The most annoying problem was that the engine would use about a quart of oil a week. This became a tedious maintenence chore.
Also, the transmission would not shift past Overdrive into Drive, 1, or 2. No matter how hard you pulled on the lever, that was as far as it was moving.
Both outside door handles (on the front) and the window crank on the passenger side broke off without a considerable amount of force.
The high idle made it very difficult to move slowly across a gravel driveway etc.. The brakes would stop the front wheels first, but the rear wheels would continue to try to move.
After around 150K miles, both seat belts became virtually useless seeing as they wouldn't stay tight when fastened.
My Astro had a lot of relatively small nuisances, but it ran like a tank. In less than 15 years it passed (to my surprise) 260,000 miles. The only reason I had to get rid of it was the inspection and registration had expired and the van wasn't worth registering again. Just the other day I happened to be at the junkyard we sent it to and found it sitting there, with two cars piled on top of it. To everyone's surprise, the beast still started after 5 or 6 months of sitting there.
I used the van for cargo. It was a two seater with no windows on the sides. For the grunt work I needed it to do, it did it well. I didn't hesitate to buy another, as I found it to be a strong dependable vehicle.
I agree, we had a 90 and it ran forever. lots of little things went wrong, but it always kept on taking us to where we wanted to go. I gave it to my brother for $200, he sold it to a friend for $300.
I bought a 97 and it's a nice interior/exterior, but the same sweet reliable van.
I consider these vans to be the only good minivan on the market. Although it is really a 1/2 ton truck with a sturdy frame and good towing capacity.
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