(I had to start this as a new thread, considering I spent time typing this out. But this topic has bothered me for months!)

All this talk about Smart Car's, and Toyota IQ's really gets my goat. All of sudden everyone is looking for a small, economical, fun to drive car. Let me tell you that type of vehicle has been here before. Before I bought "Nugget" I was the proud owner of a 98" Chevy Metro (Formerly Geo Metro). Brand new they sold for 10-11K, (I paid 7K for mine with 6,000 miles on it!) and they beat the Smart and IQ hands down. The 3 Cylinder, 5 speed manual transmission gave me 45 MPG around town, with a pretty good acceleration rate. I cruised at 75 MPH, no problem, and at that speed I consistently got 50 MPG on the highway. The ride compared to my Dodge Stratus, and it was as fun to drive and easy to park as my Mini. I had 127K on mine and it had never been in the shop for ANYTHING! In April 2007 I had to let her go when I was rear ended by a 92 POS pickup truck. The Metro took a direct hit at about 60 MPH and was totaled. I walked away. (The 16 year old that was driving was on her cell-phone and changing a CD!)

What happened to the Metro's?

My theory about why they went away revolves around the Hybrids. Why would someone pay 22-25K for a hybrid that gets 40 MPG, when you could have bought a Metro for 10-11K and got better gas mileage! When the hybrids first came out, the claim was 70 MPG, boy that sure dropped fast. Must have been a performance issue! I think Chevy/Geo was forced to quit making them to make room for Hybrid buyers. What a loss!

Anyway, I love Nugget, even if he does have a CVT. (Which kicks butt!) I'll pass on the Smart For Two, and wait for the Metro to come back!

Any former Metro owners here?

I hate to admit it but my first car was a Geo Metro Lsi....my parents gave it to me (was theirs) for my graduation from high school. I didn't really mind that car but after driving it for about two years I traded it for a Civic.

The reason they went away was the SUV. The US automakers never made much profit from those cars so when the SUV's started getting popular the dropped their small cars to make a bigger buck. And here we are 12 years later and the Japanese and Korean automakers have taken over that market and the US automakers are trying to figure out how to get back in!

Can't say I was as enamored with it as you though...

New thread, same reply:

The Honda Insight can get 70 MPG or more if driven right. There is a huge reason why many would rather have a Prius, (45 MPG average in real world city/hi-way driving), than a Geo Metro. The Prius is as big on the inside as a Camry, it's comfortable, available with all kinds of neat options, it's quiet, (even extremely quiet in town on electric only). Up until recently a big tax credit was available to buyers. The batteries are protected by a long warranty. The little dashboard display is neat and encourages trying to maximize mpg. It's a car that should not shock someone used to the luxury and comfort of a modern mid-priced vehicle.

The Geo was basic transportation.

My guess is they quit making the Geo because there was a lot more profit in SUVs, and they were selling SUVs as fast as they could make them.

I had a 1991 (or 2) Geo Metro 4-door, hatch that I bought in '95 with 7,000 miles for about $5500. It was a great, basic car especially because of great mileage. The 3 cylinder did have enough in it and my sister and I shared it in Washington, DC for many years. We finally got rid of it (had to donate it to charity because it needed major work) in 2002.

My MINI doesn't remind me of it at all though.

I'd guess that safety regulations had a large part to play in it also- making that little thing meet the public's requirements for safety would add lots of weight and complexity...

My family was friends with a local insurance agent, and when we started driving they made us promise two things:

1. Don't drive pizza delivery
2. Don't drive a Geo Metro

Apparently they knew too many people with serious injuries from accidents in the Metro.

I hear the life expectancy of a pizza deliveryman in a Metro is 20 minutes.

Oh That's funny! I can understand the profit motive behind the SUV craze. I guess I'm a gas mileage fanatic as much as anything. What I really liked about the Metro was the reliability. Maybe I was one in a 100,000 but my Metro was NEVER in the shop for anything other than tires and a muffler. 127,000 miles and she'd still be running today. My Metro had tons for room for a small car, probably 2-2.5 times as much as the Mini with the back seats down.

