I know GM Safari/Astro twins are nothing special to US readers of this website, but this video comes to you from far-away Israel, where, once upon a time, while these were quite common, they were never considered cheap. And as with many a CC, what was once common has now become rare – especially this early pre-facelift example.
All this was captured with my faithful dash-cam in the space of few miles. As you will see, this early 1990s Astro is succeeded in the film with two other Safaris of the later, post-facelift (and extended body) model. One reversing from behind its Chevy Express big brother:
That Astro is one of the very early ones and must really be loved by its owner to keep using it as a vehicle still providing service. That license number is also unique.
As an outside note, there are quite some interesting vehicles in that clip, certainly for eyes not accustomed with Israeli traffic; The Peugeot 504 Pickup is of course one hell of a CC (and was in a very fine condition, not to mention it’s a “working” vehicle), but note the Chinese Yutong bus I’m driving behind. And there’s another, absolutely bona-fida classic pipping in there somewhere – the eagle-eyed among you must’ve spotted it already.
The Safari/Astro vans were extremely popular in Israel, when new. Certain tax regulations prevented them from arriving back in 1985, when production started, but a tax exemption was introduced in 1991 and the first batch arriving in Israel sold like hot cakes. After all, here was a car (er, van) capable of serving any type of self-employed person, mostly handyman, plumber and the like, as well as his family (and their friends). It was much better than other alternatives of the time, such as the Ford Transit (too spartan), MB T1/Sprinter (too expensive) or the Peugeot J5 (too french!). Also, said alternatives were sold in Israel mostly as commercial vehicles (well, they were) whilst the Safari/Astro were marketed as a Minivan “that can also attend to all your business needs”. It had the appeal of the offered V6 petrol unit, where as its rivals all sported gutless aging diesel units (this was before the days of common rail direct injection turbo-diesel units). And most of all – it was “American” at a time when that word attached to a vehicle oozed luxury – even a simple minivan. Yes, there was also the ChevyVan/Gmc Vandura and successors Savana/Express, but those were way too big for a typical Israeli self-employed person (and more expensive, of course).
Sometime during the mid-2000s, the tax authorities decided to abolish the tax exemption and so rendered the Astro/Safari useless to most persons who previously owned them. They either stepped down to smaller utility vans (such as Renault Kangoo or Citroen Berlingo) or stepped up to the aforementioned Savana, or better yet – full size US trucks such as the Silverado or F150 (thus, realizing the “American dream” with a huge pick-up).
So I leave you with this photo of two late model Astro/Safari, and how fitting it is that both Chevy and GMC marks are represented in this photo.
Aha — I see a 1970s-era Alfa Spider hanging out there. Great viewing pleasure!
The Astros/Safaris are finally getting rare enough here that I’m starting to find them intriguing from a CC perspective — especially the higher-end passenger like the two-tone example you have here. The cargo versions are still relatively common around here, but the passenger versions, not so much.
Nice finds. I like Astros, the shape just works and the size is good too. Supremely practical. Back in the day (mid/later 80’s) when I was working as a valet in High School and College our company got one to start doing an airport shuttle service and I was the driver for several runs. How a high school student is considered qualified to drive a family to the airport in a van for money is seriously sketchy looking back on it but at the time it was great, excellent tips! The Astro had plenty of power for that in LA but eventually we got a new ClubWagon to succeed it to be able to take multiple parties at once. Again, terrible idea to let me drive those people as a standard licensed relatively fresh driver but…
The 4WD versions are intriguing, sadly they (Astros on general) are considered a bit of a deathtrap in frontal collisions nowadays but I suppose most 80’s designs would be. Still, seeing three of them in Israel isn’t something I would have expected!
Those are some of the toughest modern era vehicles that GM made. They will usually hit the 300,000 mile mark with just normal servicing. We still have one at work and even nearing the 300K mark it will still broil the rear tires on demand.
They’re like the Cadavalier or the cockroach, in that they keep running long (long!) past the time you’ve given up wishing and hoping they’ll die. Seriously awful to drive, not least because nowhere to put your left foot.
I like the Israeli stop sign.
It must be the CC effect since I saw one owned by a local florist while waiting for the light to turn green just the other day.
The Astro/Safari was also popular in Japan. It even appeared in 1 or 2 episodes of the anime TV show “Digimon.” This article has a bit of information about the vehicle being in other non-US countries as well, in addition to its history & popularity: https://itrolls.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/1985-2005-gmc-safari-chevrolet-astro-m-body-platform/
Here’s another article about the Japanese cult following for the van: https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/chevy-astro-had-cult-following-japan-262424
I got to take a full view of the new tail lights on my ’05 tonight:
Check out the reverse lights!
I see dead people:
No Astro lawsuit?
The similar Ford Aerostar had similar results.