Front brakes at 90,000 miles.
Rear brakes at 100,000. Didn't really need to change the rear brakes yet, but I had bought the parts so it did them anyways.
Exhaust system from catalytic converter and back at 90,000.
Fan belt at 90,000, fairly easy to replace yourself.
Radiator at 125,000. Very easy to do yourself.
Heater fan now only works on last 2 settings. Car doesn't seem to have a resistor pack so the problem is probably the fan switch itself.
Started having rough idling at 130k which seems to be affecting gas mileage. Down to about 39 mpg. Haven't figured out this problem yet. Could be a simple tune up (I hope).
Great car. Very reliable. Great mileage (used to get between 48 and 52 mpg). Everything is easy to work on yourself.
Do a compression test, and pay close attention to the compression reading from the number 3 cylinder. I don't know if the problem was fixed my 96, but earlier G10 engines had a problem with the EGR system plugging up, thereby causing the valves in the number 3 combustion chamber to literally burn away, causing a rough idle, loss of power and fuel mileage. I had a 93 with a burnt valve, and I had the rough idle, low power and low fuel mileage. One good thing is that these engines are very simple to work on. An complete engine swap can be done in half a day, and swapping a cylinder head, which is what I suspect you might be in for, takes just a few hours. Shop around at some local junkyards, you're very likely to find a good cylinder head for your little Geo for peanuts. And obviously, if you do change the head, change the timing belt as well. Email me jason.bright@gmail.com if you'd like to talk more about this.
You have the identical twin sister of the Suzuki Swift! And Suzukis are awesome, reliable cars, of which I am a huge fan. Get that tune up! Get it taken care of and your car will last as long as you want it to. I just bought my 3rd Suzuki. First was on lease (shoulda just bought it, oh well). Crashed the second (but I'm alive and well! Even though I hit a tree at 40 mph due to black ice). I bought my 3rd Suzuki soon after. I will never buy anything else. All the non Suzuki cars I've owned (4) have had varying numbers of costly problems. The frequency varied, but they all did. The Suzukis? Most problems I ever had was one, and it was not the least bit costly. I love Suzukis.
It is in the switch believe me I've replaced mine twice since 1995, great car very reliable.
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