Chevy Astro/GMC Safari

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Ford made the perfected version of this vehicle.
They called it the Aerostar.
I'm now going to put on my flame-proof underwear.



You've got to be kidding! That was one ugly van and the 3.0V6 was an underpowered slug. They never sold as well, Ford stopped making them while the Astro/Safari carried on a few more years and you rarely see any on the road today like you do the GM vans.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Ford made the perfected version of this vehicle.
They called it the Aerostar.
I'm now going to put on my flame-proof underwear.



You've got to be kidding! That was one ugly van and the 3.0V6 was an underpowered slug. They never sold as well, Ford stopped making them while the Astro/Safari carried on a few more years and you rarely see any on the road today like you do the GM vans.

The first Aerostars had the 2.3 Lima....now that's underpowered

By comparison, the 4Y Toyota was a rocket.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Ford made the perfected version of this vehicle.
They called it the Aerostar.
I'm now going to put on my flame-proof underwear.



You've got to be kidding! That was one ugly van and the 3.0V6 was an underpowered slug. They never sold as well, Ford stopped making them while the Astro/Safari carried on a few more years and you rarely see any on the road today like you do the GM vans.



Still see the Aerostars too..granted they are not rusted out...

 

[ms21043]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
if you ever have to put an engine in one-look out, the body (allegedly) has to come off to do it.


Actually removing the engine/trans assembly is a cakewalk. Use a cherry picker attached to the front bumper and lift the body up off the frame, engine, trans and suspension assembly. Did it several years ago on a friends Astro. Removed a 4.3 and installed a 350, easiest engine swap there is.

 

[fdcg27]

Well, the last Aerostar was made more than thirteen years ago, and you still see plenty of them running around.
Ford never did milk as many years out of its obsolete models as GM did.
I used to routinely win stoplight Grands Prix with Astros with our 3.0 Aero, since although the Astro had a stronger engine, it was also much heavier.
In terms of sales volume, the Aerostar consistently sold in greater volume than the Astro for every year in which both were offered.
No doubt the Astro is a fine small van, and it is easier to find a good one, since it was made in small numbers until fairly recently

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Ford made the perfected version of this vehicle.
They called it the Aerostar.
I'm now going to put on my flame-proof underwear.



You've got to be kidding! That was one ugly van and the 3.0V6 was an underpowered slug. They never sold as well, Ford stopped making them while the Astro/Safari carried on a few more years and you rarely see any on the road today like you do the GM vans.


I still see a lot of Aerostars on a daily basis. Painters love them, Mexicans love them, people at the metal recycling place love them, basically everyone who beats the [censored] out of a van loves them.

That said, I see a lot of Astros too. Very few AWDs though...mostly 2WD cargo vans.

 

[mpvue]

Originally Posted By: jc1990
WE HAD ONE AN 88 4.3 TBI V6 3.42 POSI THIS VAN WAS A POS WE BOUGHT FROM OUR NEIGBOR IN 95 HE HAD ENGINE AND TRANNY REBUILT AT 62000 MILES WELL 6 MONTHS LATER WE HAD TRANNY FAIL REAR END AXLE SEALS BALL JOINTS IDLER ARM THING SMOKED AT START UP STARTER ALTERNATOR ALL THIS ON A WELL MAINTAINED VAN WE JUST GOT SICK OF IT TRADED IT IN 96 HAVE A 90 GMC S15 JIMMY SAME POWERTRAIN 165000 MILES TOTALLY NEGLECTED BUT STILL RUNNING GO FIGURE I TOOK VERY GOOD CARE OF THE SAFARI DID NOT MATTER THOUGH


how about less caps lock and more punctuation. using all caps means you are yelling.

 

[mpvue]

I had a '94 IIRC GMC long WB w/ dutch doors, got it for like $350 worked it for 2 years. pretty much bulletproof. kept my tablesaw and all my tools in it, was able to carry as much drywall as I needed, slid them right in w/ the seats still upright.
the A/C compressor goes bad on the earlier ones at least. and when I sold it the rear and trans were leaking, but it was a high mi beater truck.
I use the term truck relatively loosely; yes, it handles the workload, but it is NOT sitting on a truck frame; it has subframes. still, a pretty tough vehicle.

 

[jc1990]

well my parants actually bought a brand new 1 st one on the lot 86 aerostar with the 2.8 v6 nice van but truck did burn some oil and started ticking around 24000 miles did not even last 5 yrs oil pump went along with the tranny which was common 3.0 s were better but the 88 safari they bought which only had 75000 miles had tons of issues including failed tranny and rear end

 

[Falcon_LS]

My buddy (auto electrician) has a '95 Astro, which I also got to drive a couple of times.

It's a conversion, which I think was done by a company called EZ Ride or something like that. Took me a while to get used to the brakes, but they are very nice vehicles. The only problem he had in his 13 years of ownership was the AC compressor jamming up, other than that it keeps on trucking. He just won't part with it.