I could never compare the Metro to a Mini, no way, the Mini is much more fun to drive, especially when I kick it into Sport Drive and leave 'em staring with their mouths open.

Now, lets compare the Metro with a Smart-4-Two, or an IQ. Put 2 more air-bags in the Metro and I'll take it. You know what's really wild....all the SUV's with FOR SALE signs on them on the road I drive...and the number of Metros I've counted on the road lately.

Let gas hit $4 a gallon and people will be screaming for basic transportation that gets 45 MPG. ...nuff said.

my least favorite internet phrase! "nuf said"......

The geo brand was one of GMs first efforts at world cars, and it din't do too well. But what it comes down to is the public didn't want to buy it. Maybe it was ignorance, maybe was the need for more room, whatever. I rented one in Hawaii, nice basic ride but a bit gutless up the hills.

Matt

Part of the reason it did not sell was cheep gas. We are all forgetting when they did away with many of these small cars was when gas was cheep, I even remember getting gas at $.76 a gallon in 97 or 98. Everyone wanted an SUV because the gas cost was not important.

Maybe this time around we will learn a lesson and get rid of some of the gas hogs.

Also, I have always liked small cars even if they don't have great HP. Metro's could be fun, as well as MGB's, Fiat 124s, early Civics, etc.

and driving today I saw a Metro convertable. I wanted to buy one in grad school, but my girlfriend said that if I did, no more sex! Maybe everyone was just seeing her!

Matt

I too had an 89 metro in '95 because I was commuting 72 miles one way to work for about two years (I didn't want to move out of my parents!) I spent a lot of time in that car and if you remember sitting in the drivers seat and leaning to the left a little you could see that the door was about an inch think including the plastic inside trim all the way down. That scared the heck out of me. My metro days came to an end when the unibody (although the car looked great) became so rusty that lower a arm detached from the car at about 60 mph. This caused me to make some cool sparks along the guard rail, tunnel wall, and the road.

I had a Geo Metro rental once. I beat the crap out of it, I think the new tires where near bald when I returned it, they didn't notice.

I had the Metro's sporty relative, a 1991 Suzuki Swift GT (GTi before VW made them change it) back in college for 2 years before it got totalled when I got rear ended at 35 mph. I think MSRP was about $9500. It was a DOHC 16 valve 1.3 liter with 100 hp (or nearly twice what the Metro had), and weighed about 1900 lbs. Did 0-60 in the 8-9 second range and 1/4 mile in the 16-17 second range. Kind of like a base Cooper in terms of performance, I suppose.

Handled well and rode well (full independent suspension), surprised people with how quick it was (back then), had sporty seats, a standard Kenwood stereo, got good mileage, and was a good "stealth" car for not attracting police attention since it basically looked like a Metro with ground effects...

It got 29/36 mpg EPA, and I routinely averaged 33mpg+, despite nearly constant full throttle acceleration at every opportunity. I liked it, and had considered getting a used one for a daily driver a few years ago, but couldn't find any that hadn't been driven into the ground...

I certainly don't miss it, but I remember it fondly.

The predecessor to the Geo Metro, which was not fun to drive in my opinion, was the Honda CRX. It’s much closer to a Mini than a Metro ever was. On top of that, if you got the HF, you could match a Metro in gas mileage.

Actually, being an owner of the 1st generation CRX has caused me to look into getting a Mini. Honda seems to have forgotten the CRX crowd (though the rumor of the CR-Z keeps me hopeful). All told I like the classic styling of the Mini and I tend to keep my cars a long time.

For the record, my 87 CRX Si is a toy car now and gets stored in the winters and only comes out when it’s sunny…though $4.00 a gallon gas prices predicted this summer may mean it gets driven all spring/summer/fall (still can’t do snow/salt).

I drove an 86 Honda CRX that consistently returned 45 MPG and sounded as quiet at a mouse at idle. I am more than a little disappointed that the industry slaps a hybrid sticker on a car that barely gets what I was getting from what was considered an econobox.

