Moonbeam

The Declasse Moonbeam is a large four-door minivan featured in:
 * Grand Theft Auto III
 * Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
 * Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
 * Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
 * Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
 * Grand Theft Auto IV

Design
Between GTA III and GTA Vice City Stories, the Moonbeam is straightforwardly modeled after a 1985—1994 Chevrolet Astro/1985—1994 GMC Safari, but it has tall taillights. Minor cosmetic changes have been made throughout its appearances, but the van has generally retained its bulky 1980s design, making it unattractive in all its appearances. Whilst the GTA Liberty City Stories rendition of the Moonbeam is based on that of GTA III, the GTA Vice City Stories rendition adopts the design of the GTA Liberty City Stories or GTA III rendition, instead of the usual GTA Vice City rendition.

During development of GTA III, the van was originally known as the "Aster", a clear reference to the Chevrolet Astro name. The van is depicted in the Capital Autos website.

Performance
Moonbeams between GTA III and GTA Vice City Stories all possess similar handling properties. Performance is poor, due to the large but under-powered gas V6 engines (Strangely, they are listed as Diesel in the handling.cfg), rear-wheel drive layouts (Moonbeams in GTA III and GTA Vice City are exceptions being front-wheel drive), heavy bodies, soft suspension, and high center of gravity (leading to a tendency to flip on rough terrains); as a result, the Moonbeam is generally unsuitable for high-speed driving and has little practical use aside its fundamental function as a mode of transport. The Moonbeam only holds a maximum of four occupants.

Design
In GTA IV, the Moonbeam (now with a Declasse manufacturer badge) is still based on a 1985—1994 Chevrolet Astro/1985—1994 GMC Safari but the front end has been greatly altered, incorporating more realistic detailing and design cues, as well as supporting one-tone or two-tone body colors.

The Moonbeam can be found in several different conversion van configurations, with optional rear-mounted continental tire and ladder, elevated aero roof (featuring a "Super Streamline" badge), roof-mounted luggage bars, a custom billet grille that covers the headlamps, and either one of two types of side scuffs. It also can be found with blanked out rear side windows. A Super Streamline badge is featured on all Moonbeams on the driver’s door, regardless of whether it has a "Super Streamline" roof or not.

The Moonbeam appears to take cues from Japanese conversion vans based on the Astro.

Performance
The GTA IV rendition of the Moonbeam is powered by a 3.5L (as the "3500LX" designation suggests) diesel V6, unlike the GTA III era Moonbeams which have gas engines, and features a rear wheel drive layout, however its lack of power makes this characteristic negligible; with a top speed 155 mph, the Moonbeam drives as slowly as its predecessors, and still suffers from under-steer. Frustratingly, the Moonbeam fails to withstand a large amount of damage, as its large size would suggest.

Variant


In GTA IV, a Moonbeam is requested as part of Stevie's Car Thefts, appearing with a uniquely black and red body. As a new Moonbeam will respawn at the same spot until the player delivers one to S&M Auto Sales, the player can save one at their safehouse before delivering another.

Trivia

 * The Moonbeam in GTA Vice City, along with the game's Bobcat, is one of the earliest vehicles in the series to physically depict its name; sporting a "MOONBEAM" badge on its trunk lid.
 * The GTA IV rendition of the Moonbeam has the record for highest number of variations per vehicle.
 * Driving a Moonbeam into the TransFender in Las Venturas will cause the vehicle to spawn on top of the garage but underneath the roof, trapping the player and the vehicle. At this point the player can only escape by blowing themselves up, re-loading the game's save file, or re-loading the game itself.
 * After collecting all thirty cars for Stevie in GTA IV, he agrees to purchase cars from Niko Bellic, with the Moonbeam fetching $2,200.
 * In GTA IV the Moonbeam is equipped with the "door ajar" bong when the driver's door is opened.
 * In GTA IV it is impossible to do a burnout with the Moonbeam, possibly due to the excessively heavy weight, or the highly-under-powered engine.
 * The Moonbeam is strangely not classified as a "people carrier" in Race Mode, but instead paired with the Speedo, Burrito and Pony in the "vans" class. This may be due to the Moonbeam being based on the truck-based Astro. This also implies there may be a cargo van variant. The Moonbeam was referred to as a van by police chatter in GTA III, but so was the Blista, which became the Minivan for GTA IV and fell under "people carrier" category.
 * In the beta version of GTA IV, the moonbeam was going to have the "MOONBEAM" decal applied to it's back hatch, similar to the Vice City rendition.
 * In GTA Vice City the Moonbeam originally had sliding rear doors, but due to limitations, were cut.
 * The Moonbeam plays the following radio stations by default when entered:
 * GTA San Andreas: West Coast Talk Radio.
 * GTA IV: Integrity 2.0, WKTT Radio or PLR.
 * The Moonbeam may get its name due to the real-life variant Chevrolet Astro, as they both share names with astronomical themes. This is also further proven by the beta name, the Aster.

GTA III

 * Garage 30 north of Momma's Restaurante, Saint Mark's, Portland Island
 * In the departments of Hepburn Heights, Portland Island
 * In Callahan Point, Portland Island
 * In the Carson General Hospital in Rockford, Staunton Island
 * And in the Liberty Tree offices on Bedford Point, Staunton Island

GTA Vice City

 * Usually found driving around Little Havana.

GTA San Andreas

 * Commonly seen driving around Los Santos especially Idlewood.
 * Parked outside The Pig Pen in East Los Santos, Los Santos.

GTA Liberty City Stories

 * Found driving around in Saint Mark's.
 * In the parking lot of the Ferry Terminal in Harwood, Portland.
 * In the underground parking lot of AMCo. Headquarters in Torrington, Staunton Island.

GTA IV + Episodes from Liberty City

 * Commonly found in Broker, Bohan, and the west end of Alderney.
 * Commonly seen in Middle Park East.
 * Very common on Charge Island, Bohan Industrial, and Colony Island.

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