GM launches Sport Vans from Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn
Never been exactly clear on what the ''stigma'' is that attaches to being a parent and buying a safe, sensible and comfortable vehicle for your family, but that image haunts minivans and the car companies that build them.
General Motors is trying to shake that mysterious sentiment with its lineup of what it calls crossover sport vans (CSVs) by giving the seven-seat vehicles more of an SUV attitude, along with more variations on the theme than any other company.
When GM's CSVs start showing up within weeks at dealerships across Canada in November, there will be four nameplates (including Buick Terraza and Saturn Relay brands for the first time), a pair of regular-wheelbase versions of Chevrolet Uplander and Pontiac Montana SV6 unique to this country, a more powerful V-6, considerable interior upgrades, optional 17-inch wheels, and the availability of all-wheel-drive.
All of GM's CSVs get appearance points that suggest SUVs, but the affect is most striking in the extended-wheelbase models because their C-pillars (the upright at the end of the rear doors) is visible. According to Anna Kretz, the vehicle line executive in charge of creating the CSVs, the exposed C-pillar looked wrong with the regular-wheelbase proportions, so those units have a more traditional minivan style from the side.
Creating regular-wheelbase models was important to the CSVs success in Canada, GM of Canada's marketing manager for those vehicles, Santo Giardina, said in an interview, since they are expected to account for about half of the company's sales in this segment.
''Sometimes people buy the regular-wheelbase model for price reasons,'' Giardina explained, ''but they also do it because those models are more compact. It's important that we're not disenfranchising our customers.''
Overall, the regular-wheelbase models should account for about 30,000 sales across the country, Giardina said, though there'll be various regional skews to their popularity. Quebec, for example, is the largest consumer at about 80 percent of the mix.
The regular-length models are 4850 mm long on a 2870-mm wheelbase, while the extended-length units are 5191 mm long on a 3077-mm wheelbase, with almost all of that extra length going to extra cargo space behind the third seat.
All models benefit from getting a larger and more powerful engine than drove the old GM minivans, since the 3.5-litre V-6 delivers 200 hp at 5,200 rpm and 220 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,000 rpm through a four-speed automatic transmission.
Kretz and Giardina both explained their commitment to giving regular-wheelbase buyers the same level of choice in how their vehicles are equipped, and they seem to have done a good job of that. For example, you can now get a rear-seat DVD system in the regular-length models, which you could not before.