Geo Metro?

timsalas · #1 05-10-2008, 03:43 AM

Im thinkin about moving about 20-30 miles away from work... cuz thats where I can afford a house and not a tiny cramped condo.. anyways.. For work commute purposes, I was thinkin about gettin' a Metro.. Anyone know is those are easy to work on? And gas mialage? Parts prices etc?

This is something Im planning **IF** i get a home a distance from work.. lol
-tim

wvjefo · #2 05-10-2008, 08:58 AM

NO NOT A METRO. A ricer for the commute is a good idea. But NOT a Metro. Hyundai, Honda, Only American small I would buy is Ford Focus or the older Escort.

Jeff

timsalas · #3 05-10-2008, 09:16 AM

Why not metro? just curious... trying to weigh my options ;-)

hometheaterman · #4 05-10-2008, 09:50 AM

My buddy used to have one he put rims, exhaust, stereo with 2 15" subs in the back and later 2 10" JL w3s, homeade intake, and some other little things. It was a 5 speed. It actually ran really well for a Geo Metro. He then ended up painting it primer black. Put a clutch in it and drove it's wheels off. It did seem to break fairly often like I think it needed wheel bearings when he sold it but what do you expect for a car you can get for $500 or so. It was actually pretty quick for a Geo Metro. I think he wishes he had it back. He said he got either 50 or 60mpg I forgot which. It didn't seem like it was easy to work on it was one of the Suzuki motors that just seem to be a crappy design and a pita to work on. He said the same thing and I think it might have been one of the reasons he wanted to get rid of it. At the same time it was super cheap and just a decent car. If I had of known he wasgoing to sell it I would have bought it. Esepcially since it had 2 10" JLs with it that he paid $440 for a couple months earlier he sold the whole car with them for $500 with a fairly new tach that was $120 and quite a few other things I could have easily sold and gotten more than the car was worth and still had a cheap car thats good on gas to drive around.

wvjefo · #5 05-10-2008, 02:26 PM

Metro are not a very good ride. Every one I have heard were breaking and hard to fix. And they are ugly.

Jeff

1BigRamaniac · #6 05-10-2008, 06:56 PM

The ugliest car I ever saw passed me on Thursday. It was a white Metro with a young chick driving it. The hatchbacks are not as bad as the sedan looking ones.

Have you thought about a VW Diesel? I hear the newer ones are good cars, the older ones suck eggs. Not the engines, the dual mass flywheels, door handles,and auto transmissions. TDIforum.com is the ultimate website for this. Some of these guys are getting 700 miles on a tank! I spent days there looking into it.

jason.w · #7 05-10-2008, 07:51 PM

Another option to look at is a 2001-2002 or so Kia Rio. My wife had one before we got married (her first car) and that was the most reliable little car I've ever seen. Only thing that ever went wrong with it was a thermostat going out once.

If you find one thats been taken care of with somewhat low miles (under 100,000), they've got decent get up and go out of that little 1.5L DOHC I4, and it never dropped below 30 mpg. Most of the time, without bad winds, it'd get mid 30s to low 40s. One time, on a long trip to Rochester MN from where I'm at, we had a wind actually helping us for once, pushing us. It got 46 mpg.

You can't find them as cheap as a Geo Metro, but for a few thousand, they are excellent little cars.

EDIT: And those MPGs were mostly at 75+ mph, BTW.

greg_glider · #8 05-10-2008, 10:52 PM

Sorry Jason, but I wouldn't recommend any Kia as their quality is not the best as I hear, and their resale value is horrible. I also definetly would not support a reverse engineering car also. I have heard that they stole a bunch of quality control pointers from Toyota a few years back, something that costs a lot of money for any company to figure out over years of building cars.

Go for an older Japanese car, they are very reilable, and should give you good fuel mileage. The newer ones, like the newer civics are not as good as they use to be.

Just my 2cents!

XXL 1500 · #9 05-10-2008, 11:04 PM

go for the Geo!
I have one and its decent for communiting to and from work.
paid $100 for it, and it gets 40-45 or so MPG.
has a slight rod knock, and very easy to work on.

cheap parts, a set of rod bearings for it are $10-12
i love it.
you get what you pay for really.
mine has about 148,000 miles and runs fine, have driven it about 5000 miles so far without a
problem. - its a 5 speed.

now the same car with the Automatic.... are horrible.
transmissions are common to go bad in the A/T.

XXL 1500 · #10 05-10-2008, 11:11 PM

wtf??? hard to work on???
dont justify on something you dont own.
I own one and love the way its set up.
Very easy to work on.
engine is removed with like 6 bolts.
timing belt is crank, tensioner, cam.
water pump is seperate from timing belt.
parts are easy to find in your local junkyard.
If you take care of it like i have done so to mine, it will
last a good while.

i drive mine an average of 70-75MPH on interstate at least 3 times a week to VaBeach - about 20-30 miles each way.
uses some oil, but its all good.
i use it as a utility vehicle, i seriously currently have about 30 gallons of Used vegatable oil in the backseat behind the passenger seat in a barrel.
its an ugly car, but it does me good and saves me money, and i love the POS.
use it as a field car often also.
cant beat it for $100.