washingtonpost.com's view

PEOPLE TOOK second and third looks. They walked around it, peeredthrough its windows, touched it in disbelief.

“This is a Pontiac?” one man asked.

“Yeah,” I said, equally stunned.

“Wow!” said the man. “This doesn’t look like anything GM would make.”

He was right.

The 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan is the most un-GM vehicleGeneral Motors has debuted in decades.

The Trans Sport is absolutely rakish, a characteristic highlighted byits long, wide, sheer-drop windshield, its narrow headlamps and swoopyside panels, and an oh-my-gosh rear end accented by two sets ofcorner-mounted backlights that descend from the top to the middle of thevehicle.

Some people call Pontiac’s new minivan “space age” and “futuristic”but I think it’s wonderfully wild. That it comes from GM, the temple ofconservative automotive styling, boggles my mind.

Background: GM has rethought its approach to the minivan market,opened up by Chrysler Corp. six years ago. GM’s first response was tooffer the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari, rear-drive compact vans thatput the company in the small-van race, but did little to help it catchup with Chrysler in that contest.

At stake is a segment of the U.S. auto market that grew frompractically nothing in 1983 to 850,000 minivans sold in 1988 — arespectable 5.4 percent of all vehicles sold in America last year.

GM will keep the Astro and Safari models around for a while, but thecompany is betting that its more passenger-oriented, front-wheel-driveTrans Sport — along with practically identical Chevrolet Lumina andOldsmobile Silhouette models — will help it pull in more minivandollars. Selling will be tough. The biggest group of minivan buyersconsists of married couples, aged 25 to 44 years, 50 percent of whom arecollege graduates with household incomes above $50,000 a year. Productmarketers regard those people as the nation’s most demanding and savvyconsumers.

Complaint: The exterior excitement created by the Trans Sport’s18-square-foot, severely angled windshield causes an interior problem –a dashboard top that seems long and wide enough to serve as a jetlanding strip.

That vast expanse of dashboard creates a weird driver distraction. Towit: In vehicles with traditionally narrow dashboard tables, thedriver’s eyes tend to move from the road to the face of the instrumentpanel and vice versa. In the Trans Sport, the driver’s eyes move fromthe road to the sprawling, flat dashboard top and then to the face ofthe instrument panel.

Praise: The Trans Sport, which depending on the option package canseat from five to seven passengers, is a well-made vehicle. Theearly-production test model I drove was solid and rattle-free. Also,front-seat occupants sit more comfortably in the Trans Sport than theydo in the Astro and Safari, where front legroom is limited by a bulgingengine housing.

The Trans Sport’s big windshield admits lots of light, but keeps outlots of hea t, thanks to a Pittsburgh Plate Glass coating that reflects60 percent of the solar radiation hitting the glass.

Head-turning quotient: Superior. The test minivan drew much attentionand acclaim everywhere it went.

Ride, acceleration, handling: The minivan rides like a big sedan andhandles like one, too. That means it runs softly and smoothly over mostroads and takes curves with dexterity and confidence.

Acceleration is decent. The Trans Sport comes with a standard3.1-liter, fuel-injected V-6, rated 120 horsepower at 4,200 rpm. Brakingis excellent. The vehicle is equipped with vented rotors in the frontand cast-iron drums in the rear.

Sound system: Electronic AM/FM stereo radio and cassette by GM/Delco.Excellent.

Mileage: About 20 to the gallon (20-gallon tank, estimated 390-milerange on usable volume), mostly highway, running with five occupants andlight cargo.

Price: Base price is $14,995. Dealer’s invoice on base model is$13,390. Price as tested is 16,995, including $1,500 in options and a$500 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: Anyone considering a minivan purchase should takea look at the Trans Sport and its related models from GM’s Chevrolet andOldsmobile divisions. Keep in mind that all three vehicles areessentially the same.