Geo Metro Simply The Highest Mpg Car

Greetings To All Metro Owners And Enthusiasts. I Want The Whole World To Know That I Am Now A Proud New Owner Of An Old Metro.in The Past Year,i Have Watched Gas Prices Go Up Up Up,while My Bank Account Went Down Down Down.and Mouth Went Frown Frown Frown. I Talked To All My Buddies And All Anyone Had To Say Was If You Wanna Play You Gotta Pay.i Kept Asking What About A Metro? !!!! You Dont Want One Of Those,everyone Screamed.!!!everyone Knows They Are A Piece Of Junk!!! Well The Other Day After Filling Up At The Local Filling[bilking] Station, Blowing A Twenty And Not Even Getting A Half Tank At 3.09 Per Gal. I Gave In.i Decided I Am Trying This And Maybe I Need Some New Buddies. I Went Online To Fuel Economy Dot Gov. Seems The Xfi Model Gets 53/58.so I Bought The Closest One I Could Find For About 900bucks. I Must Say I Find This Car Great. Its Fun To Drive ,a Little Buzzy Maybe .but Not Underpowered. Not Quick Off The Line To Be Sure.but I Can Live With That For The Pleasure Of Watching Gas Gauge Almost Never Move. Oh Yeah Been Back To The Gas Sta. 5 Or 6 Times Now For Sodas Etc [its Hot].but After Driving 145 Miles I Still Have Not Reached The Three Quarter Full Mark Since My First Fill Up.wow!!! And A Question In Closing.if Gas Prices Are The Highest Ever,why Is The Highest Mpg Car Ever Made For Mass Production Out Of Production.? Granted The Aveo Is A Nice Little Car ,but It Cant Touch The Metro On Mileage. We All Need To Keep Our Metros Goin As Long As We Can.and Try To Get The Manfs To Produce Another True Gas Saver.i Love My Metro.

http://www.mc3.edu/it/fac/training_enter_key.JPG

heres what youre lookin for buddy....

well the epa on my 94 is 44/49

In reality it gets like 35-42 about. Even that is a lot more than i expected.

My metro... is basically just warehoused since I got my 95 protege. I just cant stand to drive it lol in comparison its a real chore. the epa on my protege is 31/39 so lets call it at least 10 mpg difference and i think the reality is even more the reason being is that the metro has such an effecient start up and warm up cycle. It crazy really. I drive a lot at its costing me a buck or two a day to drive this protege.... but its worth it lol. at least at the moment.

my friend had a xfi, im thinking it was a 90. it got worse gas mileage than my regular. Stay away from the xfi is what id tell you. many of the weight saving modifications to it cause it to be unreliable. It is unreliable in design Im telling you the short of it. It was made to be a mileage advertisement.

I will fix up its little problems and use it as my daily driver again. I mean its so cheap i cant discard it. I even installed a base plate so i can tow it with my camper van.

an aveo is a peice of horse crap. Ok, my protege gets better mileage than the aveo, i mean my 95 1.5 liter protege than a 2006 1.6 liter aveo. my 95 protege has more horsepower, and weighs less. Handles better, and has more interior room and a trunk even.
So um what does the aveo have going for it? Well it is small. it looks like it should get good gas mileage.... I mean that thing is a daewoo model so ancient and crappy the koreans refused to buy it. Its older tech than the daewoo llanos they discontinued off the us market like 6 yrs ago.
One thing as a geo metro owner, you get to look down on the other small cars like the ford aspire and daewoo llanos and old school accent kia rio etc which really are just peices of crap in comparison they have nothing going for them over the metro....

I just wanted to add that since around 2000 the only real vehicle that is like a metro is the honda insight.

Now that thing, it kicks all butt on a metro in every single way lol. Dont get me wrong. But not enough of them sold for you to find a whole lot on the used market ever. I mean Im thinking in 10 years, there wont be any metros on the used car market... and there wont be enough honda insights either.

Whats great about the metro in a way is that the blue book lists them as totally worthless. You can pick them up for next to nothing, like I got my 94 3 years ago perfect condition for $1200, you just picked up one for $900 etc.

