Faults:

Motor mounts.

Fuel filter.

Valve seals.

General Comments:

Excellent van. I bought the van with 167k miles on it for $1,000. Did the usual maintenance, oil change, fuel filter, air filter, and I had to replace the motor mounts.

A week after I bought the van, I loaded just about everything I owned into it, and drove it from eastern Kentucky to central Florida. 15 hours of driving, only stopping for gas. The van did excellent.

Decent on gas, decent power, tons of room, and a truck-like ride that I liked.

I owned the van for almost a year, and it did great. Other than the smoking at start up (a common GM problem), I would definitely buy another.

Faults:

I have owned my 1993 Astro for over 5 years, do my own fluid changes on a regular basis, did front brakes this past year, battery, repaired brake line, gas line, total tuneup, tranny filter and gasket. That's it in 5 years of driving.

General Comments:

Best bang for my bucks. I bought this Astro 5 years ago for $1700.00 as is. I have driven it well over 100,000kms no major problems, fixed most issues myself and I haul a trailer too! The air con still works on this 1993 model.

I mostly use this van for my 5 dogs and doing some Reno jobs with my trailer. I'm driving this van until it's 20 years old!!!

Faults:

Alternator and a few minor things everything was easy to replace.

Replaced clutches in transmission at 170K miles and rear main seal.

General Comments:

About as reliable and cheap to fix as they come parts can be found at any parts store.

Gets decent mileage about 24mpg.

The chevy 4.3 has to be one of the most reliable engines

I've ever owned.

Pretty much the King of mini vans.

Faults:

I believe it is easier to say what didn't go wrong with it yet...

Things that have gone wrong with it so far:

- Transmission replaced

- Coolant hoses replaced

- Oil lines replaced

- Brakes and rotors replaced

- Both torsion bars replaced ($700 each)

- Power windows stopped working

- Engine smokes oil on startup.

This that still need to be replaced:

- CV Boots

- Front-end suspension (ball joints, etc.)

- Fuse for power mirrors keeps blowing. Probably a short.

- Short in passenger side headlight.

I'm probably missing a bunch of other small things...

General Comments:

First off let me start by saying that I don't own this car. This is my company vehicle and it is used as a delivery van.

I've driven this van for about 1 year and it seems that it is in the shop at least once a month, which is very frustrating because I need the vehicle every day for my job.

This is the most unreliable vehicle I've ever driven and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Now to positive side of the vehicle...

It is actually a very good delivery vehicle. Once you take out all the back seats there is tons of room and it also has good weight carrying capacity. The V6 engine, even though very bad on gas, has a lot of power and even makes passing on the highway a piece of cake.

To sum it up: If you are looking for a cheap van to drive your family around, keep looking. If you buy an older Astro, it WILL cost you a lot of money due to repairs and fuel consumption. Rather spend a little bit more money and buy a Toyota Previa. It will save you a lot of money and frustration.

If you are looking for an Astro as a delivery vehicle and need the space and weight carrying capacity, make sure you get a newer one with lower mileage.