GM joins Ford in jettisoning the minivan market

Chrysler, Toyota and Honda must be very excited about this.

 

And Hyundai/Kia.

 

I'm sure they already knew this was coming, it's not like they sold any
minivans anyway. Either GM was going to have to come up with a
complete redesign, or just bow out.

The retarded thing is that GM killed the Astro van which was a favorite
of service techs everywhere and had a little niche all its own. What
the hell were they thinking? There's no other vehicle to compete with
it, it still sold, and yet they axed it. Dumb, dumb, dumb GM, killing
one of the few vehicles you made that actually made sense.

Now our techs are driving Uplanders which makes no sense, and if the
news is true, won't exist in a year or two anyway. What's next? Only
real vans left are the full-sized G or E vans or else a Sprinter, all
of which are much larger than the vehicles they've been driving. Or I
suppose they could get a Colorado with a tall cap, but it won't have as
much room as a real van.

nate

 

Another boneheaded move, or should I say 'Result of boneheaded marketing'
of the decrepit duo.

Agree EXACTLY on the value of Aerostar and Astro... they were BEST OF for
many applications

The Minivan was a great concept and a good product. What went wrong was
the image of the product.. and all of us who drive a lot know twhat {sic}
that is.
GM and Ford should have left the "Moms MArket" to Chrysler and stressed
the utility and fleet aspects... leaving the FWD market... to stress RWD
and AWD.. and only selling Utilitarian people haulers and service vans.

 

About as excited as Walmart gets when a corner grocery store closes.

There weren't that many GM and Ford minivan sales to begin with.

Jeff

<...>

 

Didnt some of the Ford minivan series have some horrible problems with
transmission failure, engine
problems?

Seems there were a lot of short runs on some of those trannies, maybe
failures below 50 k miles?

The minivan was a good solution for some families, but not all of them were,
apparently, created equal.

 

N8N wrote:
ow out.

I disagree. I'm guessing they got out BECAUSE there was another vehicle
to compete with it, and one that took the whole market lock stock and
barrel when it debuted: the Dodge Sprinter. With the option of a small
Benz diesel in addition to the full line of gasoline engines and a very
adaptable body, it pretty well blew the Astro into the weeds.

 

Ouch, Uplanders? I doubt they will take the beating very long a service
vehicle is expected to take. It is crazy that Ford and GM killed their
rear wheel drive minivans instead of freshening them. They were not
much of a family vehicle, but were good little work trucks. Being built
off the Ranger/S10 they must have been cheap to make as well.

This would be a good market for the Chinese or Indians to go after.
Strong simple work trucks, both van and pickup style. They make tons of
them for their home market, price and durability are key factors, and
product life cycles of 10 years or more are acceptable. A company like
Tata could walk in and own that market.

John

 

That would be interesting to see...IIRC Tata has been making some cars which
are based on
British designs of a number of years ago... They are okay in their home
market, but dont really
have a reputation that would inspire confidence.

The Chinese might be able to do it, but realize that the American market can
be fickle, and even
with a desirable car of excellent quality, the incubation period can be
extended.

Both these nations, IMHO, have a problem with competition in the auto
industry....for now.

China is perhaps the most agressive nation in the world and will be a
monster force in short time.

 

Seems like GM could easily remake the Astro off of the Colorado frame since
it replaced the s10

 

Probably the Windstar, didn't that use the AXOD?

Very true.

nate

 

But the Sprinter doesn't compete with it, really - it's actually larger
in size than a full size G or E van. Also utterly impossible to enter
a parking garage with it, and who the hell likes unloading a van in the
rain?

Now if you say that because the Astro primarily sold as a service
vehicle not a family vehicle it should have been offered with a Diesel
engine, well, you'll get no argument from me there.

nate

 

I always thought putting the Colorado's powertrain and driveline under
GM's new Minivans would of been a smart move. It would have more hp,
same economy, and it would likely be just as easy to service as the
Colorado. That to me would give it the greatest advantage over every
f'ing pos minivan out there. God I hate working on minivans...

 

I was selling these for a while and we could never get enough Astro vans for
the trade. Not only did GM stop making them, they closed the plant in
Baltimore to boot. From what I understand the Astro was doing well on the
coasts but not elsewhere. I'm sure they could have kept it going somewhere.
Boneheads.

 

The Dodge Sprinter is a full-size van. The Astro is a mini-van. They are in
different market segments.

Jeff

 

So rather
It's kind of amazing, really, that GM is the world's largest company and
there are so many markets that they don't even sell to. They don't even
care. For instance, they had unreliable junky diesel trucks that nobody
would buy. They let that drag on forever. They didn't field a 4-door small
(now considered mid-sized) SUV for a long time. They made a half-hearted
effort with the stretched S-10, but that was just a pile of junk. They just
watched while Jeep and Ford ran away with a huge market. How about this -
no extended cab pickup until 1988. 15 years later to the market than the
2nd slowest. How about a competitor to the Mustang? Nope. Police car?
Nope. How about something you could use for a Taxi? Nope. How about a
low-slung 12,000 lb GVWR truck for rollback service, like an F-450? Nope.
Minivan? Nope. V-8-powered rear drive car? Well, yes, at a price much
higher than a 300C.

To be fair, though, I do see some markets coming back to them, and Ford
doing some of the same kind of ball-dropping that GM used to do. In the
1980's, GM squandered Cadillac's leadership position through a superhuman
effort to embrace every kind of mistake possible. It appears that market is
coming back around, or at least you could say Lincoln isn't leading any
more.

I also think the gas mileage of the 5.3 gas-powered trucks may be a class
leader. I'm pretty sure it is.

I think the HHR might be a hit. It may actually be outselling the other
entry-level crossovers.

 

Actually, the Chevy Impala is used both as a taxi and cop car.

For that matter, Corvettes, Camaros and Tahoes are used as polices vehicles,
too.

<...>

 

Not really. The Astro is about as big as a "full size" van of the 70s,
on a little bit shorter wheelbase. The Sprinter is bigger, but still
smaller than the B-series it replaced, let alone the Ford E-series. Its
a delivery/fleet van, which is exactly what the Astro had morphed into
despite being created as a family "mini" van. It just wasn't very "mini"
and had the same miserable driver's seating position as full-size RWD
vans because of the engine "doghouse" being in the way.

 

The Impala is a horrible police car. The transmission doesn't last and
where I live it didn't make it as a taxi either.

I don't know where you live but a Corvette used by police enforcement? Palm
Beach or Malibu?

 

I am in Ontario, and we have Impala's as Police cars, as well as taxi's.
Crown Vic's are also used. So are Tahoe's too.