Any idea what Make/Model this van is?

Can anyone ID the van make and model in the attached picture? This was a local crash this morning, driver was killed when the driver's seat broke and she was thrown into the back of the van during a rollover. She was wearing her seatbelt.

I've zoomed and squinted and looked at a couple different pictures, but I just can't tell what it is/was.

http://www.whiotv.com/image/9498464/detail.html

Tam
CPST

Oh, how sad is that. At first glance, I'd say Chevy Venture?

Chevy Venture, Pontiac Montana, or Oldsmobile Silhouette. They are all the same...one of those would be my guess.

Hmmn, that's two votes for Chevy van then, that's what I was thinking.

I just know I've read/heard somewhere before about a driver's seat tending to break in crashes, but now I can't remember for the life of me where it was. It's driving me nuts

Tam

+1 for the Olds Silhouette. IIRC those had that style side molding.

How sad, and the seat collapsing and ejecting a driver wearing her seatbelt is extra scary.

The wide molding along the side is a good clue for the Olds or Pontiac minivans. Pontiacs tend to have the biggest body side molding for some reason. I had an '88 Grand Am with huge molding on the sides and it was a great trap for dirt, road salt and moisture.

I've heard of the driver's seat collapsing backwards in some vehicles when they were rear ended. A couple of years ago in my area, a mom driving her Saturn was rear ended and her driver's seat collapsed. IIRC, the mom survived the crash but her young daughter riding in the back seat was killed. Another daughter in the back seat survived the crash. It was right around Christmas time and the mom and her daughters were on their way to go Christmas shopping.

My BIL also was rear ended in his Saturn SL1 several years ago by a teenager driving a Dodge Ram pickup. BIL's driver's seat collapsed backward and he was knocked out. He had a concussion and does not remember the actual crash happening. He remembers leaving work for the day and then waking up in the hospital. Fortunately he was otherwise okay. We were also glad he didn't have any rear seat passengers because they would have been severely injured or worse by the collapsing front seat and my 6+ feet tall BIL landing on them.

I vote GM as well. No wonder those scored so low on safety. I believe it was consumer reports who said that the Pontiac Montana was the worst vehicle they had ever tested that is still sold... I know CR sucks at car seats but their car info is normally pretty good.
I am SO GLAD the bank raised my interest rate at the last minute otherwise we would own a Montana SV6 right now (this was a few years ago, before I really researched car safety).

I am going to throw a wrench in things and suggest it could be a Chevy Uplander. Someone here at work has one, so I see it out on the parking lot daily. The body style and the wheels in that picture look very similar to the Uplander.

Here's a link to the Uplander: http://www.chevrolet.com/uplander/

ccjones said:

I am going to throw a wrench in things and suggest it could be a Chevy Uplander. Someone here at work has one, so I see it out on the parking lot daily. The body style and the wheels in that picture look very similar to the Uplander.

Here's a link to the Uplander: http://www.chevrolet.com/uplander/

Click to expand...

That certainly looks like a good possibility. Wonder if they'll issue a recall on it (what ever it ends up being). A seat detaching is NEVER a good thing!

The Uplander is the new Venture, that came out in 04/05. It has to be one of these GM clones.

I'm pretty sure it's not a Venture. I own a 2004 Venture, and the seats look different. It does look similar to an 'Uplander' though. The grill looks more SUV-ish ( which is what Chevy was going for with the Uplander)

Also here are some other posts about this topic from some time ago:
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=1728&highlight=drivers+seat+collapse
http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=4327&highlight=drivers+seat+collapse

After seeing the pic...I've been paying more attention to other vehicles when I'm out...I saw a KIA Minivan that looked a lot like the one in the photo. On the KIA, it says KIA in the middle of the tire/rim...but I'm not sure if I can tell if it's there in the photo.

Well, I'm 99% sure that it is a GM. Either a Chevy Venture/Uplander or a Oldsmobile Silhouette.

We have a Silhouette with the exact same wheels. This is identical to ours: http://www.autowire.net/originalpics/silhouette2001.jpg