Junkyard Find: 1994 Oldsmobile Silhouette
The General's 1990-1996 U-Body "Dustbuster" minivans were available in North America wearing Chevrolet, Pontiac or Oldsmobile badging. There was a time when it was easy to find these vans in car graveyards, but they've become junkyard rarities in recent years. Here's a nicely preserved Silhouette, found in Nevada last summer.
I found so much great stuff (including a Porsche 928, a Ford Courier, a super-clean 1988 Nissan Maxima, an early BMW E28, a 1975 Chevy Chevelle and a Merkur Scorpio) when I stopped at the Carson City Pick-n-Pull that this I overlooked my photos of this Olds until now.
Alfred Sloan's Ladder of Success had become mostly irrelevant in the minds of car shoppers by the 1990s, but everybody still understood that Oldsmobile was a more prestigious brand than Chevrolet (and some still knew that Oldsmobile outranked Pontiac). Since neither Cadillac nor Buick ever got the first-gen U-Body, the Silhouette became " the Cadillac of Minivans."
The Silhouette remained in production when GM created a new U Platform for the 1997 model year, but it looked like any other 1990s minivan and we will speak no further of it.
The true Olds Silhouette/Pontiac Trans Sport/Chevrolet Lumina APV had an amazingly aerodynamic snout that resembled a beloved small home appliance. These vans looked nothing like anything else on the road when they first hit American streets in 1989.
There were drawbacks to the design, sure, but a Dustbuster pilot got excellent visibility plus the ability to keep an entire extra-large pizza box on the dash top. Just don't drop anything small there and let it roll all the way forward!
Naturally, the first 24 Hours of Lemons team to campaign a GM Dustbuster (a Trans Sport, to be specific) added the vacuum handle to it. This van won the much-anticipated F-U Showdown (GM F-Body versus GM U-Body) in 2015.
Did you know that Jiangsu Nushen pirated the GM Dustbuster's shape, gave it Chrysler 2.2 power driving the rear wheels, and sold it in China as the Nushen JB6500? Bad Decisions Racing took note and converted their Trans Sport into the world's first racing JB6500.
The engine here is the good old 3.8-liter Buick V6.
The 3800 was an upgrade over the Silhouette's base 3.1-liter 60° V6, and it cost $800 extra ($1,746 in 2025 dollars).
The MSRP for the '94 Silhouette was $20,095, or about $43,857 after inflation. The cheapest possible Chevy Lumina APV was $16,815 that year ($36,699 today).
An AM/FM stereo radio was standard 1994 Silhouette equipment, but this van has the optional $140 cassette deck ($306 now).
Nobody knew it at the time, but Oldsmobile itself had just a decade to live when this van first put tire to street.
"Compared to other forms of space travel, the Silhouette is the logical choice."
-Julie Nimoy
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
1994 Olds Silhouette in Nevada wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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I clicked on the article just to see if the stupid and grossly overused "Dustbuster" nickname would be used. Not only was it in the first sentence but it was used liberally throughout. I can't be the only one who find this joke to be overplayed, overused and just plain stupid at this point. Also, as I should have known, the equally stupid and overly reference "Cadillac of minivans" thing had to be inserted. The truth is these were actually decent vans. They had a few issues but over all they were good cars. My family had three and the third one we kept a long time. It never let us down.
A friend of mine had a 'dustbuster' with the 3800 engine .The 3800 engine and plastic body panels made it In some ways superior to the Caravan of the same era. Particularly with the transmission and quality control issues that Chrysler had. The individual bucket seats, which carried over to the next generation of GM minivan were class leading. At least until Chrysler introduced the 'stow and go' seating. The major drawback with the 'dustbuster' was that massive windshield and the huge gap between the driver and the windshield. However we have seen a number of manufacturers copy the rear light design/configuration used by the 'dustbuster'.