Chevrolet Venture
The Chevrolet Venture is a minivan produced by General Motors for the 1997 to 2005 model years. The Chevrolet Venture, along with most of its General Motors minivan siblings, was built at GM's Doraville, Georgia, assembly plant. Use of name. The Venture name was first used on a 1988 Chevrolet concept car, in this case a full-sized four-door sedan more aerodynamic than the 1991-1996 Chevrolet Caprice. History. The Venture was introduced in 1996 for the 1997 model year as a replacement for the radically styled Lumina APV. In the United States, it was also  sold as the Oldsmobile Silhouette and the Pontiac Trans Sport, which was later renamed as the Pontiac Montana for 1999 (2000 in Canada). The Venture came in three trim levels, the "base", "LS", and "LT". The base models of the Venture were short wheelbase models which came equipped with cloth upholstery, front bucket seats with fixed head restraints, a 2nd-row 2-passenger bench seat, and steel wheels. The "LS" came in both short and long wheelbases, and offered aluminum wheels, a varied seating configuration, adjustable head restraints, side airbags, power windows (optional on the base models), and a remote  keyless entry system. The "LT" model was an upscale of the "LS" and was exclusively a long wheelbase model and offered a power driver seat (optional on the base and "LS" models), optional leather seats, a roof rack (optional on the base and "LS" models), and a driver side sliding door (optional on the base and "LS" models from 1997 to 1999). The anti-lock brakes were standard on all Ventures from 1996 to 2002, but became optional on the base models later on. The Venture and its siblings were powered by GM's 3.4 L LA1 V6, rated at  . After 1999, the engine was slightly redesigned to produce an extra , for a total of , and the alarm system for seatbelts, door ajar, low fuel, etc. have been changed. All Ventures used a four-speed automatic transmission. The Venture was one of the few minivans to have an 8-passenger seating configuration as an option when most minivans seated up to 7 passengers. In 2000, the driver side sliding door became standard on all trim levels, when the passenger side only sliding door models of minivans have rapidly fallen out of favor since the 1996 models of Chrysler minivans. The  exterior was refreshed in 2001, a back-up alarm was added to indicate possible obstacles behind the vehicle, and all-wheel drive was introduced in 2002. Also for 2002 was a new steering wheel equivalent to the 2000-2005 Chevrolet Impala, replacing the steering wheel equivalent to the 1995-2001 Chevrolet Lumina. New for this generation, cabin air filters were installed, and the filters can be accessed from behind an access panel easily accessed from inside the glove compartment. The optional 2-3-2 seating configuration was dropped in favor of the more conventional 2-2-3 and 2-3 -3 seating configurations. The 2-3-3 was the standard for the Chinese-made Buick GL8, and a 10-seats arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration was used in a Chinese-made version of the Chevrolet Venture for export to the Philippines and Latin America (where it sold alongside the U.S. Venture) where 10-seaters are favored with lower taxes. Reviews and sales were generally lukewarm, especially about the relatively narrow cabin due to being designed for European roads. Models came in both short and long wheelbases, and with optional all-wheel drive. The third row bench seat was  designed to fold flat (introduced for 2001 and available on "LS" and "Warner Bros." models), but forming a higher floor unlike the Honda, Mazda and Nissan minivans that folded into a well behind the third row. The Venture was replaced after 2005 by the Chevrolet Uplander, which was essentially a facelift with one long wheelbase configuration, and a longer nose which served chiefly to improve crush distance and styling more like an SUV. Only the long-wheelbase Venture was sold for 2005 in the US but the short-wheelbase was still offered in Canada. Production of the Chevy Venture ended  on June 24, 2005. Warner Bros. Edition. A Warner Bros. edition, introduced in 1999 as part of an overall deal between GM and Warner Bros., included leather and cloth seats, standard built–in child restraints, Warner Bros. badging with Bugs Bunny leaning on the Warner Bros. Shield logo, and a DVD entertainment system, a novelty at the time (VHS players were offered at first; DVD capability was added for the 2002 model year, with the VHS option dropped). The Warner Bros. edition was only produced for the 2000–2003 model years and the only model to come with a monochromatic exterior  (like its Silhouette twin) as opposed to black accents that the other Ventures offered and this model only came in four colors: Blue, red, silver, and black. These models included a complementary membership in "VentureTainment", which sent free gifts to owners of the van, including VHS and DVD compilations of "Looney Tunes" (as well as other Warner Bros. Family Entertainment titles), a cooler with can holders, a special keychain and other perks (including discounts at the Warner Bros. Studio Stores and Six Flags theme parks). Safety. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave the 1997 Chevrolet Venture a  rating of four stars out of five in a head-on collision, and five stars in the side-impact collision. Tests on subsequent model years yielded results of four stars in most categories, and three or five stars in others. The NHTSA does not conduct offset frontal crash tests. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested the Pontiac Trans Sport (a twin of the Venture) in late 1996, and it received a "Poor" rating in the 40 MPH offset frontal crash test for poor structural performance, and was ranked as the "Worst Performing Vehicle" of all the vehicles tested, with  test results indicating a high risk of serious injury or fatality. This result affected both the Venture's and the Silhouette's safety reputations (as well as the Pontiac Montana/Trans Sport). Its European twin, the Opel Sintra, also did badly in the EuroNCAP's crash tests, with only two stars (out of five).