GMC took the Safari name from Pontiac's station wagons, so from 1985 to 1989 the same dealers sold both a GMC Safari and a Pontiac Safari.
Lead trim: 2.5 Tech IV I4 · up to 200 hp
GMC Safari Passenger1985–1994
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a GMC Safari Passenger yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactGMC took the Safari name from Pontiac's station wagons, so from 1985 to 1989 the same dealers sold both a GMC Safari and a Pontiac Safari.
The GMC Safari was the GMC version of the Chevrolet Astro, a rear-wheel-drive-based van built at Baltimore from 1985, seating two to eight, with all-wheel drive available later. The first generation, built to 1994, offered a 98 hp 2.5 litre four and a 4.3 litre V6 of 165 hp, later 200 hp, in standard and extended lengths.
Collectors Spotted in the GMC Safari Passenger Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the GMC Safari Passenger yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
3 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 Tech IV I4 | 1985–1994 | 2.5 L I4 | 98 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
| 4.3 V6 (165 hp) | 1985–1994 | 4.3 L V6 | 165 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
| 4.3 V6 (200 hp) | 1985–1994 | 4.3 L V6 | 200 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
An estimate, for the 2.5 Tech IV I4 trim: fuel on its EPA figure and a dated national price, upkeep on a per-mile average for the kind of car it is.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
The Safari's identical twin, the Chevy Astro, posted the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle in the US in 2002-2005, per IIHS data.
Updating the Safari for 2005 safety rules cost too much, so GM stopped instead. It was the last model Baltimore Assembly ever built.
GMC took the Safari name from Pontiac's station wagons, so from 1985 to 1989 the same dealers sold both a GMC Safari and a Pontiac Safari.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.