Has anyone here gotten into a crash with a Geo Metro or some other fuel efficient car?
 

I am asking this because I am considering getting a metro as my first car and I would like to hear first hand accounts of what the safety is like. Stories of crashes with other cars from late 90s or early 2000s also allowed.

Safer than a motorcycle?

That's about it. :) It's a safety third situation.

Look for a Metro parked next to an F-250. You'll see a big part of it.

My niece in her little Ford wagon head-on-ed a Metro on a 2-lane curve. One of them didn't survive. It was after that I went out and bought one.

My father was in several situations where someone crashed into his motorcycle, does that count?

My Comutacar had both crash bumpers demolished was junked then pulled from the yard and rebuilt

I’ve hit a deer with my old Insight

When I was a toddler in the back of my parents like new Renault my father was in a left turn lane waiting to turn and a woman in a big truck swerved to rear end him demolishing the car, cop blamed the accident on my father even though the woman admitted to being in a rage about something at work and smacking us, witness also argued with the cop.

My Cobalt was parked in my driveway and some guy backed a long trailer in our driveway early and apparently smushed my rear fender then left, great way to be greeted in the morning

I can likely think of others if you give me enough time

A 95 and newer Metro is safer than an earlier one. They added side impact beams in the doors and 2 front airbags.

It's probably safer than many late 80's / early 90's econoboxes.

As a vote in favor of the later model Metro...

We (our family of four) had an accident earlier this year on the interstate in our green 2000 model. The interstate we were on (I-81 in VA) is two lanes in each direction, with a median in between.

We were driving along at 60 MPH in a 60 MPH speed limit zone, in the right-hand lane, when a tractor-trailer comes up from behind in the left hand lane and starts moving over into our lane (he apparently didn't see us or wasn't looking). When he clipped our rear bumper it rotated our car sideways(!), perpendicular to the flow of traffic, and we ended up with the driver's side of the car resting against the truck's grill/bumper--and were pushed sideways for several hundred feet (with our tires smoking and squealing) until the truck came to a complete stop.

None of us were injured.

The DS front fender, door, and rear quarter panel were all dented, and the DS front strut was bent slightly, giving the front wheel excess camber. But otherwise the car was OK, and we drove home from the accident. I replaced the door, fender, strut, and tires (the treads were ruined, obviously), pushed out the dents in the quarter panel, and had it aligned. That was all it needed.

The replacement door just bolted on, and works perfectly. In other words, the structure of the car wasn't bent or affected at all.

It drives just like it always has, and we made a decent profit from the check we received for the "totaled" car.

We found another low mileage 2000 Metro (a blue one) a few weeks after the accident and bought it, and eventually sold the Caprice wagon. Now we've got two Metros. If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!

The funny part is that we almost never take the interstate, and we took it on this trip specifically for the purpose of seeing how much time we would save and how much extra fuel we would use if we did--in other words, to see if taking the interstate was "worth it". Well...we got our answer! We're back to sticking with state highways as much as possible.

-Funkhoss

The problem with the question is that anecdotes aren't the answer.

Correct!

In my mind:

• The later model Metro is (objectively, per engineering and testing) a safer vehicle than most econoboxes from the 80's and 90's; and
• The benefits of driving them far outweigh the risks.

...but interesting anecdotes are fun!

-Funkhoss

Thread title says "...a Geo Metro or some other fuel efficient car?"

On the subject of 'other fuel efficient cars', my Type III notchback in the 1990s ran European Klebers staggered 145 and 165 and it was balanced and poised and went where it was pointed. But it felt uncomfortable downhill in the mountains where the brakes could overpower the front tires. The Superbeetle runs 165/50 and 165s front and rear; and it exhibits terminal oversteer like a Porsche.

The Metro XFi feels uncomfortable in corners, you can't point it with the throttle.

Anecdotes are fun.

Once crashed a 2001 dodge intrepid into a concrete barrier somewhere around 50 mph while airborne.... the car didn't survive obviously but my passenger and I weren't hurt and I actually pulled the engine and put it in another car.

Airbags seem scary until it saves your face (and likely life) from being K.O.'d by the dash/steering wheel.

Never had oversteer in my super bug, it had severe understeer unless the back end broke loose. Wonder what the difference was between yours and mine. Maybe the stance messed with handling. The Golf is totally neutral, but I get an intermittent pain on my right side trying to get to the limits.

