It’s probably a good thing that you’ve never heard of the Pontiac Astre. Some wish they didn’t. Some of you reading this article knew about the Astre, but promptly forgot all about it or suppressed the memory so much that you actually need to read this article to remember. In fact, it’s more likely you opened this article out of curiosity over a vehicle you’re hearing about for the first time. We get it, really.

The Pontiac Astre lived in the 1970s era of substandard cars. It started its journey in the Canadian market in 1973 and offered a variety of body styles that included a coupe, hatchback, wagon (marketed as the Safari), and a van-like cargo hauler (marketed as the Panel Delivery).

There’s something about the wagon version that made it the most popular of the other body styles. Perhaps, it’s the wood grain trim or the rear-wheel drive receiving power from a four-cylinder engine via a four-speed manual transmission. But here's the thing. Would you buy a Chevrolet Vega? No? You better steer clear of the “Dura-Built” Pontiac Astre, then. It was basically a rebadged Vega.

Related: A Look Back At The Chevrolet Vega

What Is The Pontiac Astre?

Pontiac Astre
Via: GM

The Astre is officially a rebadged Chevrolet Vega. It was GM’s foray into the then-new subcompact market, as announced by GM’s chief James Roche in 1968. Pontiac (a GM division) had a small car project of its own at the time, but the parent company canceled it in favor of a "corporate car" that wasn't a divisional nameplate. It informed Ed Cole’s formation of the corporate design team, led by William Munser, to develop the Chevrolet Vega, giving the Pontiac division a version of the Vega (the Pontiac Astre) to sell in the Canadian market, and later in the US.

Pontiac initially sold it in Canada between 1973 and 1974 before introducing it to the US market in 1975. It competed directly with both domestic and import compact models like the Volkswagen Rabbit, Mercury Bobcat, and Toyota Corolla. As a rebadged variant of the Chevrolet Vega, the Pontiac Astre initially got propulsion from the same under powered 2.3-liter inline-four as the Vega and didn’t fare much better when, for the 1977 model year, it replaced the aluminum-block lump with Pontiac’s all-iron 2.5-liter inline-four aptly called the “Iron Duke.”

Both the Astre and Vega retired that year, although the wagon version of the Astre continued production through 1979 as the Pontiac Sunbird. The Astre name was, in fact, a play on the Vega since both means “star” in Catalan and Latin, respectively.

The Pontiac Astre Design And Specification

1976 Pontiac Astre front
Via Mecum

The Pontiac Astre rode on a 97-inch (2,460 mm) wheelbase measuring 65.4 inches (1,660 mm) wide. As mentioned before, Astre shared the Chevrolet Vega’s 2.3-liter Dura-Built inline-four engine. Also known as the Chevrolet 2300 engine, it had an aluminum-alloy block and cast-iron head with a single OHC. The Astre got propulsion from this engine through the 1976 model year.

For the 1977 model year, which also turned out to be the model’s last year in production, it got an all-iron 2.5-liter inline-four engine with overhead valves. Also known as the “Iron Duke,” the all-iron 2.5-liter straight-four became ubiquitous across numerous GM models and got known for its lack of power, although its durability isn’t up for discussion.

Pontiac paired the Dura-Built with transmissions, including floor-mounted three and four-speed manual and three-speed automatic transmissions. The three-speed was standard, while the four-speed manual and three-speed automatic were options. There was also an optional five-speed manual with overdrive for the 1977 model year that replaced the optional three-speed automatic.

It used a front suspension comprising short and long control arms with coil springs, while the rear suspension used a four-link design with coil springs, although this got replaced with a torque-arm design for the 1976 models. It had disc brakes with solid rotors in front and drum brakes at the rear, and relied on its rear wheels using a live rear axle. Pontiac offered Power Assist as an option for the 1975 model.

Despite all that’s awful about the Astre, we can’t help but remember the cargo-hauling “van” version described in a 1974 ad for the Canadian market: “Our little van has just one seat, and there are two compartments hidden beneath the load floor. The driver's seat is full-foam and comfortable all day long. And if your business calls for two-people travel from time to time, just order a second seat up front (extra-cost option).”

Related: Here’s How Much A 1971 Chevrolet Vega Costs Today

The Most Common Problems With The Pontiac Astre

1976 Pontiac Astre A Re-badged Vega
Via: Pinterest

Some might consider the Iron Duke a hero because it powered around 30 GM models, consisting of millions of cars for America recovering from a back-to-back energy crisis. However, it's also true that the Iron Duke posed a serious existential threat to the American automotive giant, launching the automaker into one of the darkest periods of its history right under the hood of the 1977 Pontiac Astre.

It was a flawed, perfect answer for a market still reeling from the backwash of successive energy crises, sacrificing horsepower and advanced engine technology on the altar of mileage. Why are we hammering on the Iron Duke? Well, here’s what Car and Driver had to say about it back then:

“The Astre is the Vega – polished and refined and significantly improved, but still a Vega in perhaps its ultimate state of development…It remained for Pontiac to do what Chevrolet probably should have done in the first place: the substitution of the marvelous old Chevy II cast-iron four-cylinder Econo-motor for the much-troubled aluminum-block Vega engine. Sliding in and starting the engine was a revelation because it’s so quiet and smooth compared to the Vega.”

How anyone could've used the words "Iron Duke" and "smooth" in the same sentence beats us. We're yet to find anywhere else the engine got such a glowing compliment. The initial Vega engine was irritatingly loud and under powered, but so were other inline-fours of that time, particularly the 2.0-liters. You’ll be hard-pressed to find Astre owners with such glowing compliments about their cars.

The Astre was a lightweight, beautiful subcompact cursed with trashy engines. There’s a reason just about all Vega models disappeared in the ‘80s, earning the nickname “Pontiac Ashtrays” in America and Désastre and Dégat in Canada.

The Pontiac Astre Was Just A Rebadged Chevrolet Vega

Pontiac Astre Safari
Via: GM

As a rebadged Chevrolet Vega, it’s tough to expect the Pontiac Astre to be any better than the Vega rushed into production before GM’s engineers got done with it, inadvertently ruining most of the planned cutting-edge features – such as the engine’s water jacket oil pan – that would’ve otherwise given the Vega a much better lead.

As Jalopnik’s Murilee Martin wrote in 2010, “Baffles in the engine’s water jacket oil pan were supposed to make nose-down train shipping of new cars possible, but resulted in overheating problems. Full-immersion rustproofing didn’t work. The finished car was hundreds of pounds heavier than initially planned.” Rebadged, the Astre was still basically the Vega.

Sources: NY Times, Wikipedia, Jalopnik, Curbside Classic