geo metro

[arcosine]

There is a 3 cyl 97 Geo Metro for sale on Craig's List. What gas mileage do metros get, say a steady highway speed 65 or 70 mph? What would the improvement be with a 4 cylinder transmission and a xfi cam with a belly and and other aero mods, no hypermilling? Do they drive like tin cans?

[MetroMPG]

Answers 2 of your questions. From: Project 'nerd gear': taller tranny transplant nets +5.2% MPG - MetroMPG.com

Green line = baseline. Orange = taller geared transmission. Some aero mods in place (no belly pan, but partial grille block, rear wheel skirts, passenger mirror delete)

EDIT: note, that is a fully warmed up car cruising on a nearly perfect, flat road with no other traffic around. In other words: test conditions, not results you could expect from a real world "trip" that used that cruising speed.

They are lightly built cars, but surprisingly durable.

[metromizer]

Originally Posted by arcosine

Do they drive like tin cans?

compared to what? step out of a newer leased Camry or Acura for instance, and into a Metro, and you will notice right away the road noise, lack of power, wind buffeting from trucks, etc. You have to remember they were designed to be basic transportation, with very few creature comforts.

[arcosine]

a Saturn or a CRX hf.

It looks like a straight line, so If I extrapolate I get MPG = 129 - 1.275 x MPH

So at 75 mph Blackfly will get 129 - 1.275*75= 33 mpg

[Daox]

I'd recommend just going and test driving one.