1994 Geo Metro from North America - Comments

At 210,000 my windshield cracked,

At 220,000 my tire blew on I-95,

Needed oil pump

Car makes bad noise while shifting into reverse,

Dash has crack on it,

Seat belt doesn't work,

Air bags mysteriously went off when I hit the horn while driving,

Floor carpet is filthy,

Door panel is falling off,

Paint job is fading very badly,

Car shakes violently at 40 mph,

Dip stick is bent,

Door handle broke off while opening door,

Metal on car is very cheap and dents very easy, I did 31.1 seconds in the quarter mile with a top speed of 65 mph and 0-60 in 20 seconds, I found out the Metro has 50 horsepower, which explains my quarter mile time. Overall car gets decent gas mileage and takes a while to gain speed.

Once again, yet another review where the writer blasts the car for no proper reason. This car has a lot of miles on it and most of the faults would appear to be fair wear and tear.

Please, will people stop saying their cars are lemons purely because they have been driven the equivalent of to the moon and back (some several times) and are starting to wear out and/or because they have been badly maintained.

I believe that the word lemon should be reserved for cars that are unreliable or dangerous when new due too bad design and/or crappy workmanship (sorry, workpersonship).

What do you mean "Bad, bad car"? You bought it with 190K on it for heaven's sake. And you now have over 300K on it and it still gets you where you need to go. It sounds like you should be saying "good, good car"

Totally agree. Funniest review on this site was of the owner of some car that had 179,000 miles on it and he was complaining that the manufacturer wouldn't fix his car for free, 15 years after the car was produced.

The flipside of that is all the other posters, who seem to think cars never have any problems if you simply maintain them. Well, that's not true either, although it will lessen your overall repair bills.

Geo metro's aren't made to race at the track. It has a 1.3 liter 3 cylinder what do you expect, they're made for good gas mileage, getting groceries and picking up your kids from soccer practice.

#1 - "At 210,000 my windshield cracked," - every heard of rocks flying on the road before - my Mercedes had a cracked windshield and I replaced it.

#2 - "At 220,000 my tire blew on I-95," - a tire? that's the car's fault?

#3 - "Needed oil pump" - oil pumps, water pumps, fuel pumps, alternators - these will fail in EVERY car sooner or later.

#4 - "Car makes bad noise while shifting into reverse," - try pressing the clutch down all the way.

#5 - "Dash has crack on it," - don't park it in the sun... all dashboards will crack unless you put it in a garage or get a $5 cardboard sunshade.

#6 - "Seat belt doesn't work," - Geo's seat belts come from the exact same company and factory that make them for Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda.

#7 - "Air bags mysteriously went off when I hit the horn while driving," - has the car ever had a minor fender-bender with the front-end? if so, the sensor may have been damaged.

#8 - "Floor carpet is filthy," - clean it! or get floor mats! that's not the car's fault...it's the owner's fault.

#9 - "Door panel is falling off," was it falling off when you bought it, or have you damaged it? they don't fall off on their own.

#10 - "Paint job is fading very badly," - just like any var, you need to wash it once a month and wax it at least twice a year (before winter and before summer)

#11 - "Car shakes violently at 40 mph," - tires out of balance?

#12 - "Dip stick is bent," - straighten it! it's just a thin piece of metal.

#13 - "Door handle broke off while opening door," - please refer to #6 above - same factory.

Alright so I saw someone put "1.3 3 Cylinder?" but that's not right. The metro did have two motors. the 3 cyl is a 1.0L motor. The 4 cyl is the 1.3L which was avalible in the late 90's. As far as the car having 190000 miles, well as far as American cars go there not the best and a geo is a cheapy car. The thing is the car is so simple how hard could it be to fix? theres enough of them around and if you made 300000 that's amazing. but being a mechanic we got a toyota around with 320000. also I have a bmw 325i with 186000 and I beat the crap out of it and it's still quick and tight. Did your metro have a bad life, could be. but I wouldn't call it bad, to me bad means it leaves you stuck if you make it to where your going then it must not be that bad.

The Geo Metro is a highly dependable car.

MAINTENANCE: The key word in the reliability of ANY vehicle.

Suzuki did an outstanding job with this engine. The engine main caps are recessed into the block and the overhead valve arrangement allows the engine to pull well past its RPM redline of 6,500. Light weight and high-revving! SWEET.

"These cars weren't meant to be raced" - I disagree, I have a 1992 with 219,000 miles on it and the only major work I have done to it is replace the exhaust valves (116,000 miles ago). I run this car in street trim at a local circle track on Wednesday nights. It shows up Mustang GTs and Hondas with turbos each and every time it competes.

I also have a 1994 Ge Metro with 126,000 on it now. I do not baby these cars. But I do maintain them PROPERLY.

If I get a 1988 motor and try to swap that motor into a 96 Geo Metro, what kind of problems will I run into, or is it even possible?