diff --git a/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group.go b/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group.go
index cd1499e5f81..e53de952395 100644
--- a/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group.go
+++ b/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group.go
@@ -525,7 +525,12 @@ func resourceAwsAutoscalingGroupRead(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) e
 		d.Set("tag", autoscalingTagDescriptionsToSlice(g.Tags))
 	}
 
-	d.Set("vpc_zone_identifier", strings.Split(*g.VPCZoneIdentifier, ","))
+	if len(*g.VPCZoneIdentifier) > 0 {
+		d.Set("vpc_zone_identifier", strings.Split(*g.VPCZoneIdentifier, ","))
+	} else {
+		d.Set("vpc_zone_identifier", []string{})
+	}
+
 	d.Set("protect_from_scale_in", g.NewInstancesProtectedFromScaleIn)
 
 	// If no termination polices are explicitly configured and the upstream state
diff --git a/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group_test.go b/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group_test.go
index 8a898f700fb..46609211540 100644
--- a/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group_test.go
+++ b/aws/resource_aws_autoscaling_group_test.go
@@ -837,6 +837,26 @@ func testAccCheckAWSALBTargetGroupHealthy(res *elbv2.TargetGroup) resource.TestC
 	}
 }
 
+func TestAccAWSAutoScalingGroup_classicVpcZoneIdentifier(t *testing.T) {
+	var group autoscaling.Group
+
+	resource.Test(t, resource.TestCase{
+		PreCheck:      func() { testAccPreCheck(t) },
+		IDRefreshName: "aws_autoscaling_group.test",
+		Providers:     testAccProviders,
+		CheckDestroy:  testAccCheckAWSAutoScalingGroupDestroy,
+		Steps: []resource.TestStep{
+			resource.TestStep{
+				Config: testAccAWSAutoScalingGroupConfig_classicVpcZoneIdentifier,
+				Check: resource.ComposeTestCheckFunc(
+					testAccCheckAWSAutoScalingGroupExists("aws_autoscaling_group.test", &group),
+					resource.TestCheckResourceAttr("aws_autoscaling_group.test", "vpc_zone_identifier.#", "0"),
+				),
+			},
+		},
+	})
+}
+
 const testAccAWSAutoScalingGroupConfig_autoGeneratedName = `
 resource "aws_launch_configuration" "foobar" {
   image_id = "ami-21f78e11"
@@ -1790,3 +1810,19 @@ resource "aws_autoscaling_group" "bar" {
 }
 `, name, name)
 }
+
+const testAccAWSAutoScalingGroupConfig_classicVpcZoneIdentifier = `
+resource "aws_autoscaling_group" "test" {
+  min_size = 0
+  max_size = 0
+
+  availability_zones   = ["us-west-2a"]
+  launch_configuration = "${aws_launch_configuration.test.name}"
+  vpc_zone_identifier  = []
+}
+
+resource "aws_launch_configuration" "test" {
+  image_id      = "ami-21f78e11"
+  instance_type = "t1.micro"
+}
+`