If you think back to the 1990s and the early 2000s, that was truly the age of the minivan. It wasn’t unusual to see this segment make the top ten seller list at the end of the year, like the Dodge Caravan, moving 299,814 units in 1996, and 244,911 in 2002, and you had plenty of models to choose from, like the Plymouth Voyager, the Chrysler Town & Country, and a dozen or so nameplates that nobody under the age of thirty would recognize these days. By the 2010s, minivans would largely make way for crossovers. Family drivers looking for an efficient, comfortable way to cart the family around preferred the mid-size SUVs to the bulkier and, let’s face it, uncool styling of the minivan.

You’ve still got a few minivans to pick from in 2025, including the Chrysler Pacifica and the Honda Odyssey, but the entire segment totaled less than a half-million sales in 2024, so you can’t really argue that these vehicles are flying off the lot like they were in the early 2000s. One model that could have (but ultimately didn’t) help to keep minivans relevant in the US was the Oldsmobile Silhouette, which envisioned a potential future for the segment not as a humble grocery-getter, but as a luxury riding experience closer to a stretch limo than to a family car. Here’s what you need to know about this forgotten luxury minivan.

What Makes The Oldsmobile Silhouette A Luxury Minivan?

We can hem and haw all day about the specifics of what, exactly, makes a car a luxury car. It’s not necessarily the heated seats or firm-but-cushy suspension, it’s more of an all-around vibe, an emphasis on comfort, generous features, premium finishes, and superior build quality. Every luxury automaker has its own idea of what that means and how to achieve it.

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The Oldsmobile Silhouette achieved its status as a luxury ride via optional leather seats, something you rarely saw in minivans around that time, seating for up to seven, and a Level Ride package, with a built-in air compressor, and air-pressurized shock absorbers that would allow the vehicle to maintain a stable height regardless of onboard weight. All that, and incremental year-to-year updates that helped to reinforce Oldsmobile’s vision of a family room on wheels, including:

• Black carpeted dashboards to reduce glare – 1991
• Enlarged folding side-view mirrors – 1992
• Optional pop-up sunroof – 1992
• Optional steering-wheel mounted stereo controls – 1992
• Remote control power-sliding door – 1994
• Optional built-in child seats – 1994
• Standard roof rack – 1994

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If all of that seems pretty basic, well, remember that this was an early nineties model. Steering-wheel mounted radio controls are pretty basic these days, but that was a big deal in 1992. All that being said, it was the 1997 model that would really cement the minivan’s position as a luxury model. This was essentially an all-new vehicle carrying the same name and general design philosophy of its predecessor.

A Look At The Second-Gen Oldsmobile Silhouette

The second-gen Silhouette was a significant upgrade from the previous model in more ways than not. The new Silhouette was 72.2 inches wide, not counting the mirrors, to 73.9 inches for the 1990 model, making it a little easier to maneuver on city streets. The Silhouette was also available in an extended-wheelbase model this time around, which would become the base model for the 1998 model year on, available with up to eight seats.

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The Silhouette launched with three trim levels in 1997, the Base, GL, and GLS. By the time the car was retired, after the 2004 model year, the lineup would include these three and the Premiere, introduced in 1998.

GL Features

• Power driver’s seat
• CD player
• Fog lights
• Power front windows
• Automatic driver’s side window
• Speed-compensating volume control
• Heated power mirrors
• Automatic headlights

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GLS Features

• Leather upholstery
• Tri-zone climate control
• CD player
• Power-sliding passenger-side door
• Compass
• Garage door opener
• Rear-seat audio and climate controls
• Rear parking aid

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Premiere Features

• Entertainment system with DVD player and fold-down back-seat monitor
• Input jacks for video game systems
• Four pairs of wireless headphones
• Heated front seats
• Power-sliding driver’s side door

How A Pioneering Luxury Minivan Went Out With A Whimper

If you look at the timeline, with the last Silhouette being the 2004 edition, you might guess that it was the decline of the minivan as a major segment that killed this model. In truth, it was the fact that the minivan segment was getting to be pretty crowded in the early 2000s. That, and the fact that Oldsmobile itself was being phased out around this time. Where the Silhouette’s features seemed innovative in the late nineties, by 2004 this was an also-ran, and it just couldn’t compete with the likes of the Dodge Caravan, the Toyota Sienna, and even the Chevrolet Astro, which sold a respectable 19,215 units in 2005, while the Silhouette only managed to sell 6,461 units in 2004.

The Silhouette was included in Oldsmobile’s Final 500 limited-edition program, where each of the brand’s surviving models would be sent off with 500 special units, featuring vintage Oldsmobile badges and branding, including embroidered seatbacks and floor mats. The Final 500 Silhouettes numbered 360 in total, as meeting the order number for every other nameplate on the list was more important to General Motors at the time. This may sound like a pitiful ending, for both the minivan itself and the iconic automaker that created it, but it would be dishonest to suggest that the Silhouette is completely forgotten. In 1999, Oldsmobile produced three Silhouette OSVs (the red car above), for Oldsmobile Special Vehicle. General Motors had been experimenting with in-house tuning in hopes of salvaging the Oldsmobile brand, resulting in a handful of OSV models.

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In the 1999 Silhouette’s case, the minivan would be equipped with a tuned intake and headers to bring the base power output up to 210 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque, Brembo four-wheel disc brakes, Recaro seats in red leather, titanium pedals, a unique Candy Apple Red paint, and OSV badging everywhere you’d care to look. A 2000 OSV II model would follow, but information on this one is limited. Technically speaking, neither of these cars even existed in an official capacity. The 1999 Silhouette OSVs were built to show off at the 1999 SEMA show. Most of what we know about it is thanks to a model that went up for auction in Canada back in 2020. How it got there from Las Vegas? Nobody’s one hundred percent certain. But it’s nice to see the minivan get a little love after all these years.

What Does America Have Against Luxury Minivans?

Your first thought upon contemplating a luxury minivan may be “Why the heck doesn’t Lexus have one of these?” And the answer is, sadly, they do, but not in North America. In fact, the Lexus LM wasn’t even available in Japan for the first few model years. The LM, or Luxury Mover, is a hybrid introduced for the 2020 model year in Mainland China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan. The LM isn’t intended to be a personal car or a family vehicle so much as something closer to an executive limousine.

The issue may simply be a cultural one at this point. According to limo service All American Limousine, the Lincoln MKS sedan, stretch limo, and executive SUV limos are their three most common requests. If they were to import a Lexus LM from Japan, simply breaking even on the investment would mean recommending it on every single phone call, and trying to convince clients that “yeah it’s a minivan, but it’s a cool minivan.”

Sources: Hagerty, All American Limousine, Consumer Guide.