Photo: wb.artist20/Instagram
American vans are almost gone from the automotive landscape, their role taken by either pickups or crossovers. But who can forget something like the Chevy Astro?
We think vans are pretty cool, especially if you've got the money and time to do a full camper conversion. A 2015 Chevy Express 3500 with 4x4 and a custom interior can be the ideal home away from home. But the Astro came way before that.
It was first introduced in 1985 and was sold over the course of 20 years before being discontinued. There's also a GMC version called the Safari. My ideal Astro would be a 2nd-gen with that two-tone look of the 2000s - silver on the bottom, bright red on top, and some shiny wheels.
The Astro and the Safari have been out of production for over 15 years and they are becoming collectible. The camper community probably grew a lot in 2020, and there's a shortage of old, cool models. Digital artist Oscar Vargas remembers driving an Astro as a company car back in the day and decided a modern reinterpretation would be in order.
His design came out looking like a sporty pickup-based model. It's got a really high shoulder line which makes it look rugged. The front end is from a Silverado, and Oscar says the Astro Van would need to be a little smaller. He's right, of course, as having available 4x4, an S10 powertrain yet not being full-sized made the Chevy van quite popular.
The Astro and Safari were GM's answer to the Plymouth Voyager, which birthed the minivan segment. But they weren't true minivans at only 1.5 inches shorter than a full-sized van. The upside was that you could do more with them. These things could pull 5,000 lbs. And once the kids were at school, you could take out the benches and have 1,700 lbs of payload.
In the 1990s, Mk2 Astro conversions were booming. You could have fully reclining electric seats and televisions in there. That's pimp my ride stuff. So how did it die? Well, for one thing, the van wasn't all that safe in a crash. And because the engine was under the dash, it wasn't the most refined thing. In 2005, the Astro was replaced by the Chevrolet Uplander, which died after only four more years.
It was first introduced in 1985 and was sold over the course of 20 years before being discontinued. There's also a GMC version called the Safari. My ideal Astro would be a 2nd-gen with that two-tone look of the 2000s - silver on the bottom, bright red on top, and some shiny wheels.
The Astro and the Safari have been out of production for over 15 years and they are becoming collectible. The camper community probably grew a lot in 2020, and there's a shortage of old, cool models. Digital artist Oscar Vargas remembers driving an Astro as a company car back in the day and decided a modern reinterpretation would be in order.
His design came out looking like a sporty pickup-based model. It's got a really high shoulder line which makes it look rugged. The front end is from a Silverado, and Oscar says the Astro Van would need to be a little smaller. He's right, of course, as having available 4x4, an S10 powertrain yet not being full-sized made the Chevy van quite popular.
The Astro and Safari were GM's answer to the Plymouth Voyager, which birthed the minivan segment. But they weren't true minivans at only 1.5 inches shorter than a full-sized van. The upside was that you could do more with them. These things could pull 5,000 lbs. And once the kids were at school, you could take out the benches and have 1,700 lbs of payload.
In the 1990s, Mk2 Astro conversions were booming. You could have fully reclining electric seats and televisions in there. That's pimp my ride stuff. So how did it die? Well, for one thing, the van wasn't all that safe in a crash. And because the engine was under the dash, it wasn't the most refined thing. In 2005, the Astro was replaced by the Chevrolet Uplander, which died after only four more years.
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