I recently picked up a 2004 Astro AWD as our growing family's adventure vehicle.
Spent it's life in central Michigan as a transport vehicle for show dogs. The two back seats were taken out and stored it's whole life, so they are basically new.
The story suggests that the van wintered in Georgia, and accumulated quite a few highway miles.
She has 205K on the clock. Previous owner kept every receipt for every service right down to oil changes. I haven't quite dug through every line item yet.
Mechanically everything seems strong and sound.
Minor surface rust on the underbody/frame. Body is in great shape.
Plans include a modest lift and all terrain tires. Roof basket. Awning. Cargo storage. Etc.
I am curious about headlight shape differences. Mine has square/recessed lights. But I have seen rectangular/flush lights. Any indication of why the difference?
Welcome aboard from South Florida!
The 03-05 models are probably the best built of all the models.
I could be wrong on this.. but I think the square headlights are typical on base model "cargo" style vans and the slim headlights are typical on "LS" and "LT" (luxury) vans. I believe the parts are probably interchangeable too.
Usually the passenger vans had the composite headlights -- but there are tons with sealed beams too -- so I'm not sure why certain vans were built this way.
Keep the sealed beams and buy some Hella lenses and high wattage headlights... it makes a huge difference over stock!
You can switch out the grill and headlights, with the mounts and wiring changes as well. The nice thing about the 'cargo' lights is that you can easily replace the bulb and lens at the same time as well as having a TON of upgrade options.
We took our maiden voyage (>20miles around town at least) this past weekend. 206,xxx on the clock.
Took the MilleniVan up to Lake Placid, NY for a winter getaway. About 500 miles round trip. Van ran great and we loved the extra "living" room compared to my crew cab GMC Canyon.
Definitely still a work in progress from our final build-out configuration (weekender setup similar to Rainy-Day_Dragon's) but we really enjoy what the Astro platform has to offer.
I plan to put together a build thread someday. But current configuration and work done so far:
- Journey Off Road 2-3" Lift (rear shackles at middle setting, +1" torsion adjustment)
- KYB MonoMax front and rear
- Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 106T in 245/70R16
- Pro Comp 69 Matte Black (16 x 8 with -12 offset and +4 backspacing)
- New ignition coil, control module, spark plug wires, and NGK Iridium Plugs
- New Raybestos coated rotors and pads all around
- GM Accessories Roof Box (basically stole it from local FB marketplace seller)
- AstroWill's $3 AUX port
Still get minor rubbing at full lock and weird articulation scenarios but nothing I can't live with. We get some noticeable drive-line vibration >60 MPH from the pinion angle being off in the rear.
Averaged about 16 MPG (DIC calculated with wheel diameter increase considered) fully loaded with roof box and considerable cross winds on the highway stretches.
AWD came in handy at least twice, and it was reassuring to know we had it if we needed.
That would be nice to see, thanks!. I've been running the Geolandars for years now. We feel they are perfect for our driving habits (85% paved road/highway, 13% seasonal dirt roads and gravel fire lanes and 2% "Well... let's see how this goes") I had them on my 2004 Subaru Forester XT and put about 50K miles per set. Currently have them on my 2016 Canyon All Terrain and of course the Astro. Very happy with them.
Thanks for the review, I was looking at these tires for my Astro (95% paved road, 5% sand/mud/grass). How is the noise and vibration while driving 70mph on the highway?
I'll snap some more pics next time I have the van out. She get's tucked away in my brother's barn when not out on adventures.
The rear slider does not entirely clear with this setup. But It does open enough that it hasn't become too much of a pain...yet
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