Around here at Curbside Classic, the Chevy Astro Van is considered a Cockroach Of The Road™. Though not widely beloved when new, it has earned respect due to its utility, reliability and simple refusal to go away. Even though they are now 15-35 years old, I still regularly see them on the road, usually in the form of well-used work vans, whether or not they started out as cargo versions or are passenger vans converted for work duty. Just recently, though, I came across two noteworthy passenger versions. See which one you like better!
The first is a 2005, representing the final year of the Astro’s and GMC Safari’s epic 21 year, single-generation run. This super clean example is about as mint as you’re likely to find. It clearly has led a charmed life, with the sun shining good fortune down on it, though probably within the pampered UV-free shelter of a garage. Seeing it parked at Costco, it apparently is still living out its original role of suburban family hauler.
The interior looks just as nice as the exterior. I don’t know how many miles it has, but the seats look like they could do another 100k easily! The only flaw I see is the floor trim piece by the driver door is missing.
GM waited 10 model years before giving its trucky minivan a mid-cycle refresh for 1995, which makes it almost seem like they planned from the beginning for it to sell for 21 years. This is the extended-length version of the Astro Van, which actually all of them were for the van’s last 10 years.
The extended version first showed up for 1990, on the same wheelbase as the standard van but adding 10 inches of length, giving a welcome 19 more cubic feet of cargo space. They also added the trick Dutch Door/Liftgate rear doors seen here in 1992.
I think they should have added the extension even earlier, since it gave the Astro similar proportions to the full-size Chevy van and made it seem much less diminutive than the original.
That stubbier original version is represented by my second example, a 1987 model. It’s a COAL of sorts for me, since it belongs to a friend of mine, so I know its story. As you can see, the sun has shone on it much more literally, but even with all the UV rays it has led a charmed life in its own way.
I live in Texas now, but I used to live in Tempe, Arizona. We recently visited Arizona and I dropped by to see my old friend, Gordy. I was delighted to see that he still has his Astro Van, which I was involved in purchasing 15 years ago. The pinstripes in maroon and gold school colors reveal that the van’s first 18 years of life were in the service of Arizona State University (my alma mater), working as a shuttle van (notice the still-functional flashing yellow beacon on the roof). ASU has a Surplus Property Department with a large warehouse where the public can purchase just about any used item that would be found at a university, from athletic cloths, to computers, to furniture and sometimes even vehicles. I purchased my former 1994 Chevy Caprice wagon there, but that’s another story.
I would drop in to Surplus Property periodically to see what interesting stuff they had currently and one day they had this Astro Van. The odometer read only 85k miles, which was believable if its duties were confined mostly within the campus. It looked in pretty decent condition, except for the roof, which was missing most of its paint. Some of the primer was gone too, making an impressive spotty rust finish up there contrasting with the nice finish everywhere else. I didn’t have use for such a vehicle, but I thought of Gordy immediately because he did quite a bit of volunteering in youth ministry at our church and hauling around groups of teens was a frequent activity. I called him and he was totally down with putting in a bid for their sealed-bid auction. I took a stab at what would be a pretty cheap price but enough to possibly win. Apparently it was a good guess (unless I was the only bidder!), because my friend was soon the owner of GM’s best compact people mover for only $1,276, tax included. It did require about $1,200 in tires and shop work to get it fully roadworthy, but has had minimal repair needs in the 15 years and 30k miles since.
The interior is just as sun-baked as the exterior. It has the Grand Canyon of dashboard cracks and the front seat fabric is toast, but all things considered the interior hasn’t deteriorated too badly for 33 years of desert sun. The milkcrate storage bin/drink holder is my handiwork as I made it for my work vehicle at the time and when I left, I passed it on to fill the empty chasm between the Astro’s seats.
With comfortable seating for 8, it was the perfect vehicle for Gordy’s needs. He doesn’t do student ministry these days, however, the Astro has been reliable enough that he’s kept it around as a second vehicle and for those times when one needs to haul things.