I have to agree to this! I had a '90 Suzuki GTi. For a 10,500 car, it was a blast. My worst problem with it was keeping tires on it and still getting 30mpg. The tire issue probably had something about living in an area with great mountain roads.

I do miss it some and remember it fondly.

My best friend in high school had a Metro. She wanted the turquoise color but got the yellow because it was all she could find locally used. She tweaked that car out, for as far as a 17 year old girl could do or care to do - nice wheels, tint... That was 15 years ago and I haven't seen her in probably 3 or 4 years. I wonder if she still has it. It was her "dream car".

The first car accident I was ever in (age 17) was versus a Metro. A little old lady in a red Metro made a left turn opposite me against the light. I was going maybe 40 in a 55 (the light had just changed on my approach) and I NAILED her broadside in my Sunbird convertible. I remember I always thought that Sunbird was a little piece of junk (and really, it was) but man, compared to the Metro it was like a tank. I thought I'd killed the lady, who had no seatbelt on and ended up thrown over the steering wheel. When the cops handed her the citation for running the light at the hospital later, she ripped off her oxygen and left.

That's about all I have to offer...I can see how someone who truly loved their Metro could be drawn to the MINI...but the MINI is more solid and the new hybrids are too. Not saying the Metro wasn't safe, but I had a Cavalier before my MINI (basically the next step up from the Metro) and the Cavalier felt like a tin can compared to the MINI.

I agree. The CRX back in the day was an econobox, but it was definitely fun to drive too. It actually outhandled a Lotus years ago according to one of the car magazines (Car and Driver I think). They're great little grocery getters with some umph.

The reason we have the Hybrid issue is because of all the saftey features. I read somewhere that if you eliminated all the safety items from the cars today you'd eliminate 800+ lbs. How much better would the fuel economy be if we hacked that much weight off a Mini? Do we want tanks or fuel economy? Hey, just put in a roll cage, safety harness and wear a helmet.

Ok......who's gonna own up to this!!

I had a 99 Chevy Metro. It was a great car. Very basic, but pretty much indestructible. I enjoyed having it although it was a POS compared to the MINI. They're just in 2 different leagues that really can't be compared.

I'd still drive a Metro, nothing wrong with it. Like the original poster said, it rides pretty well, and with the 5 speed, it goes pretty well up to about 80-85.

The only real complaint I had about the car was that the tires SUCKED for wet traction. They were skinny and because of this the car didn't handle very sporty. In fact it was not at all sporty. I had to change tires on the car a couple of times though and I could get tires locally for $25 a piece.
45mpg consistently and $150 for tires installed. Who can complain about that?

I love seeing the new chevy aveo's which are basically a modern metro, they're ugly enough on their own and then people go and put adhesive hood scoops and side vents on them w/ big chevy stickers in the back window. I find it hilarious.

so, if you had a metro, owned a mini, would you go back to the metro? I think i know the answer, metros just seem like they have no *****.

and hybrids are not worth it.

that should be MINIs new ad campaign: got *****?

then again, mine only has one after the operation

a friend had a metro / sprint way back when. I think he put almost 300k on it following the grateful dead around the country.

It was the most basic of basic transportation, and did get good mileage.

the crazy thing is, the new aveo doesn't get that great mileage. considering what that car SHOULD be, the mileage is aweful.

true story: my younger brother had an Aveo rental car for a couple weeks while his car was being serviced. After that experience, he was on a business trip recently where they intended to give him an Aveo as a rental. He paid for the upgrade himself so he wouldn't have to drive it.


regarding the swift gt: great autocross car.

The metro wasn't bad. I would drive one again. I wouldn't seek one out, but I wouldn't mind driving one if the need was there. The biggest difference in the MINI and the Metro is that you drive a Metro because you NEED something to drive that's cheap. You drive the MINI because you WANT something to drive that's FUN!

1996 Geo Metro Lsi. I got 1k out of it as a trade in for the 2003 MCS.