Thanks for the input guys I appreciate it and the welcome moon.
I think I'll split this up
Bob
Your right except for my bruises I felt wonderful after riding to work but my job is VERY physically and mentally demanding. I spend most of my day on my feet lifting steel. The stuff that I lift weighs anywhere from a few ounces to 125 LBS. The lighter the part the faster it runs and the faster I have to move. The fastest part I run takes 13 seconds which is like doing light aerobics and taking a math quiz at the same time for 8 to 12 hours a day. We don't have quotas we have "why the heck did it take that long for that job!" Which is based on no known measurable standard...sigh.
The bike is still in the back of my mind and with electric assist it would be much more viable. Also it would be a great thing for my health as you pointed but it wont fix my transportation problems completely. Also for the assist part of it I would probably have to scratch build something do to my weight of 285 (think lineman not couch potato) and the serious hills between work and home. If I did get it working then it would be excellent I could adjust my workout on the bike to what I believed I was going to face that day at work. The negatives are that I can buy a running Metro for the same price as a good assist and rain would really suck. Like I said it might be my fair-weather choice in the future and I thank you for reminding me to keep it on my list.
Moon
For some reason I never think of Toyota. I not down on any brand (okay maybe Yugo and I see hazing Camaro guys as a duty) but Toyota just never comes to mind. I checked the EPA on the stats and was impressed with the Echo. A quick local Craigslist search showed not a single one under $4000 in my area. Geo's run between $200 to $2000 around here many with the 1.0 5-speed so they are a more likely choice at this point. Also Metro parts are dirt cheap.
As far as my Honda it was a 1988 accord auto and I thought it was one of the most well designed cars I have ever seen. Okay it would have been more enjoyable as a 5-speed but the their use of space was excellent. For a car of that size it had amazing (to me) passenger and cargo space. I got the auto because my ex refused to drive a stick. She drove it 80,000(200,000 total) miles in 3 years and wore it out.
At that point we come to my problem with Hondas. Every time I told someone I needed Honda parts I could almost see dollar signs roll up into their eyes. Just a re-ring kit was $475 at the part store. For another $100 I can get a rebuild kit with better then factory stuff including new pistons for the 5.0 which has DOUBLE the number of cylinders. A guy at work got all excited when I told him about it and said "you can buy a whole used motor with low miles strait for Japan" So I looked into it yep I sure could for $2000 which was $750 less then I paid for the whole car. A couple weeks later the transmission lost overdrive and that was basically the end of the Honda. I got $275 out of it from the junk yard they probably grabbed a drivetrain form another for it and resold it.
Okay now for a question how well do 90's Saturns do on FE and reliability? Because there's a lot of them around here for cheap prices? cheers!-gw