Chevrolet Venture

The Chevrolet Venture was a minivan marketed by General Motors from 1997 to 2005 model years. It replaced the Chevrolet Lumina APV. Visually identical minivans were also was sold in Europe as the Opel Sintra, and in the UK they were badged as a Vauxhall. Opel assisted in the development of the minivan as well. During the 2005 model year, the Venture (along with the Astro) was replaced by the similar Chevrolet Uplander.

History

The Venture was introduced to the market in 1996 for the 1997 model year as a replacement for the Lumina APV. In the US it was also sold as the Oldsmobile Silhouette and the Pontiac Trans Sport, which was later renamed as the Pontiac Montana for 1999. The Venture and its siblings were powered by GM's 3400 V6, introduced in 1996 in their precessors (Lumina APV, Trans Sport and Silhouette), rated at 180hp. After 1999 the engine was slightly redesigned to produce an extra 5hp, for a total of 185. All Ventures used a four-speed automatic transmission. A Warner Brothers edition introduced in 2000 featured a DVD entertainment system, a novelty at the time. The exterior was refreshed in 2001, and all wheel drive was introduced in 2002. The Venture was replaced after 2005 by the Chevrolet Uplander.

Safety

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Tested the Pontiac Trans Sport (a twin of the venture) and it got a poor rating in the offset frontal tests because the front passenger cage buckled and crumpled upward, with heavy upward steering wheel movement which caused the Dummy to move upwards in an ackward position, one that would injure a real person, and the dummy's foot snapped straight off, which would also mean heavy injury and or perylization of a actual human. Those tests also shot the Venture's and Silhouette's safety reputations, and this slowed down sales. the results are below:

Structure/Safety Cage: Poor Head/Neck: Poor Chest: Good Leg/Foot Left: Poor Leg/Foot Right: Poor Restraints/dummy kinematics: Marginal