The van has the virtue of being motivated by the 150hp/225lbft 4.3L V6 engine and automatic transmission. This reliable 3/4-of-a-Chevy-350 was a constant through the Astro’s history, but for the first five years, a 2.5L 4-cylinder with manual transmission was standard. One might expect a base model fleet vehicle planned for low speed, local use would not have the optional engine, but ASU wisely sprung for the good powertrain, probably making possible the van’s long life of service on campus and later off-campus.
I know some folks around here, including Paul, are big fans of “patina”, or as I call it, “surface rust.” I’m not a fan, but I can understand its appeal. For rust fetishists, they sadly don’t make patina like they used to. The old enamel paints deteriorated more evenly and, I dare say, more charmingly, whereas with the urethane finishes of the 80’s and beyond, the paint tends to come off in sheets and inconsistently on different parts of the body. The roof panel on Gordy’s Astro Van started losing paint far earlier than anywhere else on the body. The roof is now 100% rust, but primer has not given way to rust anywhere else so far. For some reason the paint on the right side has held up better than on the left side, which is unexpected since the right side faces south in its regular parking spot.
All the cars in this picture have been overcome by the Arizona sun. The PT Cruiser is actually losing its color pretty evenly and is working on its faded glory look. The final-generation Riviera in the background has gone way past faded glory into something beyond. That car has lived there since before I moved away 15 years ago. The house has lost some glory as well as it used to have grass and nicely trimmed bushes.
So which is better, the pampered creampuff that stubbornly refuses to show its age or the aged, grizzled veteran that stubbornly refuses to die? As much as I love well-preserved originals, I have to say I think I prefer Gordy’s van and its gobs of character.
2005 Astro Van photographed in Houston, TX, January 2020; 1987 Astro Van photographed in Tempe, Arizona, July 2020
Related articles:
The Astro has received one full Curbside Classic article (in 2011) and a good number of shorter features. Here are some highlights.
Curbside Classic: 1993 Chevrolet Astro – How Hard Can It Be To Make A Minivan?
Astro Van: Inspiration For The Xb? Plus A Gallery Of Custom Astros – impressive collection of eccentric Astros
CC Outtake: Chevrolet Astro With Bad Complexion – Astro with similar paint condition to Gordy’s
I’d take the nicer one. The patina will occur in (what I’d hope is) years of further service.
Right, we’ll see how the 2005 looks in 18 years.
Love these things, although I’ve certainly heard both horror stories along with the many 200k+ examples. As to those well preserved cloth seats: I’ve got a 2006 Suburban with 290k miles with that same cloth and both it and the seats themselves look and feel brand new. A lot of that has to do with upkeep and care for the vehicle of course. I put my money on a big ol’ Suburban (high mileage but totally rust free Colorado truck) as our family utility vehicle but I’d have jumped at a clean Astro just the same.
It seems a lot of GM vehicles introduced or revamped in the 1995-2005 timeframe have extremely cheap interior plastics but plush and durable cloth seats. Leather seats from the same era are hot garbage by comparison.
Conversely (and this is only a broad generalization), I’ve found that many vehicles from the late ’00s on have decent leather, but the cloth is rough, like sitting on canvas.
Agree completely. There’s a scant few modern cars with tolerable cloth seats: Subaru at least in the 2015ish Outbacks, and the 2017+ Japan built Armadas in base SV trim. Very pleasant old school soft velour type material. To sit in this old Suburban of mine on its (relatively) high/soft pile cloth seats is more luxurious to me than the pleather (or leather) of most new cars. Likewise I vastly prefer it to the stiff and unpleasant leather of my old 1996 4Runner.
GM definitely had good cloth seats in the 90’s and 00’s. When I bought my 96 Roadmaster a few years ago, I specifically was looking for cloth because I know it holds up well.
If the 87 Astro had the same material as the 05, it’s upholstery would probably still be great even in front.
