Quote:
Originally Posted by Odin
what is the stock weight of your metro?
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My 4 door, 5 speed,without factory air 1991 Metro weighs 1690lbs and my 1992 2 door 3/auto (soon to be 5 speed) with air weighs 1643lbs. A/C adds around 20lbs as a Metro XFI weighs 1620lbs. This for a car that can seat 4 adults in reasonable discomfort. There are very few 4 seat cars you can buy in the US from the last 25 years that come close to being this light. Even the Smart Fortwo weighs more. In fact, only the Metro's predecessor-the Chevy Sprint- is lighter (well...maybe the Zastava Yugo GV and Kia Pride/Ford Festiva too.... I haven't really looked). The 95+ Metro/Swift is a heavier car but about the same size. It gives up a little in terms of fuel economy but is built to be a much safer car (it even has dual airbags). Insurance prices will bear this out too in that early Metros are more expensive to insure than later ones. I think the late Metro is around 1800 lbs for a 3 cyl/5 speed hatch. Even still, an accident in a Metro is bound to be ugly so driving one requires you to be attentive to your surroundings in order to be safe. This is true of other cars but most of them are more forgiving in a collision. I would also warn you that no 3 cylinder Metro or Sprint was available with power steering. The manual rack it has isn't too bad except if you need to do a lot of low speed maneuvering such as parking or turning around in neighborhoods. I do it 15-20 times a night and it gets tiring at times. Also, once you drive a Metro for a while, every other car you drive will seem like a land yacht. My friend's Civic SI feels like a Cadillac to me every time I drive it!
So....would I recommend a Metro? Yes! The fuel economy is great and it really is all the car one person needs for most things. I hypermile all night long and do not fear for my safety but then I am reading traffic 30 seconds ahead of me too. Part of hypermiling is distance planning of your actions rather than constantly reacting which makes it a fairly safe form of driving. If you do not plan to do this then you are better off in a larger car-like a 95-99 1.6 liter/ 5 speed Nissan Sentra/200SX. They can still get 50+ on the highway but are safer in a crash at high speeds than the unforgiving Metro.
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(Note: the car sees 100% city driving and is EPA rated at 37 mpg city)