WELCOME TO MY GEO METRO INFO PAGE
Let me start by saying thank you for visiting
Have question ask me please, I'm still building this page and know there is much more to put on it. Email is watercatwn6535nd@yahoo.com
What I like about Geo's are they sell themselves. I simply make old cars ready for a new life. I am always amazed when I put one up on Craig's list and they sell within that hour. My personal best is 6 minutes but I cant wait to see what happens when gas is $5.00 a gallon. I don't want to save the planet I just don't want to leave it worse than I received it. Going to a GEO will drop your carbon foot print farther than anything. Especially a new hybrid. I always get better mpg than a hybrid Toyota in my Geo. To think there almost $50k dollars and the Chevy volt is about the same by the way. What are they thinking when they had better mileage in Geo's 25 years ago.
My hobby is buying and restoring Geo metro's. If your here I assume that your looking for a commuter car that is inexpensive to maintain and drive. I have been a Geo fan/owner since the beginning back when they were called Chevy sprints here in the USA market. I like to call the Geo the V. W. Beetle of this century.
Let me give you a bit of info on the Geo metro, firefly, Chevy sprint, Suzuki swift and a host of other names it was sold under. The version up to 1988 was commonly referred to as the sprint model. It was contracted to be built through the Suzuki corp for Chevy. The sprint is a very primitive drive train with virtually no chassis adjustment and rubber grommets on the front end links. Actually just like your standard riding lawn mower. It was built very light. The Sprint was not efficient in any means as far as design went but very light in weight. It was common to get as much as 40 mpg if you did 50 mph on the free way and on long trips even more. Not to shabby at all but after 150,000 miles the chassis was worn out and the engine and trans axle were close behind. Fuel was cheap and most were scrapped or recycled.
With the onset of the SUV GM was having a issue meeting the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standard. All manufactures are required to have average fuel economy based on all cars sold for the year. So if you need to meet say 28 mpg and you sell Suburbans and Escalades you hire in a small car builder like Suzuki Motor Cycle Corp to build a super fuel efficient car that you can sell for very little and allows you to sell more SUV that have a much higher profit margin. Hence the reason SUV's are never on sale at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year when they can start to calculate the CAFE numbers they start in selling good fuel economy cars for almost no profit so they don't get giant fines. Got to love how the corporate monsters are looking out for us.
So in 1989 Chevy and Ford sales were so good (MPG WERE SO BAD) for suv's they both took on new partners. Chevy developed a brand name of Geo and Ford bought reinvested? in the YUGO factory and retooled the Yugo as the Festiva. So the Festiva was a horrible car because it was a Yugo and FORD creation. You know the rest of that story.
Now the Geo name was only a name Suzuki was in control of the car and its world wide distribution. As with the Chevy sprint GM had put there trade mark cheapness all over it and Suzuki simply through the whole design out and started over.
In 1989 they delivered a modern uni body chassis with standard A-arm suspension independent rear suspension over head cam engine developed from a Suzuki race bike with fuel injection. Lots of options plus in Asia they had a all wheel drive turbo model. You now get a 4 door car of high quality that got up to 50mpg.
Then they did what was amazing for a manufacture they simply built those car's with almost no changes for about 5 or 6 year period. In 1995 they were forced to upgrade the chassis just as all manufactures had to for that year. But it meant a wider car and taller car and the addition of a large sum of weight in the process. Driving the 1995 car you would not really notice the difference except at the gas pump you have lost about 5mpg at best.
I read with all the changes crash safety tests were virtually the same and with this mistake on Geo's part they had dropped down into Honda civic fuel economy range and simply put the civic just had a better name I have had several civics of that era and cant say they drive any different but would you want a Honda or (Chevy Geo) Suzuki for the same MPG. With that said sales fell off dramatically and GM virtually was in a tale slide at that point that we can all look back on and see. These are 1995 plus cars. I do have 3 project vehicle's I am working on with modified engines that are getting 50 mpg consistently and running right through the emissions test. Soon I'll start offering these up when I have seen them run through 30k miles and have no EGR issues other than the normal EGR track cleaning. There being driven daily so will be there in no time at all.
Interestingly enough Suzuki sells cars around the world were GM was not a big power house and a Suzuki by all standards was a big car in Asia and had great following in Canada as well.
Nice to know how the sausage is made every once in a while.
Now to what your looking for and why. First off no one looks at Geo's unless they are trying to save the very most money at the pump. For reasons explained above I only buy 1989 to 1994 Geo metro's auto or sticks they both get great mileage.
If you have had a Geo before you'll realize that all my little tricks and fixes would have been exactly what yours needed to keep it on the road. The fact is I just know these cars inside and out and may have most of the part numbers memorized. I should say this is not my full time job and it just pays for my other hobby's.
I enjoy it and I know that you will enjoy any car I have gone through be it your Boeing commuter or the car you pack up to send your daughter to college with. I do excellent work and the car is very well designed and does its job better than most.
I also offer some options if you want them. I hate/dislike being asked how far it will go before it breaks or if its a good car, safe car, or what it will get for mileage etc. In-fact I do not talk about mileage in cars for sale at all. I will tell you what I have seen other cars get but until you drive your Geo we wont know and driving habits are as much as 25 mpg with out a question. Example your 40 mpg Geo I can probably get 60 mpg by driving technique. Rule of thumb you should be able to go to the next 60k mile service with out much or anything but oil changes and gas.
FYI Manual transmission Geo's get 40 mpg 400 miles to a tank average and at 50mph 500 miles to a tank. If you really like to try hard 65 mph 65 mpg 650 miles per tank if you follow these pages. http://ecomodder.com/forum/fuel-economy-mpg-modifications.php Automatics get there best mileage in city driving and short commutes. Free way driving is usually 30 mpg to 35 mpg at best. But city driving can be as good as a manual Geo which makes the automatic so much nicer to drive in town. If you drive a automatic on the freeway note that they were built the speed limit was 55mph so do that to get the best mileage. Small hint to help auto's get better freeway mileage is go buy a set of 14 or 15 inch rims and have the tallest tire that will fit installed. Then on the rear struts go to the bottom clamp and loosen it up and shove the strut up as far as possible and re tightened. You may have to grind a nub off the strut so it will slide. This will raise the rear ride height and if tires will rub it will be on the rear and in the front on tight turns usually traveling into or out of a drive way. the font can be raised as well its just more work. But if you can get 30% bigger tires on it you will travel 30% farther for about the same gas your burning now. Sticks love this stuff too and you'll find this trick and many others at the eco modder link above. I know consumer reports has the cars getting much better mileage than i put up here. But these are numbers I see on a regular basis, honestly most people are awful drivers and need lessons. I personally have been taking lessons on hyper driving and just that got me 15 mpg more and there are some people out there getting as much as 89 plus mpg in a stock Geo. Read up on it and take it all with a grain of salt.
Either way the Geo's get great mileage just make sure you research them so you get the one that will work for you.
Geo Jeff