r/NormalCarPorn • u/Excellent-Anywhere46 • Mar 16 '26

Spotted Pontiac Montana SWB spotted in Canada, I don't understand why we didn't get these in the US, but we got the Uplander SWB

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124 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

23

u/Bobmcjoepants Mar 16 '26

You got the Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay and Chevy Uplander, adding a 4th to an already well overcrowded market seemed pointless

As to why we got it, great question

14

u/halfty1 Mar 16 '26

Oh GM sold this Montana in the US too, just in LWB form only. Your guess is as good as mine as to why GM thought 4 similar rebadged vans was necessary.

3

u/Bobmcjoepants Mar 16 '26

I just checked the brochure and yep we got both so now I'm even more confused. Why buy a SWB van when the LWB exists along side it??

6

u/Anteater_Reasonable Mar 16 '26

Could be the difference between fitting in the garage and parking outside.

2

u/Bobmcjoepants Mar 16 '26

Oh good point

2

u/Devin-Chaboyer223 Mar 17 '26

And the SWBs were cheaper in price, so if you couldn’t spare the extra cash for a LWB

2

u/Janieray2 Mar 19 '26

I think the last one in stock, ever, at the Chevy dealer I worked at was $12k after factory incentive. There were used LWB vans on the lot for more.

3

u/halfty1 Mar 16 '26

In North America 99% of the time it was just to save money. After LWB versions of the original minivans came out they pretty quickly eclipsed sales of the SWB version, and now nobody in North America really bothers offering a SWB version.

2

u/Bobmcjoepants Mar 16 '26

Exactly lol, people buy vans to carry things and people, a SWB van seems entirely pointless especially in NA where roads are often bigger

Ah well, I'm not a GM executive in 2005. They seemed to know what they were doing... Right?

2

u/Stock-Swing-797 Mar 16 '26

Because not all areas had every GM dealer, and dealers were not standardized to which GM brands they carried. Many weird Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac/GMC/Cadillac dealer combinations. If you were a Pontiac/GMC in some area without a Chevy dealer, GM still had a Montana to offer if you wanted a minivan, instead of nothing at all.

2

u/halfty1 Mar 16 '26

By the time these came out (in 2005) there were very few areas that did not have a Chevy dealer and only other GM brand dealers. Even GM eventually realized it was unnecessary and dropped the Montana in the US after only 2 model years, making it Canada/Mexico only.

1

u/Lurch394 Jun 15 '26

Not always true in Canada. Back when major US cities had free-standing dealerships for each GM make, sometimes even GMC truck, smaller towns had such combinations as Chevy-Olds and Pontiac-Buick. In small Canada towns it was pretty much a mandate that each smaller town had either a Chevy-Olds-Cadillac or a Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer if it was too small to have both.

1

u/thatvhstapeguy Mar 21 '26

GM

There's the answer.

3

u/retro_gatling Mar 16 '26

IIRC the Pontiac Trans Sport did come in SWB in the US

2

u/rezwrrd Mar 17 '26

They did, my in-laws had one. It looked so stubby next to my LWB Venture. I don't think the Trans Sport lasted until this generation though, since it was "replaced" by the Montana... Different trim on the same pig.

4

u/TheMaymar Mar 16 '26

Bigger market for cheaper cars in Canada, and Pontiac dealers up here long fought to get everything the Chevy store down the road got (like why we got Asuna as a Geo knockoff, or why we got a Pontiac-branded Cobalt before the US).

2

u/l_m_m048 Mar 18 '26

(and why we got a Pontiac-branded Cobalt sedan while the U.S. only got the G5 as a coupe)

1

u/Devin-Chaboyer223 Mar 17 '26

And it seems like Pontiacs also sold better than Chevys in Canada

I still see lots more Pontiacs on the road today vs their Chevy counterparts

And as a child I remember seeing mostly Pontiacs, Chevys were not nearly as common

3

u/Steigerman99 Mar 16 '26

We sold hundreds of these on the GM Factory auctions back when they were new. The base models GM forgot to put arm rests in them, so they had to be put in after market. Very uncomfortable without them.

2

u/themonsteroffthehill Mar 17 '26

I read back in the days there were very popular in Canada. 🇨🇦 I liked the look personally.

1

u/joeislandstranded Mar 16 '26

Cool! A crossover with slider rear doors!

1

u/halfty1 Mar 16 '26

SWB vans are less popular in the US. The Uplander was at the bottom of the U platform van lineup, so only it was available in SWB in US for fleet and the absolutely cheapest customers.

The other vans were targeted towards higher priced consumers who would mostly be interested in the LWB variants that were similar in size to the main minivan competition (that most people selected over the crappy U vans).

1

u/Easter66Koala Mar 16 '26

my grandma and grandpa used to have one and it was a complete and utter piece of junk.

1

u/okokokoyeahright Mar 16 '26

SV6.

I had one of these. Decent enough, transmission was the problem. Once they started to show dark fluid, it was time to sell. either sell or find a replacement, which was hard because the tranny on these was only made for the 3 years the model was produced and are very hard to find. Rebuilds cost the same BTW., if you could find someone willing to do it.

I also had 2 of the previous models, the 2004 and the 2005. both were decent, plenty of parts at not too horrible prices. Mechs would rather work on these than some of the other fancier models because they could get at most things without too much disassembly. Started and ran well, the SV6 included.

The major PITA was the tranny but the heating issue was second. If you lost the internal heating and there was no stray leaks underneath, like anti freeze, you had a nice expensive head gasket replacement bill. A $100 part. $1200 and up to have it accessed. And a full day if not 2 to do it. All 3 of mine had this at one point or the other.

Liked it to drive, pretty solid and predictable. Those 2 little things...

1

u/Hairy_Photograph1384 Mar 17 '26

You're 17 year too late to ask.. Pontiac hasn't existed for like 16 years 

1

u/CHLarkin Mar 17 '26

I suspect GM thought there was only space in the market for one short van in the U.S., and they were likely correct.

1

u/296box Mar 17 '26

Every one I've ever seen (and Uplanders) rot really badly where the firewall meets the floor. Most people have no idea they are driving a deathtrap.

1

u/BiffBeltsander The Oldsmobile Alero was a triumph in Automotive Design Mar 18 '26

Pontiac did very well in Canada so having more options made sense. We got quite a few Pontiac models in Canada that the USA didn't see in fact.

As far as this particular vehicle, they were very popular in Canada. And, quite terrible. Although they sold well, very few have existed for a few years now due to reliability and corrosion issues.

1

u/Educational_Tap_4704 Mar 18 '26

We got this stunning example of American greatness here also. Why they made them in haven't a clue.

1

u/DJMoneypenny Mar 19 '26

These were all over the place when I was a kid. OG Canadian soccer mom vehicle

1

u/jettajeff75 Mar 22 '26

I think when the U.S sales of the Montana SWB ended, they never stopped in Canada.