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 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 Venture came in three trim levels, the base, LS, and LT. 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 was introduced in 1996 for the 1997 model year as a replacement for the radically styled Lumina APV. The Chevrolet Venture, along with most of its General Motors minivan siblings, was built at GM's Doraville, Georgia, assembly plant. The Chevrolet Venture is a minivan produced by General Motors for the 1997 to 2005 model years. Transverse front-engine, front-wheel drive / all-wheel drive Shanghai, China (Buick GL8 and a 10-seater version of the Chevrolet Venture exclusive for the Philippines) Stress? None at all (some suspension of disbelief required).Vauxhall Sintra (United Kingdom, until 1999)ĭoraville Assembly, Doraville, Georgia, United States This rig must have been pretty good for long road trips back in 2001, though.Įven without the video screen, the Venture enabled the addition of extra distance between adults and ankle-biters. I was well into high school when the first Detroit minivans appeared, so I never experienced a serious minivan childhood (my family had a full-sized Chevy Sportvan Beauville, with so much road noise that even the loudest kid sounds were drowned out before reaching the front-seaters). The Warner Brothers Edition came with Looney Tunes tapes or discs, kids' pajamas, beach towels, a 35mm film camera with photo album, and membership in the VentureTainment Club (whatever that was). Just as was the case with the earlier Olds Silhouette and contemporary Pontiac Aztek, Venture buyers could get a built-in air compressor for inflatable pool toys and basketballs. If you think the VHS rig and screen from this van would make for an excellent car-parts boombox, we're on the same channel. Because the Venture came with four sets of wireless headphones for back-seaters, the front-seat occupants could still listen to their music or just enjoy blissful silence as the kids carjacked drivers of Cartel Cruisers and Stallions in back. You could plug in other sources of video, including gaming consoles. The original purchaser of this van opted for good old VHS. The DVD format had been out for five years by 2001 and VHS was about as relevant at that time as 8-track tapes were in 1985, but WB Edition Venture buyers could choose between VHS and DVD. Not so advanced for the time was the in-dash VHS videocassette player. It's just 7" diagonally, but still fairly advanced for 2001. ![]() Someone pried off the Bugs Bunny badges on this one, but the badge shape is unmistakable.Īnother indicator of the WB Edition Venture is the flip-down flat-screen with a special Bugs sticker. When it rains Warner Brothers Ventures, it pours. I spent years looking for one of these vans, then found two in the course of a single week: today's '01 and an '02 a dozen miles to the north. Sales of the WB Edition Venture continued through 2003, and I've managed to find one of these super-rare machines in a Denver-area self-service yard. Coyote in a Pontiac Grand Prix, decided to go ahead and offer a special Warner Brothers-branded Chevy Venture minivan for the 1999 model year. General Motors, already doing business with Warner Brothers by putting Wile E. This idea now seems quaint in today's era of tablets and smartphones, but this stuff was cutting-edge a couple of decades back. ![]() Junkyard Gem: 2001 Chevrolet Venture Warner Brothers Edition It came with a built-in VHS videocassette player and Bugs Bunny badging.ĭuring the late 1990s, minivan manufacturers began installing airliner-style flip-down video displays in their vehicles, theoretically allowing the grownups in the front seats to sedate the kids with video entertainment on long road trips.
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