The notchback was such that I could initiate a low-speed U-turn hammer down and then lift to tighten the turn.

I don't like to think it is the stance. I attribute it more to the branding of the tires, Federal Formosa on the front and Kelly Metric['s that it came with] in the rear.

That should be understeer with those tires so the stance must be loading up the front

It's lower on both ends, biased toward the front, not a Cal Look rake. The 165/50s have a contact patch that is stock width but shorter, the 145s shorter and narrower. I suspect differences in the tread and carcass.

145s remind me of a farm tractor, very responsive; but no match for the brakes.

What I've read on rear-engine cars in general is that a lot of them were likely to understeer from having way too little weight on the front until enough braking or engine torque were applied and then they would oversteer. Of course that's a general observation for most rear-engine cars.

As far as safety is concerned, there's a lot more to it than just big vs. small. And it can be hard to quantify it all.

I do think, though, that the research done by actual car safety companies is far better than anyone's own personal experience and opinion, even though the tests and data are far from perfect.

As far as small car safety goes, I couldn't find anything on an old Metro on the IIHS's website, but they do specify the 2000-2002 Toyota Echo as causing about as many deaths as the 2000-2002 Chevy Tahoe (75 driver deaths per million vehicles registered of said vehicle).

In 1969 I drove a 1957 oval-window with F-60/15s 'belted bias' tires, which was the best tires available at the time. I had a wheel shop in Portland rivet Buick 8" rims to the wide five centers.

All four corners. On gravel it would turn or brake, but turn and brake and it went in a straight line. :eek:

The I found European Klebers. Those were the best (roundest), when they started manufacturing in the USofA they went downhill.

In the 70's I was fond of Firestone for the soft rubber and resulting handling improvement of F 70's but they wore out under 10k miles, were biased ply, and looked goofy on standard width rims.

Freebeards super still has a nose low condition overall as opposed to the ridiculously high nose of a later standard super necessitating the chin vent. He's also got the strut bracing.

Riveted? All my oddball home made customized rims were welded

[f]reebeard's [S]uper has the chin vent because it's the location for an optional factory air conditioning condenser.

Who loves crash test videos!?

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1641237211

Here are a bunch of Metros (of several generations) meeting their fate in the name of science:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CarPro1993/search?query=metro

I turned over a ragtop MG Midget in July 1981. Other than totaling the car I came out pretty well. I had a few cuts and my left arm was bruised from wrist to shoulder apparently where it was trapped between my body and the ground while the car slid on it's top. It took about a year to get full use of my arm again. The ragtop frame and windshield frame held up amazingly well.

[QUOTE=MetroMPG;661103]Who loves crash test videos!?



Here are a bunch of Metros (of several generations) meeting their fate in the name of science:

I was just gonna post one. They actually do very well for their time.

I got in a crash in a Geo Metro once and died, so...

My niece was involved with a fatal crash, and spent two years incarcerated because of it. I got the chance to talk to her last month.

The driver of the other car (a Metro) was ejected when the door flew open. I'm considering adding a lap belt to the two-point belt that attaches to the door.

She said the DUI was not from testing or her admission, but allegation from a third party. Must have been a public defender.

I was at school when my parents got in a crash with a '92 Fiat Uno, rear-ended in '98 by a drunk guy driving a Chevette. My mother got a whiplash neck injury, but didn't break the neck. Had the seats been better, most likely she wouldn't have any injury.

All this talk about safety gets me to thinking, but I still don't see a perfect solution. And new cars are expensive.

I guess a person's best bet would be to buy a new SUV from the IIHS's Top Safety Pick Plus category and put in a strong cargo cage to keep cargo in it's place. But on the other hand I'd like to just be able to ride my bike. I think I'd need to move to some place, perhaps a different country altogether, where riding a bike is actually safe.

Most likely you'd regret moving to a "bicycle-centric" place quite soon...

But anyway, I guess most people wouldn't even leave home if they were too paranoid about utmost safety, and it's possible to die even in a Volvo :turtle:

I crashed my Honda Accord a few months ago. A moron was doing road rage crap against 3 other cars in a gas station parking lot. He went to burn out of the lot and hit me which totaled my car. They sent 4 cop cars to keep the dozen of gas station spectators from killing that guy. I got minor injuries, but I’m ok now. The front suspension was ripped off my car. But the airbags didn’t deploy. I feel my older Honda was pretty safe.

Just remember the Accord is considered a large car in some countries...