In preparing for a 4 day trip to New York city with various family members, we decided to rent a minivan for the occasion. The company we rented from, had a fleet of 2004 Pontiac Montanas. Our model was the extended length model with only 6000 miles on it. With extremely low expectations, our journey began.
Needless to say, I am not a big GM fan. Our family’s last GM purchase was a 1978 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, and we wanted to keep it that way. And although our 17 hour round trip drive to New York city in this Pontiac Montana has slightly improved my opinion of GMs, would it be enough for us to change our future purchasing decisions?
Exterior Styling
I’ve never even noticed these vehicles before but GM builds three models on the same chassis – the Pontiac Montana, the Chevy Venture, and the Oldsmobile Silhouette. I like the Montana’s more aggressive styling the most. It’s actually not too bad looking (for a minivan). The bottom part of the body is clad in a darker dent-resistant plastic molding.
Interior, Fabrics and Materials
Something about GM interiors really rub me the wrong way (no offense to all you GM owners). The seat fabric just has a really cheap industrial look to it. Now because this is a rental vehicle, there may be an upgrade to the seat fabric or the Venture and Silhouette may have better looking fabrics but the seats in this minivan remind me of the ones in my friend’s 1990 Cavalier – Grey, hard upholstery with diagonal red and blue patterns. There was very little lumbar support in any of the seats.
A personal first for me, the armrests in the front row are actually the right height. Usually they’re too low or so high that I end up uncomfortably shrugging my shoulders. Head room and thigh support in all rows was also quite adequate.
Some of the front-facing plastics on the dashboard and the door armrests are also typical GM cheap with a very hollow, thin feel to them. Ditto for the cheap plastic inserts in areas where there should be buttons if you have a fully loaded model unlike ours.
I’m also not particularly fond of the orange illuminated gauges either. Definitely visible, but just not my cup of tea.
I felt the steering wheel was too fat and gave it a toy-like quality but the extrusions at the 10 and 2 o’clock points made it easy to hold onto.
Our Montana came with a single CD/AM/FM stereo. There were no treble or bass level controls. Instead, there is a button for 5 preset equalizer settings, none of which ever seemed to quite get the appropriate tonal balance for me. Otherwise sound quality was acceptable. A 6-disc player and MP3 player are available as options. The entire van also had only one power outlet very inconveniently located in the cargo area especially when you’re already a full load of luggage.
Utility and Storage
There’s a mesh netting between the two front seats that I find pretty useless. The space between the mesh is too large to hold anything of value and it stretches whenever one of the front seats is slid into a different position. Definitely a cheap and thoughtless way for GM to put in a token storage bin in the front. There’s also a storage bin under the dashboard on the floor for storing CDs and the door to ours was already having problems staying closed due to the cheap plastic material quality.
All three seats in the second row slide and recline and are easily removable out of the dual sliding doors, but unlike the Honda Odyssey, none of them have any armrests, probably due to the fact that the second row seats 3 instead of 2 passengers. To get the armrests, you have to move to the 1SE model which includes 2nd row captain’s chairs. I imagine this will also reduce your seating capacity from 8 to 7 as indicated on the Pontiac website. There are also no cupholders in the second row unless one of the seats is folded down because the cupholders are actually located on the backs of the seats. So if you have a full house, you’re out of luck unless your drinks can be mounted horizontally.
The third row is a bench seat that can fold down. There was no split configuration in our rental model but there are models with the 50/50 split configuration. The armrests in the third row open up but the left one is useless. Part of the wheel-well must protrude into it because there’s only enough room for some napkins.
There’s a removable storage divider in the back which consumes quite a lot of space. We removed it for our trip and I nearly took my hand off putting it back in with the lid almost slamming down on my fingers. With the lid in the upright position, there are hooks which can be used to hang your grocery bags. Without this tacky contraption, there’s plenty of space for luggage and boxes with a low load-in height. The extended minivan we were driving can hold 140 cubic feet of cargo with all the seats removed.
HVAC
The controls for the HVAC were logical enough with a 5 speed fan adjustment and a smooth variable dial for the temperature control. One complaint I have is with the ventilation for the 2nd and 3rd rows. Basically there isn’t any. One vent in the center of the dashboard is supposed to push air to the last two rows. There weren’t any overhead vents on the ceiling in the second and third rows like in the Honda Odyssey. In order to get rear ventilation, you have to purchase the Convenience Package or buy the 1SE model.
Luckily the second and third row windows vent open for the added ventilation the vehicle isn’t providing internally.
Driving Experience
Surprisingly, the Montana wasn’t the poor drive that I was expecting. The visibility outwards was great especially out the front due to the steep incline of the hood.
There was pretty good road feedback (for a minivan) and on-center tracking was pretty good with little adjustment required on straight highway driving. Cornering is typical of a minivan with some roll but not as flat as my sister’s 2001 Odyssey. It basically handles much like the Chrysler Grand Caravan that we rented in 2002.
I can’t believe that with all the existing competition out there that the 3.4L V6 can push out only 185hp. Although this front wheel drive Montana’s acceleration isn’t up to its peers, it’s not irritatingly slow. It is a quiet vehicle with no squeaks or rattles with a comfortable ride (our version comes standard with what’s called “soft-ride” suspension) though and one problem is that you can’t even tell that the engine is straining when you’re flooring it. I can see the that the 4 speed transmission is downshifting by looking at the tach, I’m just not feeling the car move much faster. Rated at 19 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway, we did get some pretty good mileage on the highway with very infrequent fill-ups.
Our minivan did not come with ABS brakes. Without them, stopping with this front disc rear drum setup was a little less surefooted in wet weather.
Pricing
Pricing for the base model starts at around $24,000 US with the extended version we were driving (1SA) coming in at $26,600. There’s also an 1SE model at $30,950 which is basically the 1SA with ABS, power driver’s seat, Rear DVD entertainment system, and 2nd row captain’s chairs. There’s also a AWD version with a 3500 pound towing capacity which starts at $31,750. This model will reduce your highway mileage to 24 mpg. On top of all these models, there’s also a confusing array of convenience packages. You can view them at http://www.pontiac.com/montana/specs_packages.jsp
The 180 hp Chrysler Town and Country starts at $21,185. To get the more powerful 210 hp engine, you have to move up to the $27,940 Touring model.
The 193 hp Ford Freestar starts at $24,600 but includes ABS brakes. You don’t get the 201 hp engine until you pay $30,140.
The foreign competition seems to be a little more competitive.
The base model Honda Odyssey LX starts at $24,490 but that comes with a 240hp engine, 5 speed automatic, ABS brakes, Traction control, front and rear air conditioning. Mileage is comparable at 18/24.
The 230hp 5 speed base model Toyota Sienna CE at $23,495 also includes ABS.
Conclusion
In our case, we took our trip with one of the second row seats removed. Which gave at least one person in the back row plenty of leg room. The trip was pretty comfortable for 4 adults and a baby. I’d say that my biggest turn-offs were the cheesy interior and the lack of power. As comfortable as our trip was, the pricing of the foreign competition including a lot of standard equipment makes it pretty difficult for me to recommend the Montana.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): N/A
Condition: Used Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: 1SA
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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