I think they are getting harder to find and they will get impossible to find eventually.

I drive a 96 LSi. I work at a steel mill, where it seems most of the guys drive gigantic SUVs and dually pickup trucks. In the past they'd ask me did I remember to feed the hamsters, was it safe to drive an egg, etc. NOW, they ask me..."how many miles you get per gallon?" with envy in their eyes. When I say 38mpg, they look at their big trucks with such hate.....
Fill up (for instance) Late 90's Expedition.....$62.00 (according to my buddy)
Fill up my Metro...$22.00
Forty bucks in my pocket...priceless.
Bam
Oh yeah, I just got a set of tires for $120 at Wal Mart, Uniroyals at that. Wonder how much tires are gonna be for that big Ford Dually that parks beside me.......:eek:

I think around the time GM stopped making the metro (I believe the last model year was 2001) there was very little demand for fuel efficient cars. I think the reason for the lack of choice of fuel efficient/small cars is purely due to consumer demand and car manufacturers simply make and sell vehicles that sell. Now suddenly the gas price has gone up and people are looking to buy fuel efficient cars but the choices are limited. I decided to observe the ratio of large vehicles vs cars (not simply small/fuel efficient cars) around here in southern California about a couple of years ago and came to the conclusion that about 50 – 70% of vehicles are in fact not cars. I excluded vehicles such as buses, freight trucks and people driving trucks/SUVs obviously for business purposes such as contractors hauling their equipment and heavy machinery. Personally I do not understand why one person would choose to drive along in an large/oversized vehicle for regular commuting but I guess they have their reasons. Most people I know own and drive cars although some people with families do have minivans which I can understand. So really it is the consumer that has dictated the kinds of available cars and most people it would seem like to own and drive large vehicles.

If you have the money and are looking for a new car a hybrid may be a good choice although I’ve heard that the real performance is not as good as the official figures. Also diesel cars give good economy but the choice is very limited in the US market. I believe the latest HDi diesel engines from the Peugeot/Renault group using common rail fuel injection are very good but again you will not find them on the US market.

well of course suzuki is the manufacturer.

But Gm would be the one who decided not to sell it no doubt. Geo sold all the 1 liters and suzuki sold most of the 1.3 liters in the us. Im not sure why it was marketed that way but it was....

GM sold a daewoo car too, at the same time, pontiac le mans. but it was so inferior in every way...


I think... I think GM stopped marketing the metro because it had just bought out daewoo. Im not an industry insider but i studied the auto industry once.

Now, the daewoos didnt reach the market, but now they have. Ok some of the cars called suzuki now are made by daewoo. I dont think it was lack of sales although i dont think the things were a barn burner either.

Obviously they own these two asian market companies one totally now and one they have controlling interest in and they cant be competing with eachother.
So within the GM family of companies daewoo makees the smallest cars now for the world market. That is my best theory, its good dont you agree?

unfortunately they dont make things light enough and the engine tech is much worse in korea than japan, so you can get small cars but not like the metro in terms of light and gas mileage.

Yes, I must say your theory is good - as you say the metro is a suzuki really and they now do sell the Aveo or whatever (which I did happen to see recently and was not too impressed by how it looked - cannot comment on the performance). I guess my comments were general as to why there is not a huge selection of fuel efficient cars and as to the reasons why when people want them there are not many to be found. And to be honest the metro is not a particularly comfortable car to drive in in my experience - just bought it as a quick purchase and never got around to buying a better car and it has been so cheap to run and look after have never bothered since. Need to start thinking of a new car once it hits 100K (maybe hybrid? - still debating). Have driven much better, smaller cars when I lived in Europe.

I actually went looking for a replacement a year ago when my 86 sprint died, only to find the Metro's were no longer made (I was told 2002 was the last year). I took a look (admittedly a very short look) at the Aveo; Chevy claimed it was similar to a sprint but fuel milage was low 30's on the highway and my local dealer wanted 11K for one. I told him no thank you; rounded up a JDM engine for the Sprint and have now driven it for another 14K miles. Unfortunately the choice of fuel efficient cars is abyssmal in the US and I don't see it improving until fuel prices are at least 2X what they are now and even then it will change only if the manufacturers see someone successfully making a profit on "economy" cars. It will be interesting to see what reception the mercedes "smart cars" get; while not cheap they will likely be used as a barometer of whether or not people will pay for fuel mileage.