The patina’d one looks like it might have suffered at least partially from GM’s infamous peeling paint from that era.
As someone from salt country I’ll take the pampered one.
Gordy’s van has character…that will appeal to Gordy and his friends. That character may be a little rich for those who aren’t familiar with the owner. For me, I’d rather have the nicer one and add my own character over the years that will similarly be unappealing to the next owner! Nice find, BTW, I haven’t seen an Astro in that condition for awhile.
Does anyone else find these uncomfortable to drive? My school district had a 2004 or ’05 up until a couple of years ago, and I never could find a good place to put my left leg while I was driving it. I’m only 6′ tall, so it’s not like I’m outside the height parameters of product planners.
the wheel well intrusion on the left side was a BIG design flaw. Even in my cars & trucks now, I notice I am pulling my left leg up under the seat !!
It occurs to me that maybe the missing floor trim piece on the 2005 is by design. Maybe having it missing buys the driver an inch or so extra foot space. Every little bit helps!
Yes! I drove one of the early ones for work and found it very unpleasant to drive – harsh, noisy, rattly, weird driving position, lots of hard, sharp plastic trim, no space for feet or legs. The last one was even more of a problem for the front passenger which barely had space for two feet between the wheelwells and the engine doghouse. I can’t believe GM thought these would pull buyers away from Chrysler minivans in 1986. After the Lumina APV dustbuster vans became available a few years later, Chevy was free to sell these unambiguously as trucks, which they did. The facelifted front seemed designed to make the front of the van look more like their pickup trucks. I didn’t know the inside got a refresh too – the new design looks so much more welcoming.
My ‘86 Ranger started peeling like that almost from new. The issue seemed to be the adhesion of the color coat to the primer, as the primer held up quite well exposed to the elements for about a year, until I finally got Ford to repaint the hood and parts of the roof. The dealer body shop did a good job matching and blending and the paint looked just fine for the remaining 6 or 7 years I owned the truck. I remember some GM vehicles, mostly trucks, and dark blue Toyota’s all shared this malady at the time.
I am 5′ 4″ tall but when I purchased our new GMC Safari 8-passenger van and took delivery on October 4, 1985, I was 5′ 6″ tall. For me, driving this vehicle was never a problem. I finally gave up on it at 318,000 miles when it spun a main bearing! Excellent little truck. I enjoyed it very much as did our family.
This brought me instantly back to our first big family vacation to Disney World with our girls (then almost five and seven) AND both my wife’s and my mother. We needed a big van and got an Astro. the first interior pic was my headquarters for a week. it gave good service and behaved totally nominally, which was all one could ask for in a situation that was simultaneously joyful and somewhat stressful – trying to keep two young kids and two elderly women safe, together and amused.
We came home with a lifetime of memories, together with the hunch that the trip would be a one-off as to attendees. We were right.
Anyway, thanks for the reminder.
I was never a fan of these vans, but I’ll say this – 15 years of service for $2400 is excellent.
I think I had one day of seat time in one of these, as a passenger. I remember it feeling that it lurched, or wanted to jump out of its skin, from every stoplight. Maybe that was the guy who was driving.
A neighbour had one of these, and he used it to go trailer travelling all over the country.
Nice photos, thanks for this post.
Yeah, it ended up being a good value. He replaced tires not too long ago again and a few other miscellaneous repairs, but nothing real major. AC even still works, though I believe it had a R134 conversion.
I had a lifted AWD 2000 Astro – it was a BEAST, but 11 mpg at BEST. Loved the thing, used it as a camper/van life when I was a personal trainer working at 10 or so different gyms. The engine had a tick, and every mechanic would tell me something different. Drove it a good 8K miles before I sold it.
If I had to take a shot as to what eventually killed off the long-lived Astro, I would guess it was that abysmal fuel mileage. Even the more common, non-AWD versions probably didn’t get much better, and the only reason they stayed in production so long were due to fleet sales where absorbing the fuel mileage penalty wouldn’t be that big of a deal and worth the trade-off in increased longevity. You didn’t see many old Chrysler ‘Cargo Van’ minivan variants on the street, but you sure saw a lot of commercial Astros chugging along for years.
