Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Lumina APV

In the dawn of the 1980s, a new mode of transportation was quickly replacing the venerable station wagon as the choice for families small and large--the same could be said of small businesses replacing huge full-size vans too. In 1984, Chrysler launched the Dodge Caravan, and Plymouth Voyager, and competitors were quickly left scrambling to catch up; in 1985, GM brought out its initial competitor to the newfound mode of transportation. The vehicle was badged as the Chevrolet Astro, and GMC Safari. Unlike Chrysler's minivans, the GM twins were rear-wheel-drive. Ford, too, saw interest in the minivan game; in 1986, the "revolutionary" Aerostar was launched, and like the GM twins, it too was rear-wheel-drive.
Being based on trucks, these vans offered dismal gas mileage, and had semi-decent towing capacities. But, since they were based on trucks, step in was fairly high, and all-weather traction wasn't any better than the two-wheel-drive pickup trucks sold at the same dealers.
GM finally did enter the front-wheel-drive MPV/van market--with awful results; unlike the Chrysler vans, the GM "dustbuster"--so aptly named--were horrendous to drive, they had a very long and far-reaching dashboard, and despite the appearance of a full-glassed front cockpit, room inside was just adequate. For being based on a contemporary car, fuel mileage was incredibly dismal; I remember reading about how Car and Driver barely got 19 MPG with 4 people on board-on the highway.
These vans lingered on through 1996, when they were replaced by the Venture/Transport/Silhouette triplets. Again, they were replaced in 200 or 2008 by even worse vans; I'm not sure what's worse; the fact that GM could never really compete in this segment, or the fact every single van they sold was plagued with numerous problems from the get-go. In 2009, after twenty years of minivan production, GM finally gave up--and ironically, so did Ford; the plug on the Freestar was pulled in 2007 after three years of horrible sales. As of 2012, Chrysler still reigns supreme in the minivan market. Their product does sort of suck, but at least Chrysler didn't back down, and is still reaping in big profits from the whole genre they started.











I hardly ever see these "dustbusters" anymore; I would've liked to have shot a more interesting specimen like a Transport GT or some such, but this will do; what we have here is a base Lumina APV with aluminum wheels found on the Lumina Z34 and Euro. Finished in two tone paint, this example of the "forgotten people mover" really could pass for something sold in Europe in the mid-to-late-1980s. The design says European, the paint colors scream European, and those wheels even look like something Vauxhall would adorn their vehicles with. Perhaps this should've been called the Lumina Euro instead?
It's not every day that I see dustbusters, and it's even less of an occurrence that said dustbuster is free from either rust or crash damage; aside from the numerous bumper stickers plastering the rear-end, this APV looks fairly nice, especially for Minnesota standards. One of the things I do like about these is the door handles--yes, they're unusual, and yes, they would normally look out of place, but the styling on these is supposed to be futuristic---and to that extent, the odd door handles work. What I'm not keen on is the badging; I do realize that this was a Lumina variant, but it really should say so somewhere on the vehicle. Heck, even in small letters on the tailgate would've been fine.
I don't adore these, but they're a part of my childhood; I never had one in my family, but I knew several people who did. I always liked the wheels on the Pontiac version, and I always wondered why Chevrolet didn't make their own sporty version. After all, there was a sporting version of damn near everything else in the lineup at the time. Do I miss these? To be honest, sort of; I've always kind of liked these, and I still get a tad bit delighted when I see these on the road.