Crossovers be damned! For many Canadian shoppers, the real bang-for-the-buck champ when it comes to hauling you and yours around isn’t an AWD sport ute-- but rather a minivan. Virtually unmatched where flexibility, versatility and space for the money are concerned, the family hauler Chrysler started to expand into a market that was eventually joined by automakers from around the globe.
At General Motors, the Chevrolet Uplander and Pontiac Montana SV6 were the most recent offerings to the minivan-seeking masses. Having existed towards the end of the company’s gratuitous badge-engineering era, Buick and Saturn got variants built from the same platform, too. These were called the Terraza and Relay, respectively.
Though cosmetically different, the underlying hardware was basically identical across the GM minivan family from 2005 to 2009-- when the automaker’s minivans were given the axe to make room for new crossover models. We’ll talk in terms of the Chevrolet Uplander--though the information presented below effectively applies to the other GM minivan models, too.
Here’s the long and short of the GM Minivan range’s important hardware offerings. Early on, power came from a robust 3.5-litre, 200-horsepower V6 engine with pushrod-actuated valves and a four-speed automatic transmission. This powertrain was far from sophisticated, but it was reliable, cheap and decent on fuel.
All Wheel Drive (AWD) was available on Uplander models with the 3.5-litre engine until 2006, though it was eventually canned once a larger, 3.9-litre, 240-horsepower V6 hit the scene. Four-speed automatic here as well.
Looking to save fuel? Skip the AWD. Apparently, there isn’t much of a fuel penalty between the smaller and larger V6 engines otherwise.
Note that standard and extended-wheelbase versions were available, as was 7-passenger seating, leather captain’s chairs with power adjustments, ABS brakes, traction control, tinted glass, an MP3 compatible CD player, remote access, rear-seat air conditioning and all the power accessories. There’s a rear-seat DVD console available to keep younger passengers distracted with Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer on longer trips, too.
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| 2005 Pontiac Montana (Photo: General Motors) |
At General Motors, the Chevrolet Uplander and Pontiac Montana SV6 were the most recent offerings to the minivan-seeking masses. Having existed towards the end of the company’s gratuitous badge-engineering era, Buick and Saturn got variants built from the same platform, too. These were called the Terraza and Relay, respectively.
Though cosmetically different, the underlying hardware was basically identical across the GM minivan family from 2005 to 2009-- when the automaker’s minivans were given the axe to make room for new crossover models. We’ll talk in terms of the Chevrolet Uplander--though the information presented below effectively applies to the other GM minivan models, too.
Here’s the long and short of the GM Minivan range’s important hardware offerings. Early on, power came from a robust 3.5-litre, 200-horsepower V6 engine with pushrod-actuated valves and a four-speed automatic transmission. This powertrain was far from sophisticated, but it was reliable, cheap and decent on fuel.
All Wheel Drive (AWD) was available on Uplander models with the 3.5-litre engine until 2006, though it was eventually canned once a larger, 3.9-litre, 240-horsepower V6 hit the scene. Four-speed automatic here as well.
Looking to save fuel? Skip the AWD. Apparently, there isn’t much of a fuel penalty between the smaller and larger V6 engines otherwise.
Note that standard and extended-wheelbase versions were available, as was 7-passenger seating, leather captain’s chairs with power adjustments, ABS brakes, traction control, tinted glass, an MP3 compatible CD player, remote access, rear-seat air conditioning and all the power accessories. There’s a rear-seat DVD console available to keep younger passengers distracted with Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer on longer trips, too.
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| 2007 Chevrolet Uplander (Photo: General Motors) |