[me and my metro]

I commute 60 miles a day. I have worked this job for the last 15 years. So I have had many commuter cars. I am a mechanic for a major electric utility and I have owned my home and property for 30 years. I am close to retirement so I am not moving.
I enjoy playing with cars but I don’t have time to work on a beater. If I can’t make it reliable I move on. I drove various Metros for about 8 years. My adventures were chronicled on Geometroforum during those years. It was good to drive a 40+ mpg vehicle during the $4+/gallon days. I had lots of fun with the Metros but they were getting tired and I was ready for a nicer ride.
I also towed the Metros behind my motorhome when vacationing.
So nicer car, good fuel economy and can flat tow behind my motorhome. My car dealer friend said come look at this Saturn LW300 he had just bought and it had towbar brackets. I had never paid attention to Saturns and didn’t know much about them. Research time.
Yes you can flat tow all Saturns and that was part of their sales pitch. So I bought the wagon and started driving it. I stopped by Roadmaster in Vancouver Washington and had them make and send the missing pieces to the towbar mounts on the front of my car. I then shopped for a used Stowmaster 5000 towbar and found a used one in Portland for a fraction of the new price. I can now tow my wagon behind my motorhome.
L300 Saturns get in the upper 20s mpg and this was a fair example of the car, it was a little rough but my first one.
I really wanted another stick shift since all the Metros were sticks. The L series Saturn was available with a stick but only with the 2.2L 4 cylinder not the V-6. So I started to look for a nice L200/5 speed car, I didn’t care if it was a wagon or a sedan. The stick shifts turned out to pretty rare. So I bought and repaired the engines on several L200/Automatics before I found my car. The towbar brackets bolt on so I could always tow whatever I drove back and forth to work.
I even bought a few just for parts, I bought a rollover for $100 just for the engine. In fact that is the engine I have been driving for the last three years in my stick shift car.
I learned a lot about the trim level options and what else uses the same parts as these cars. Saab was bought by GM back in the 90s so the 9-5 and the early 9-3 use the same basic chassis as this Saturn. The late 9-3 is an Epsilon chassis but uses the same 4 cylinder engine and transmissions as the L. The wheels fit so I have some nice 16” Saab wheels on my Saturn.
My stick shift car is the high line leather sunroof with almost all the options. I paid $400.00 for it with 200,000 miles and a bad engine. New clutch and after a couple years new struts , a little low and an alignment. I love it and it gets 30 mpg all day long. It is a medium sized sedan with a big trunk and it is quiet on the road. Lots of air bags, antilock brakes, traction control, ice cold A/C, nice leather.
My point is since you can work on it yourself and you seem to like Hondas, find one you can live with and give it a try. Hondas hold their value quite well so if you don’t like it move on until you find what Fits. Sorry I couldn’t resist.
Thanks for listening
Andy