Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Astro offers two seats and AWD, just like a Lamborghini Aventador! The Chevy offers more room than any Lambo and a wildly lower price tag. Let’s see what we think of the overall package.
On their 1979 album, The Wall, Pink Floyd posed the eternal question “How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?” There was lots of pudding on yesterday’s 2011 BMW 328iX Touring, what with its wagon body and well-balanced manual-equipped driveline. The meat, so to speak, afflicting the car was a noticeable bit of rust poking through on one fender lip. That being a rear fender means the fix isn’t as easy as just some unbolting and replacing. It will require a decent bit of bodywork and a respray. Because of that, the vast majority of you called into question both the car as a whole and its $14,250 asking price. In the end, the answer to that questions turned out to be an 80 percent No Dice loss.
Now, before we go any further, I want to say that no one here is questioning your life choices. This is a safe space. Should you choose to live in a small van and overnight in WalMart parking lots and off-the-beaten-path alleyways, that’s totally cool. Hell, we even have a name for that now, calling such a semi-mobile existence “Van Life.”
Should you possess that sort of vagabond wanderlust and wish to trade your worn bindle for something with a bit more carrying capacity and comfort, then today’s 2004 Chevy Astro AWD might just be the ticket to just such a knockabout lifestyle.
A body-on-frame design based on the chassis of the S10 pickup, the Astro entered the market in 1985 and carried Chevy’s banner through two generations over a 20-year production run. Beloved by many and hated by a few, it’s one of those older vehicles that still seems reasonably common to see kicking around on the road.
This silver short-wheelbase van is from the second generation and as such benefits from a taller nose, and redesigned dash. Being an ’04, it is further improved by a number of mechanical upgrades introduced the prior year, including six-lug wheel hubs and bigger brakes, both borrowed from the full-sized pickup line.
Power is provided by a 4.3-liter V6 offering 190 horsepower and 250 lb-ft of torque. This is Chevy’s weird 90° V6 meaning it was originally designed as a V8 and had a couple of cylinders lopped off to make it a non-optimal V6. Odd as it was, the engine served Chevy for decades and is generally considered reliable. Behind that sits a four-speed automatic and behind that is a full-time all-wheel-drive system the development of which was a team effort between Chevy and Britain’s Ferguson Formula Developments Ltd.
All that must make for a fairly stout and reliable ride considering that together it has empowered the van to cover a sizable 202,323 miles. Despite that, the ad says the clean-title van “runs and drives great” and is “excellent in the snow.” The Back Country tires fitted to the factory alloys are said to have plenty of tread and the van wears new brake pads. According to the seller, it’s been Dynamatted throughout, although that’s not evident in the pictures as all the interior trim is in place covering the work. Not in place are the second and third-row seats, which apparently have been set free to wander on their own.
That might make this a poor choice for chauffeur duty but does offer a ready-made moving van or a blank canvas for the aforementioned nomad party pad. The only fly in either ointment seems to be a side sliding door (passenger side only as this is an old design) that is giving the seller grief. On the plus side, rear access is by way of Chevy’s wonderful three-piece barn door portal.
The bodywork seems reasonably clean and without any major dings or dents. Aside from the AWOL seats, the interior seems likewise decent and livable. As the seller claims it to be mechanically sound, there should be no pause given to us giving the van’s $3,900 price tag a solid consideration.
What do you think, is this van worth that kind of cash as it sits? Or, do the miles and the missing seats add up to a lower asking?
You decide!
Bend, Oregon, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don R. for the hookup!
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