Roomy but Unreliable

I would not recommend the Astro.

We sold our Astro at ~45,000 miles due to continuous reliability issues. Two other families in my neighborhood all bought them at the same time and all of us had problems with them. The van was always garaged in California and was in near-new condition when we sold it in 2003. Received about 3 inquiries on it over two months. Finally found a buyer who would even take it off our hands. A dealer gave us $10,700.

Here are some of the repairs our Astro needed between Nov 1999 and July 2003: Transmission (jumping or clunking going into second gear) rebuilt twice. Both times paid for by GM; first one cost GM $1200 but we weren’t told the second time. Air conditioning rebuilt. Exhaust system rebuilt. Constant rattle underneath vehicle. Overhead console computer went out. Body hardware (reflectors, cosmetic panels, seat levers, etc) very cheap. Sliding door and rear hatch hard to open (misadjusted by factory and corrected by dealer).

The biggest downside to the Astro was the frustrating mechanical problems.

Astro was a good vehicle for highway cruises with the family. We took several 400-mile plus trips and found it smooth and comfortable in straight line highway travel. There is plenty of head room for everybody. People with a boat or trailer tend to need a vehicle with power like this one has. Large capacity gas tank was useful when traveling through areas with expensive gas. Visibility behind is mediocre at best.

Similar to the published info, we noticed around 15 mpg in town, averaging maybe 19 mpg freeway.

Seats covered with cheaper looking material but surprisingly comfortable once you're in them. Getting in was awkward at times. Our model had the electric driver seat. Problem: GM puts the power seat switches on inside edge of driver’s seat. If wife has short legs and moves seat forward, getting up into the driver’s seat requires leaning over the seat and fumbling around for the right switch to move the seat back so one can move the seat back and get in. If wife has short legs, avoid the power seat.