I think, oh, there's an attachment, there we go, yeah, not that one It's the safest accessory there is, right? Here's the V6 engine, four-speed automatic gearbox mounted transversely on the side, overhead valve engine very old school.

I have no idea what the horsepower is, but I'll put it in a title, but yeah, it's actually pretty roomy in there, unlike many. um, this box has a design where there is no access at all, that's pretty decent, on with the important matter of the test drive. I have you almost in my head, friend, but fortunately you are not attached to my head. I know people find that. a little disturbing, but hopefully in the driver's view, as we go down the road the engine fires up, it sounds quite like a V8 and there is a reason for that, it is effectively a V8 engine with two locked cylinders, it has a 90 degree angle, which means it's a little off the pace it's a little it's a little bit you know threatening I love that 90 degree v8s are great things the citroen sm that maserati v6 um also a reduced v8 since it happens very similar noise now I haven't tried the wipers yet so I'm looking forward to this it's this vane here oh look we've got the blade washers beautiful clap handlers so although you've got a little bit of triangle, I'm not going to call it. a triangle of doom, I'm missing a button to catch the dribbles here, oh yeah that works fine and then I slide up to flash or to put them on full speed, well that's testing the old rear wiper links a bit, should we try it?

I haven't even tried the rear wiper yet, let's see if I can turn you around to take a look, here we go, oh yeah, I think we need a new blade on the back, but that's not too bad, yeah, wiper blades white rear. it's not part of a uk mot it's often a bit disappointing in performance but i'm just riding i think you have a good view there was a correct fit on the column yeah oh there we go would you want to drive so and we. I'll leave it where it was I think, so you have your foot there, release the brake, column shifter to put it down and drive two driving positions, one of which allows the torque converter to lock up and the other doesn't. , believe.

I could be wrong on that but it's a surprisingly easy vehicle to drive and because it's such a boxy design you actually get a pretty decent feel for where the corners are a little worried about the height but I got in so it must be fine , indicate it here. and it's very much an engine, it's really about talking, although don't get me wrong, she'll beat your skirts if you wanted to, but it's not really a performance machine, oh yeah, the suspension, uh, it's got a bit of flotation, also crushes. a little bit and it feels quite firm, but the benefit is that the handling feels quite good, I quite like the handling, very light steering of course, but very well engaged, the power steering is not always well engaged, so I certainly appreciate that, oh no, I can see caravans for sale don't tell Miss Hubnut, we're very curious that this huge slice of Americana came to Wales via France, probably oh, it's quite a nice caravan there, I just hope not, even if it says for sale misspelled. it certainly gets a lot of attention, we think it's probably been repainted bright red because red is famous for fading, oh there's the shock, uh, really pretty bad, I think the shock suspension got worse because there's so much noise in the trim, Uh, that thing about American interiors.

They are not always made with the best quality components, it took a while, I think they are getting there now, but certainly in the 80's and 90's the interior quality wasn't brilliant, doesn't help, we don't have a stereo installed. so we've got a lot of wires banging around down here too but anyway it's a really nice nice driving position, the visibility is great, it's got windows all around and very thin pillars so yeah it's a car with character and interest, and I Yes, I greatly congratulate my friends for purchasing it. Apparently Alex had always wanted one.

Some relatives know some friends. Family friends had one when he was a kid and he fell in love with the crazy looks. Yes, he is quite calm. I'm understanding most of the noise. It feels like it's coming from the back so it feels like an exhaust noise so around '95 I'm going to say they lifted phase one of the U-body and then in Europe sales continued but it was the silhouette of the Oldsmobile with

pontiac

badges for some reason because the pontiac in the US had a new reworked front end oh yeah you just don't need to rev the engine it just floats with the torque, strange to talk about something else of interest is this first generation in production from '89 to '96, I think it was 96.97 and the second generation abandoned this whole clever structure, this stainless steel with plastic body parts attached, they abandoned that clever idea and went to a more conventional look and styling , clearly targeting Chrysler with the Voyagers. and great trips and that car came to the UK.

We had those like Vauxhall Cintras or Opal Sintra in Europe and uh, terrible car by all accounts, I would really love to drive one, so if you have a Vauxhall Sintra or an Opal. sintra um let me know they are meant to be terrible they were horrible as far as crash standard goes a lot of American cars even big trucks when they started testing them properly were horrible in offset crashes and I think it was one of them so it's probably best not to crash, yes it's a lovely car to drive, feels a bit like the mitsubishi delica but not astall and, uh, a little more lively, should we? um, oh yeah, that accelerates very well when provoked, but in general, this is just effortless driving, which of course is what American cars were all about in America, just like in Australia, you often have to travel huge distances, so it's all about the flow and the seats are comfortable, if a little firm, and I lied to the suspension.

I'm not sure what it would be like on a really long trip. I would be very interested to know, although overall this is a very pleasant experience. A little detail for you: you can see a mat on the board at the other end. something they did because they were getting very strong reflections on this very steep windshield but it was becoming a problem so they had to do something about it and that's what they did they put a mat on the dashboard can you imagine cleaning it too the windshield from the inside? It must be a challenge because much of it is very, very far away, yes, very un-American in terms of driving.

I expect a lot more roll and roll, but I guess because it's quite a tall vehicle, you can't really get it. stop doing that so it's a little firmer and uh very nice it's too much oh let's do an acceleration test from rest before we go we don't have that much of a speed limit to play with here but I just want to see how it goes yeah forcefully, I would say, and uh, it's not overly dramatic, it's uh, it's mainly the sound, it's just, oh, that raspy, slightly unconventional engine sounds absolutely magnificent, so that was the surprisingly interesting Pontiac transport. uh certainly a very different vehicle and it's a pleasure to drive.

I've really enjoyed it so thanks to alex and sean for letting me drive this one and yeah I hope you enjoyed it too don't forget you can head over to the hub nut shop for various bracket options and to buy some lovely products from various ways, and I hope to see you in a future video. goodbye so you