Even now, the current crop of small ‘city vans’ (Ford Transit Connect, Ram Promaster City, and Nissan NV200, the latter of which had been rebadged as the Chevrolet City Express) aren’t exactly in the same league as the Astro. And it’s worth noting that the City Express only lasted five years. Contrast that with the Astro’s over two decade production run.
It’s a shame because, all things considered, the Astro should have sold better. Compared with the wildly successful Chrysler minivan, the GM products seemed to be much more serviceable.
Of course, all of that might have been by design. GM (and Ford) conceded the civilian market to the light-duty, K-car-based Mopar and, instead, began their minivan foray with a cheaper-to-build, more heavy-duty (and more profitable) RWD drivetrain consisting of off-the-shelf S-10 truck parts.
The Astro’s bad fuel economy may have been one reason to cancel it, but I can think of a few others too. The S-10 that provided the basis for the Astro ceased production after the 2014 model year. The second generation Astro was also not very good at frontal crash tests, failing the IIHS’s offset frontal crash test in 1996 and receiving a three/four star (driver/passenger) rating in the NHTSA frontal crash test. Finally, the Astro’s towing capacity, which was its principal advantage over competing minivans, was in line with the Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT that also had three row seating and sold for higher prices.
The Mercedes-Benz Metris (aka Vito) is probably the closest thing to the Astro on the market today. Same overall shape, size, and configuration.
AWD was the key to poor mileage, but very few were sold, especially to fleets. The 4.3 has never been an economy king, but even in a full size pickup got me mid teens in the city and 20+ on the highway. Part time 4×4 from the S10 parts bin would have been much better.
I drove an early Astro in about 1989 on a road trip. It was a decent highway cruiser. I had been a semi-veteran full-sized van driver, both Ford and Chevy. Compared to those, as a driver the Astro was a clear winner. Only challenge was that the front wheelwell intruded heavily into the passenger’s foot area; it was impossible to find a comfortable place to put the feet.
We had three ’85 Astro’s in the fleet where I worked in the 80’s and 90’s. They were very durable and withstood a ton of abuse. Our’s were work vans with a completely metal interior and a rubber floor. They did have the V6 however.
The seats were very short and had no headrests. I was rear ended at a stoplight once and luckily my head was stopped by the metal security wall behind the seats. I may have broken my neck otherwise. I could not believe those seats were still legal in 1985.
They resisted rust quite well here in the salt belt. I also remember that the back doors would stick constantly. I would have to pull so hard I thought the plastic handle would snap off. I agree about the footwells being terrible.
If I were to go to Team Astro, I would definitely take the newer one. I found almost everything about the refreshed version more appealing over the early half of production. But you have to admire a grizzled veteran that starts every day and does its job.
Go Team Astro! I agree that the facelift worked well on these and gave the front a real nice, clean appearance that has aged better than the original front.
Neither. They’re utter turds: miserable penalty boxes to drive unless your left leg ends at the knee, and they’re inexcusably uncrashworthy.
I prefer as good condition as possible. I guess the pampered one lives in a garage or carport to avoid the worst of the sun. Locally the AWD Astro/Safari is a popular VanLife conversion for those to poor or too cheap for a Vanagon or Sprinter.
I can relate to the milk crate storage, I keep a crate in the left rear seat space of my pickup to control tie downs, jumper cables and small packages.
I’m surprised these never got a follow up generation. I still see a lot of them in commercial service for fortune 500 companies, not just tradesmen or mom n pop shops. The RWD chassis on the Aerostar and Astro seem more durable than the FWD minivan chassis, which may be why the Cargo Caravan never took off. I imagine, never having driven one, that they are more manageable and easy to drive than the full size vans (which I have driven, and they’re horrid, swaying, floppy beasts) and more economical with almost as much cargo room and they can get into parking garages. They also tow, for people who wanted to tow a boat with their minivan.