Yeah, pretty much my thoughts also. I have to say that as far as I'm aware the US has one of the cheapest gas prices - typically it costs 2 - 3X more in Europe and other places. As a result there has been consumer demand for small and more efficient cars in those places(also not to forget the much smaller and narrow roads - I have seen the most narrow roads in asia - places like Japan). The base price of a barrel of oil is pretty much constant but it is the government taxes that raise the cost of fuel in many places. Some countries claim it is a "green" tax to get people using public transport more - sounds nice - but it is all about making money at the end of the day. However, as I recently pointed out to someone the low cost of fuel here is offset by people driving oversized vehicles so at the end of the day the cost of running the vehicles is probably not significantly different (although we have choice here to decide what kind of vehicle to drive - cannot do much about the cost of the fuel).

most of the metros were made in canada by CAMI industries. suzuki still makes the 89-94 model metros but its only for sale in places like S america and africa. looks just like the old ones here and still running the 1.0 engine. saw a brand new one at a showroom in kenya. other than interior and streering wheel on wrong side it looks like my 94 metro.

Sort of like how they made the old style Volkswagen bugs in Mexico until recently. I am heartened by Suzuki still making the 1.0L for sale elsewhere in the world, that bodes well for spare parts availability.

most of the metros were made in canada by CAMI industries. suzuki still makes the 89-94 model metros but its only for sale in places like S america and africa. looks just like the old ones here and still running the 1.0 engine. saw a brand new one at a showroom in kenya. other than interior and streering wheel on wrong side it looks like my 94 metro.

I wont contradict you exactly.

suzuki/isuzu north america is in canada. BC I tihnk, vancouver or somewhere around there i think.

The main use of this plant is the samarai type vehicle. Ok now this is a vehicle assembly plant. There are no engines or transmissions or anything really being fabricated there. The samarai tracker vehicle is a way to market japanese size truck parts to north america. meaning the parts are for japanese market very small trucks north americans dont want, and transformed into a cute ute they might...

However rest assured that the main parts of a geo metro are made in japan, by suzuki. The 1 litre suzuki engine, it will say made in japan right on it. i have a strong strong feeling that the transmission is as well.

Now, because its assembled in NA the difference that means is that many parts that would normally be purchased from a japanese vendor are purcahsed from a NA vendor. such as brake parts possibly.

I have noticed in my 94, that most parts such as ignition clutch almost anything to do with under the hood are made by japanese companies such as ngk.


ps ive never heard of cami industries. do you think cami industries is an unknown motor manufacturer on the millions scale? Not very likely. Cami industries is a vehicle assembly plant. This is a set up like say a majority of hondas and toyotas sold in the us as well, I mean not just the ones built here but such as the civic

i mean, its a set up like gm and ford cars as well, it will show a contracted assembly plant on its purchase sticker such as blah blah coach industries michigan. It doesnt mean they fabricated the vehicle parts these are not car companies.

Here is a useful link on CAMI automotive

http://www.cami.ca/aboutCami/aboutCami.shtml

Reading another page on the website it would appear to be an bodywork and assembly plant so I also suspect the major components are made/machined in Japan. And as for the auto transmission - I don't even think it is a Suzuki product as it is also used in some Toyota cars also - I believe it is made by Asian Warner.

Hello, its good to know there are other Metro owners other than myself. Well I have a question, I just got into an accident and need new front and rear bumper covers; will the 1996 (4DR) bumper covers fit my 1998 LSI (4DR)?

ok yes its in ontario. Its exactly the plant im refering to. It also makes isuzu utes for the na market.

It is an assembly plant to transform asian market vehicles into na ones basically.

all the converts and swifts GT's are made in japan. most of the north america metros were assembled in canada. if you look on your door post tag it will say where it was made.

ok

well i believe being assembled in japan means something ok.

