GM Pulls Plug on Astro/Safari

[ragingfish]

Quote »GM Pulls Plug on Astro/SafariThe mid-size, rear- or all-wheel-drive vans from General Motors are history. The Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari will go out of production in 2005, leaving GM with its minivans and full-size vans to sell in a slowing van market. The company announced on Tuesday that the Astro/Safari twins would be discontinued and that the company would close down the Baltimore plant that assembles the vehicles, putting 1100 plant workers out of work. GM had been the last domestic maker with a rear-drive van in the class, since Ford discontinued its Aerostar in the 1990s. Good riddens I say!Those things were fugly...

[ColonelPanic]

Boy, was it a long haul for that van... 20 years or so! Quite a long time to go with no redesigns, only minor appearance and interior changes... Can't say I am surprised at the demise of the Astro, I knew it was coming. Surprised it took this long, however. I didn't like or dislike the van, although I do think it had qualities that in its day, the front-drivers from Chrysler couldn't compete with. Being essientally a truck, with a full frame, it had towing abilities that a fwd unibody minivan couldn't match. Just speculation on my part. Not sure how much you could tow with an Astro back then, probably more than a '86 4-banger Caravan. I still see the Astro/Safari used heavily for delivery-type vehicles, cable companies, fone companies, yada yada... That's probably what helped to keep it alive all these years. The general public who wanted a truck that hauls people probably gave up on such a beast a decade ago when SUV's became the hip thing... Those who didn't want an SUV wanted a car-like minivan, thus turning to the unibody FWD's.Not sure why GM couldn't find something else to do with the plant, hate to hear about the job loss. Perhaps it is a bit too old (built in 1935) and may require extensive capital to retool, I know little about the facility. I am a bit surprised that GM didn't decide to go with a repeat performance on what they did in Arlington: The big GM rear-drivers, Roadmaster/Caprice,and of course, Impala SS were axed so they could retool and make more full-size SUV's.

[Mavrik]

well I'm sure it will get replaced by something else, its always been the mid sized cargo van for a lot of companies who don't need the room of a Savana van but find the minivan to small. Yup... job loses for sure.

[ColonelPanic]

They need to come out with one of those vans like Dodge has out now... You can't tell that this thing was pulled straight from Europe, can ya? http://www.dodge.com/sprinter/

[Jahntassa]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »They need to come out with one of those vans like Dodge has out now... You can't tell that this thing was pulled straight from Europe, can ya? http://www.dodge.com/sprinter/Isn't that the rebranded Freightliner van?

[esjones]

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »Isn't that the rebranded Freightliner van?I was going to say the same thing. But Freightliner, like Chrysler/Dodge, is owned by Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler) and the Sprinter looks like a version of a Mercedes Benz delivery van that has been sold in Europe for years.In fact, I just checked out http://www.mercedes-benz.de and see that the Sprinter is also sold in Germany with a three-pointed star!

[fjf511]

I had a Astro van before my Vibe. Other than being a gas hog it was a great vehicle. I drove it through the worsy blizzard I was ever in up in Canada and it went great.As for the Sprinter vans we have a few where I work and they a Dodge junk always broke down

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Good riddens I say!Those things were fugly...Fugly but they were great vans, ran forever and people liked them. AWD too.

[ToolGuy]

First they were sold as Freightliners and at Freightliner dealers. When Dodge discontinued the 15 passenger full sized van they needed a replacement. Thus the Sprinter, a Mercedes 5 Cyl. diesel. Some as still badged Freightliners I know and I think still sold commercially that way but some Dodge truck dealers have them now too. We developed tools for the Sprinter van for the Dodge dealers.