Perhaps this wasn’t a great answer to the Chrysler minivans, but it did hit a useful niche and one that hasn’t since been filled. If I were in a business which needed a van like this, I’d think this would be a much more economical to purchase and service alternative to a Ford Transit or whatever is supposed to replace the old fashioned full sized van.
The Mercedes Metris offers a similar size RWD platform, albeit at a higher price point. I’m seeing more of these as work vans plus a few personal use.
The year I was first licensed was the first year these were available. A friend’s mother bought him a total stripper 4 cylinder, manual shifted cargo version as his first vehicle. Yes, his mother thought it wise to purchase a cargo van for a teenage boy’s first car. The mindset was that it would be practical for college, would serve as good transport for his ski equipment and various other sports gear, etc. It also became all the things one could imagine a teenage boy could make use of a big mobile empty box for. It was quickly outfitted with a futon mattress, a bunch of bean bags, a sound system fit for a bachelor pad, etc. Safety was not big on people’s minds in the early-ish 80’s, but Mom figured since the thing didn’t go very fast and was fairly large it would be a safe bet for a first car. Mom wasn’t the sharpest tool. The grandest of ironies was that of all the ways that van could have proven to be Adam’s downfall, in the least likely of events he ended up breaking an arm and a collarbone “Van Surfing” (ie: riding the roof) on a rural Texas highway during his first year in college.
Before we graduated college the Astro was replaced by a Suzuki Samurai. Mom just always figured if it wasn’t fast it couldn’t be dangerous. I suppose that thought process made sense at a time when the rest of us were driving Trans Ams or Celicas, etc., and were frequently known to wrap them around things.
Interesting story! I suppose there was some residual 70’s van culture still in the mid80’s, so that didnt seem so strange at the time. Just needed some baby moon windows on the sides towards the rear (or whatever they called those windows). Nowadays a teen would get endless grief being called a serial killer driving a cargo van!
I’d say he got off easy with the “van surfing”. Everyone in the world saw that coming except him.
I’d take the newer one in this case.
I’ve owned two Astros; the first was a ’85 Starcraft kinda-conversion with captain’s seats that weren’t very comfortable. The 4.3 made it a mover and it wasn’t bad on gas even though it had a Q-jet as Fuel Injection was yet to debut. .
The second was a 1994 EXT which made ALL the difference in ride quality plus the seats were superior to the Starcraft captain’s chairs. I put a Gibson 3″ exhaust on it; the muffler was only slightly louder than stock but you could really feel the difference on steep hills, it could breathe better, especially when combined with a K&N filter in the stock housing.
Either one felt more solid on the road than any FWD car-based minivan I’d ever been in.
How did the extended version help ride quality when the wheelbase was unchanged?
Wow that 2005 still looks like a modern vehicle. Isn’t it funny how some designs just age better than others? I’m not talking about it’s great condition but it’s overall design. Good looking van. Chevy should still make them like that. Nice interior also.
I hated working on these vans. The early ones had a lot of leaking head gaskets. GM switched from the shim style gasket to a composite gasket, possibly a early version of a MLS gasket. I think the surface finish wasn’t good enough for the gasket to seal. GM’s wisdom was a warranty repair needed to use the correct part or GM wouldn’t pay for the repairs. So in goes the crap gasket that already failed and in about 4 months here it is for another set of gaskets. Now you get to do it for free because its a “come back”. So the solution was to install a set of Fel-Pro head gaskets and hide the cost under hazardous waste charges or shop supply charges. Had the same problem with the A/C belts on the early Astro’s, Took about a year before a TSB came out with a new belt to fix the problem. A lousy fan belt and even GM couldn’t get that right.
The two of these Astro’s really stuck with me.
