Robert,
My wife has been driving an Astro Van for over a year now. It is far from
being a perfect vehicle- the quality of build is inferior to my Expedition,
and there are a couple of rattles and squeaks after 24,00 miles, as well as
some wind noise, while the Expedition has none after 35,000. That being
said, while it is also less comfortable than the Expedition, it is cheaper
to run and handles better- not difficult as the Expedition is a 4x4 (the 2x4
handles better). Over 35,000 miles (towing, town driving mostly), I am
getting 11 miles per gallon average with the Expedition (a 2x4 would
probably get 13mpg), and the Astro is at 17 mpg after 24,000 miles (easier
miles, no towing).
The Astro was also much cheaper to buy than the Expedition- we bought both
new. There seems to be an awful lot of Astros in So Cal, and they must be
easy to find used, at least here. They seem very popular as airport shuttles
and for other fleet usage, so I assume the Astro is durable.
The Astro is smaller and easier to park than the Expedition. The Astro also
has a surprising amount of space considering its size. We have the three
rows of seats, and you would probably want those. The back seats are very
easily removed, with no tools. There are lots of useful "cigar lighter" kind
of plugs front and back... We like the back "Dutch" doors (bottom two parts
swing out, top part of the door lifts up and down).
The only problem we had with the Astro was malfunctioning fuel injectors-
this is a known problem for Astros made in the last few years, and will be
fixed by Chevrolet at no cost to the owners - but for how long I can't
remember. We received a letter from Chevrolet a week or two ago about this.
It is not a recall, but something Chevrolet is aware may happen on those
vehicles and is willing to fix for free.
At work, several colleagues of mine have Chrysler minivans. They like them,
but I believe all had more problems than we had with the Astro, and sooner.
The transmission on these minivans is renowned for being weak and short
lived.
Jacques Le Clainche
2001 Boxster S- toy
2000 Astro Van- support vehicle and wife's car
1998 Ford Expedition- towing vehicle
1985 Mazda RX7- road racing
1981 Mazda RX7- road racing
1960 Austin Healey "Bugeye" Sprite- Vintage road racing
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