"the astro is a rolling monument (usually behind a tow truck) to gm's abilities in advertising.....certainly not in engineering".
Ha,ha... I like that one.
I owned a '95 Astro, Explorer conversion back in the day. After 195k miles I too had some probs with it but all in all it was a pretty good van.
About the most major probs were an A/C clutch bearing failure, on a long family trip to D.C. , a bulkhead connector wiring short that shut everything down...drove me nuts for a coupla days and 2 fuel tank pumps. They always fail when the tank is full. The first pump was an Airtex. I deserved that one. Always used an OEM after that and always replaced the guage sender also.
A ladder framed dinosaur with a typical GM rear end that was prone to bearing wear,noise,leaks at about 100k. The rears were pricey depending on what spring set up it had. Single or multi leaf. And 11 grease fittings on the front end.