The first one we received was ordered for a customer, it was in the shop getting prepped for delivery and its big brother to exception to it, a GMC Astro tractor was being worked on, the mechanic for some reason accidentally or otherwise bumped the engine over with the starter and being a Detroit it was all to willing to fire up. The cab is tilted open, this tractor is a tandem and only the front drive axle has spring brake chambers on it, so the rear axle is slipping madly on the concrete floor trying to push the truck forward and the new Astro is sitting right in front of the surging BIG Astro. The left front tire of the BIG Astro planted itself squarely into the middle of the little Astro’s bumper, grill and hood. Oops!
The other one was a nice red one, Had an odd loose speed bump noise, after lots of looking we marked the drive shaft with several different color stripes and took it for a drive in the lot as I rod hanging my head out of the open sliding door. Sure enough the little bump noise matched up exactly with one of the stripes, the pinion gear had a dent in one gear tooth.
Later on in my fleet manager job I had a dozen or so of these Astro’s in the fleet and ran into another GM sin, lets hide the fuel injection system INSIDE the intake manifold. That way when something goes wrong we can piss off another customer with an outrageously expensive repair bill. You should replace the whole system while we have it open as “who knows how long before another injector may fail”. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
This van even has an appearance in a video game. In Grand Theft Auto, There is a van that is obviously is copy of the Astro, but in the game it’s called the “Blista” It is slow and has terrible handling, but funny to drive around.
It depends on which version of the game, but the “Blista” is usually a copy of the Honda Civic/CRX hatchback. In GTA3 and again in GTA4 there was a van called the “Moonbeam” which was clearly a rip on the Astro.
Lol thats right it was the Moonbeam.
Plenty of these still in use commercially around here. The painter doing a neighbor’s house has one. I have not seen a surviving Ford Aerostar in a very long time. While there were a few issues, 4.3 TBI V6/4L60E combo have proven serviceable in the long run.
One comment on the paint deterioration, fleet vehicles are usually poorly maintained as far as bodies goes. Rarely washed, probably never waxed. left to sit for weeks outside without turning a wheel.
Good point. Even considering that, the 87’s roof paint failed very prematurely. I have the theory that the van has spent every hour of every day of it’s long life outside (except for the occasional time it has spent in the shop). And probably never waxed, certainly not by Gordy., and seldom washed.
My ’05 would fall somewhere in between the two featured vans: it’s still in amazingly good shape for having gone well over 260k miles, but certain things in & out give a good hint at how hard it’s been worked over its 15-year service life, interior components especially. An apparently common problem with the stereo system, for example, is that the power/volume & tuning knobs are prone to coming off after so may uses. Nearly every single Astro/Safari I’ve seen for sale online–mine included–has this issue; one or both knobs are gone. I notice the ’05 featured here has the optional rear heat control as all 3 of the “squares” to the right of the center stack are filled. An odd thing I’ve noticed about that option is that WITHOUT it, the A/C is in the middle square (with Rear Wiper at the bottom unless you don’t have the Dutch Doors) but WITH it, the A/C moves to the top square & the Heat takes its former place. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just put the Heat in the top square & leave everything else the same?
Apparently neither van has ever towed a trailer, as I don’t see any type of trailer hitch under the rear bumper. Mine not only had the receiver, it also had the wiring harness hooked up with a brake controller to boot, so it no doubt towed something before my ownership. I must be somewhat of the “shuttle” type as I too have a roof-mount light beacon like on the white ’87; I also had one on my previous van (’96 Aerostar) & currently on my 2011 Ranger as well.
The cloth seats in my ’05 have held up pretty well too except at the front-row seat belt mounts where the plastic bracket covers have snapped–another worn interior component–making it a little harder to buckle up as a result but by no means a PITA. A word of advice to anyone who has the “fancier” LT seats with the fold-down cupholders in the middle: if you want to increase your usable cargo space without removing the rear benches, you would be much better off with the plain LS seats b/c THEY can be folded down while the LT seats CAN’T (ONLY the middle seat folds on those). I’m glad I have the “simpler” seats. 🙂