1986 Chevrolet Astro CL review from North America

Our Astro suffered from a broken water pump on the first day we went to pick it up from the dealership. It was replaced and never broke again.

My dad is a mechanic and has always serviced the van himself. Routine maintenance and an oil change every 3,000 miles using only Valvoline 10w/30 for the winter and 10w/40 for the summer.

Major meltdowns in the past 18 years:

The sides of the radiator leaked in 1992 (Replaced and have not had trouble since)

Starter broke in 1994 (Replaced and have not had trouble since)

Three dead batteries (Not the Astro's fault!)

Three clutches worn and replaced. (will need a fourth soon because the current clutch really doesn't act like a clutch. It is more like an in-out box with no feel.)

Radio was never very good (Replaced it in 2001 with a CD player - big improvement)

For the past eight years the van has developed a consistent chuggle (vibration, annoyance, bumpa-bumpa-bumpa - a few choice terms for chuggle) while driving at all speeds.

The driver and passenger front seatbelts like to lose tension for no reason. I have to unbuckle and then rebuckle the belt to get the tension back.

Other than those problems it has been doing a swell job.

I still remember the day we picked up the van in 1986. I was only six years old and we had traded mom's 1975 brown rusted out Honda Civic with painful torn up and duct taped vinyl interior. The Astro was a big change. Ours is a special order model. In 1986 the Astro was a hard-to-get van. The ones that we test-drove as a family were decked out conversion vans and one 1985 salesman's demo with a carbureted V6. This was going to be my moms van. My dad wanted it to haul lumber and furniture that he builds. So they custom ordered a van they could both live with in January 1986 as follows:

CL trim code.

Two-tone silver bottom - red top.

Red cloth interior.

Tilt wheel.

Console running along the headliner with map lights.

Pullout drawers under driver and passenger seats (Chevrolet had this as an option on paper, but never installed on any van.)

AM/FM Tape player with DNR (Tape player stopped working and was replaced with a Pioneer CD player and new Pioneer speakers in 2001)

The custom order part: (Chevrolet sent the dealership the wrong kind of van about three times for us to pick up.)

5 speed stick shift (1 of 3 in Pennsylvania in 1986)

No A/C installed (Would have been nice for the many hot days spent in the van.)

No cruise control (Long trips for my dad - 6' 3" and me 6' 3" are painful.)

No tilt seats (Ditto on the cruise control complaint.)

Crank windows (Only bad if it starts to rain with the passenger side window is rolled down and there is no passenger to roll it up. Far reach.)

No power door locks.

Our Astro has served us well over the past 18 years. It has met and surpassed all of our expectations. When we got the van we had the only Astro in the neighborhood. Dodge Caravans and Plymouth Voyagers dominated the driveways, but our bright red Astro stood out. It also proved to be the best of the neighborhood because it is still on the road today. The Chrysler products have long since disappeared. Our Astro has hauled everything mom needed to haul with two kids going through elementary through high school. My dad has always treated it like a truck and has been used to haul lumber, furniture, and tools. It has been used to take family vacations to South Carolina, driven to Maine, and all over Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

I was able to learn how to drive stick in the van and although it is not my car I use it on a monthly basis to haul friends or large items around. It is also great to take to undesirable locations - always there when I walk back to it! I have also used it to move to college and also help my friends move all their stuff to and from college.

Our Astro has been in a few fender benders over the years.

In 1990 a '90 Lumina decided not to stop and rear-ended it. That crash peeled the front end of the Lumina like a can of sardines and wrecked the bumper on the Astro.

In 1991 a '81 Chevette also decided not to stop and put a dent in the Astro's bumper, but blew out all of the lights, smashed the grille, and pushed the bumper to the ground on the Chevette.

In 1992 mom sideswiped a '75 Nova in a mall parking lot on Black Friday. I believe the Nova was totaled, but the Astro only needed a front fender.

In 2002 I was driving down a road and a 1994 Buick LeSabre drove out of a Wegmans parking lot and into the front passenger side of the van. That was the one that made me think that was the end of the van. The front end was messed up and it was still drivable - but 16 years old. However the Buick owners insurance company covered the repairs and looks great today.

The Astro sits idle for many weeks at a time these days. We all have our own cars now and the van has a problem with eating gas - especially when the cheap grade costs $1.65 a gallon, hence my nickname for it "The Cantankerous Gas Guzzling _____"

All in all, our Astro is great and it is part of the family. Had we waited two more years we would have gotten an extended Astro (EXT) because the extra few inches in the back of the van would be great for hauling plywood or anything else that my dad or I have hauled with the back doors open, breathing in that great Chevy exhaust, but it wasn't offered in 1986.

The slogan for Astro in 1986 was "The Van That Can". It should have been "Never Dies"!