1991 Oldsmobile Silhouette

Chrysler's minivan, derived from the K-car platform, arguably played a bigger role than any other factor in pulling the Detroit automaker back from the brink. In fact, the Voyager/Caravan gave Mopar an automotive niche entirely to itself as GM and Ford scrambled to respond.

The first responses weren't stellar, either. The Astro and Aerostar were based on Chevy and Ford's compact pickup truck chassis, respectively, and while that arguably made them better vans, it didn't exactly make them competitive minivans. Their body-on-frame design and truck DNA made them drive like small trucks and gave them rooflines some ten inches loftier than the unibody Chryslers, with correspondingly higher floors.

So GM went to a clean sheet of paper for their next attempt at a car-type minivan. The U-body minivans were sold as Chevys, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles and while they used styling (and, in the case of the Lumina APV, even the name) that echoed their respective branding's midsize cars, they were not actually car-based.

The U-body's unibody was a space frame clad in plastic body panels, similar to the method of construction used for the Pontiac Fiero. Drivetrains were sourced from the corporate parts bin. For the first model year, all three used the LG6 3.1L V-6, an enlarged version of the earlier 2.8L 60 degree V-6, fitted with a throttle body fuel injection setup and rated at 120 SAE net horsepower. Given how sluggish performance was with this setup, it's probably a good thing GM chose to eschew four-cylinder power altogether.

The Olds Silhouette was the swankiest of the three GM offerings. A '91 model, like the Gunmetal Gray offering in the photo, would have started off at $18,195, or more than forty-two grand in 2024 money, even before you started checking option boxes.

It was photographed in September of 2016 using an Apple iPhone 6s.