Geo Metros

[djk27262]

I have to get something more economical and have looked at a couple of Geo Metros. Any input?

[conundrum]

I keep three of these going for friends here in the valley. Tough little car, but be aware that #1 exhaust valve seems to go first. They are a piece of cake to work on, generally. The door locks/ignition locks are weak-most have broken keys but still work.
People never seem to change the fuel filter. The pcv valve, such as it is, is sort of hidden on top of the intake manifold and is subject to plugging up-simple to remove and clean. The seal on the distributor shaft(o ring) hardens and leaks oil into the distributor-no biggie-hardware or auto parts for replacement.
Timing is critical on these things. Be aware that they have used two different timing belts-one with rounded teeth, and one with square cut teeth. Just make sure which one you have before you buy one.
The fuel pressure regulator can be a bugger on injected cars, but not the end of life as we know it.
It appears that you can get away with grinding/replacing the valves twice before the piston rings let go. Don't buy a full head gasket set-you will get shafted on price. Buy a bare head gasket, valve stem seals, and intake gasket-the rest you probably don't need, or can peck out of some gasket material. In a way they sort of remind me of the old Renault Dauphines-guess I am showing my age!

[tufhelp]

Conundrum said: "In a way they sort of remind me of the old Renault Dauphines-guess I am showing my age!"

Not at all!

Do you also remember they were pronounced Re-nalts not the current PC Re-know with the requisite snooty French intonation? The advertisements back then even annunciated them as Re-nalts... ::)

[Naughty_Pines]

I owned a Geo Metro, great little car.
Drove it on vacation one year, L.A. to Seattle to Wyoming back to L. A. First hour on the fwy there was a Honda Civic thought he was fast. We passed each other several times. Last time I passed him was at 85 mph. Not bad for a 3 cylinder "throw away" car.
Got 58 mpg in Wyoming on highway @ 65 mph. ;D

[conundrum]

Yes, tufhelp, I remember the pronunciation! I was always amazed by the seats in the R8thruR16 models-for an econo car they were incredibly comfortable.
The Metro is a darned tough little vehicle if given any kind of care at all. There are shortcomings, as with any rig, but an impressive package overall. The three I deal with are all stick shift-haven't been around an automatic, although there is a mangled one around here I get parts from once in a while. One of my "flock" was apparently driven by a moron as the synchros are all gone, but the current owner is learning the art of double clutching!
There are a few places that are selling "takeout" engines/and or transmissions at a sort of fair price.

[jlmissouri]

I thought about buying one for awhile, I decided to give the Festiva's a try instead. I have noticed a lot of the Metros that have had the suspension on the front rust out, and break away from the body. I have had the same problem with my VW Rabbits. Two of them so far. I would take a close look at them, and try to get a rust free one. I have seen six locally that have had this problem. It is not a fun problem. I don't know if the Festiva's are also prone to this or not.

[jgelt]

I have a 95 that was my primary work car. I've beat the hell out of it and it keeps running.

The susuki swfit uses the same parts. So tons of used parts are available for them out there.

I just moved to Missouri, but had mine in Colorado for 10 years. I had a job where I had to go out no matter what. When the 4WD's were wrapped around light poles and sitting on the sidewalks, my GEO was still on the road. The engine sits in a perfect spot over the front axel to give it fantastic traction. Obviously that's only good until the snow gets too deep!

I rode it hard. 35,000 miles a year of city driving. I ate a transmission. However, there's an oddity with the Japanese. Apparently they are not allowed to drive a car more than 40,000 miles (or so I was told). There are importers who bring in these transmisions and sell them here. So when mine puked, I got a transmission with 40K miles to replace it. Here's the fun part, less than $1000 for the transmission, installed by a good mechanic.

The two short comings I can see. First the clutch on the manual transmission seems to be a bit small for what it needs to do. You may go through these, then again, I put lot's of wear and tear on mine.

Second. You have to not mind that you aren't going to live through an accident. I used to joke with passengers that the seatbelt was there to modify the final disposition of the corpse.

[turboRC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_Metro