I mean what im trying to get to ok is that even if its assembled in canada its still a japanese car.

Its not a canadian made car. this is the point. I mean ok, theres the convertable and the regular metro. well they both use the 90% of the same parts but you just have more confidence in the japanese guy with the rivet gun than the canadian.

I do too. dont get me wrong

in some cases assembled in japan makes a big difference. in some cases it doesnt it really depends on the brand. The corrolla is assembled in the

us and its one of the most reliable vehicles in consumer reports....


my other vehicle is a mazda protege and it was assembled in japan. That means a lot to me. A honda civic of the same year is assembled in canada.

but... assembled in canada... its no big deal. its using a suzuki made engine a japanese market transmission radiator, denso fuel injection ngk distributer. I mean its almost all japanese. not to much canadian works its way in there maybe glass, vehicle wiring and lights possible something like the cv joints.....\\
what does assembled in canada mean to you why are you pointing it out?


It is not like the new bug which is MADE in mexico, or dodge trucks.

My '96 1.0 5-spd is a great little car (156k miles) for what we use it for.
Clearly not a comfy or quiet highway cruiser, but my OBD-II ScanGauge consistently reports 40+ mpg for combined city/hwy driving. Up to 49 hwy on many trips. Sure, my MPG suffers if I drive like an ass. IMHO, EPA stickers should include both careful- and assinine-driving numbers.

Car companies respond to consumer demand, but only as quickly as they can adapt or re-engineer a design to meet market conditions (e.g. as in responding to higher fuel prices). The rub, of course, is that they cannot make nearly as much money on a small car than on a large one (or for that matter on 'light trucks' masquerading as passenger vehicles), so their preference is not to build many/any small/efficient vehicles. Recently, it's become quite plainly obvious that they gambled and lost on predicting the trend of fuel prices.

The market in the EU is quite different, and arguably determined in its character by the cost of fuel. You can buy a mid-sized car that averages 35-40 mpg in mixed driving, but it's usually equipped with a 4-cyl turbo-diesel engine of 2.0 l or less. Arguably, the market is also quite different due to the overall better availability of mass-transit in the EU. When I lived in Germany about 10 years ago, a monthly public transit pass was HALF the cost of a 60 litre tank of gasoline. On some level, it's a matter of what the leadership in a society wishes to promote through no-brainer financial incentives.
The Europeans have a very different geography than we do, of course, so it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but there are many things we have yet to try here...

If I had to replace my Geo, I'd drive a smaller VW TDI, like the Lupo or Polo, but it isn't sold here. Golf TDI as a second choice.
Biodiesel being mixed into the national fuel supply at 5% by vol. in places like France makes sense. I read recently that were we to recycle all of our waste frying oil from the US food-industry and add it to our diesel fuel-supply, we could offset our need for petroleum diesel by 9%. That's not an insignificant number. Adding BD to petro diesel allows today's diesel engines to burn more cleanly, as a bonus, not to mention that we needn't send that extra hard currency to despots and monarchs in volatile regions.

Alas, my $500 Metro will have to do for now. Besides, I drive it only when it rains/snows/freezes and don't wish to bike to work, so I have reason to believe that she'll last quite a while longer.

Peace,
Mike

So here's an idea; change the rules so the EPA sticker shows the WORST mileage the vehicle achieves when it is totally thrashed by the driver under poor conditions (of course those would have to be defined....) then you might actually have a decent number to compare by. Unfortunately the US is a country with a relatively short history so we haven't had much of a chance to learn/relearn/learn/relearn from our mistakes; one in my area was that there was a light rail system that ran for ~40 miles across the local valley; it was created around the turn of the 20th century and was ripped out in the 1950's in the name of "progress". In the meantime I'll keep driving the most fuel efficient vehicle available for a reasonable price.

Yes, this is a good point about mileage numbers and when anyone comments on what mpg they get over other verhicles. Driving style as well as terrain differences will make a big difference so the comparison may not mean very much. Even weather can make a differnce - if you are driving into a stong headwind on the freeway, you will get worse figures tha on a calm day.