#2. Pontiac Trans Sport – The Space Van Fails to Launch
Source: Flickr
Oh, those Pontiac execs were at it again. (Spoiler Alert: They’re going to be there at #1 again!) GM used Pontiac as their experimental brand at times to throw out some crazy concepts. One of the most interesting and frankly impressive concepts they ever put out was the one for the Pontiac Trans Sport.
What Pontiac Was Thinking
Pontiac took a look at the way the Chrysler minivans were dominating and realized they needed to put something out that was different. The Pontiac Trans Sport was their thought and honestly, they delivered! Back in the 1960’s, car companies had this habit of creating weird “future space” concept cars. The Trans Sports concept took a little from that. However instead of thinking “what are cars like in the future?” the thought process was “What if the future was here now?” The van had a sleek design for the time with huge windows allowing for a great visual experience. One of the most exciting features was the rear door. The gull wing design allows great access to the third row and looked incredibly cool! It was a pretty great idea! What could possibly go wrong with this concept car?
Source: Wikimedia
What the Public Was Thinking After Release
The first thing that came to mind from the public was “Where is the cool?” All of the cool features that were included in the concept car were gone. The sleek curved design was gone aside from the front of the vehicle. The front of the vehicle was now an ugly long curve that pushed the driving position back and gave an odd sense while driving of being unable to really recognize where the front of the car ended. The gullwing rear door was of course gone and replaced with the terrible single sliding door of minivans from that era.
While sales were okay for a while, people never fell in love with the Trans Sport. Public opinion never allowed it to become a titan in the minivan sector. As things continued on, the public essentially decided “I’d rather have a sports utility vehicle”. This led to reduced sales and a redesign to a more traditional design before Pontiac as a whole was contracted from the GM lineup.
