1994 Geo Metro 4-door from North America - Comments

Snapped timing belt-replaced.

Replaced rear wheel bearing twice

Replaced front half-axels

Replaced front brake rotors

Replaced head gasket

Replaced heater core.

It is a low performance car, but I don't drive it on a race track. I drive 50 miles each way to work and average about 45 miles/gallon. I'm an aggressive driver and have no mercy on the engine or chasis. The only time it's left me "high and dry" was when I "revved 'er to the moon" and snapped the timing belt... this was at 150,000 miles. The cool thing is I didn't destroy the valves or head. I simply installed a new timing belt and I was back in business; a 1 hour job. The other major problem was caused by a leaky heater core. The motor overheated and I blew the head gasket. I removed the head and, to my surprise, the valve seats were not cracked. I Installed a new gasket without resurfacing the head; a 4.5 hour job. The engine on these cars is bullet proof. I run it hard, I mean hard, and it doesn't smoke or lose oil between the 5000 mile interval oil changes. I do, however, wear out chasis and drive parts (Tires, brakes, wheel bearing), but I can accept that. I bought the thing for $1,500. I am money ahead on the little death-trap. I read on the internet somewhere, the reason GM stopped making these things is because they made them to efficient, there was no profit to them.

Let me see if I understand this: they made them too efficient so there was no profit in them? And this made sense to you?

Yeah, by no profit he meant that Metros don't break too often= no profit from selling parts. Got it?