1996 Geo Metro review from North America

There are several things that have gone wrong with this car, but most of them minor and were fixed by myself. Headlights quit working other than in daytime running mode. The problem is an electrical contact at the fuse box. This can be fixed for about $15 with a visit to the junkyard assuming you can find one that didn't have this problem too. It will be apparent since you will see the burn marks in the plastic fust box at the contact. It takes about 1 hour to fix. The engine started burning oil at about 90,000 miles. I prolonged the life by using Restore engine additive. This stuff is one of the best inventions ever. Without it I would have lost 3 quarts of oil in about 2 days worth of driving. With it, it performs like a new engine. I had to replace the exhaust after 119,000 miles from the manifold just beyond the catalytic converter. $600 if you pay the muffer shop to do it or about $50 if you can steal the catalytic converter from the junk yard. It is illegal for you to buy it from them. The exhaust is relatively easy to replace. It will take you about 8 hours if it is rusted or about 2 hours if not. I had to replace the entire engine after 111,000 miles because I overheated it on a long road trip. It was probably something like a thermostat that could have been fixed cheap, but I was in the middle of Canada and could not get it fixed. I drove it overheated for about 300 miles before if finally would not start anymore. It was a very tough little engine. I could drive about 15 miles until it would seize up then I would have to pull over for a half an hour to let it cool off enough to start it again. I replaced the engine with a new one for $650 for the engine and another $900 for labor that included putting in a new clutch while they were at it. I had to replace the front brake pads at 90,000. I replaced them with lifetime gaurenteed pads and have not had a problem since. I did have to have the rotors resurfaced at 117,000 miles for about $60. I had a large resitor component fail under the hood at around 100,000 which didn't allow the car to start. The part is cheap about $30 but the labor for them to find the problem since it was electrical costed another $100. Gas gauge recently quit at 119,000. Overall, the problems are relatively cheap to fix and not to complex. Most of these problems are known to occur with most Geo Metros. I have spoke to other owners and they had the same things happen.

It is a very economical car. They are easy to work on and generally are not a lot of money to fix if you don't mind pulling parts at a junk yard and working on small problems yourself. Don't go to a dealer ever to buy parts or pay them to fix problems. They will rip you off. If they say it will be $800 to fix divide that price by 10 and that is how much you can really fix the problem for. This car has lots of space for how small it appears. Good visibility, and head and leg room. It can carry a very heavy load. I had about 1/4 of a ton of bricks with two people in it before and drove it 20 miles with this payload. The rear almost hit the road, but it held and did not damage it. Fairly resistent to rust other than around the underbody near the door runners. The engine will wear out before the body or structural components. The mileage has dropped from 46 new to 34 mpg. It may just need a tune up.