Just bought myself a metro!
 

First off- sorry if this is in the wrong section. Mods, feel free to move it.
Well, last night I drove an hour and a half to go buy a geo metro. It's a 1996 2 door hatch with 5sp and 198k miles. Its pretty beat up, I know it needs complete exhaust, gas tank, a wheel bearing, tires, and brakes. It's also painted very poorly and the paints flaking off. It's definately a fixer upper but nothing I can't handle and it's not too rotted either. I'm just super excited to get her fixed up and start ecomodding it! Right now it's running like garbage because the o2 sensor is broken off in the exhaust manifold, that'll be first thing to do today when I get home from work. Will post pics later

Hope you got a good deal!!

I suppose these old girls are getting harder to find in the rust belt. Are gas prices influencing the Metro market again?

Hard to believe I dove into the Metrozoid pool over 6 years ago when I drove 8+ hours round trip to pick up 1998 Firefly #1:

http://www.metrompg.com/posts/photos/ACFD6BD.jpg

Expected prices of $5 a gallon definitely inspired my purchase, and metros aren't really that hard to find here, they're just outrageously priced and I'd rather have a little project to tinker with than spend $2k on a 15 year old car, regardless of what mileage it gets

Main thing is the front control arm mounting area. Rust there is what sends these cars to the junkyards prematurely. Did you get underneath to check that out?

Yes that's the first thing I checked for. I've wanted a metro for a long time so I definitely knew to check for rot there and my cars solid as a rock. It has some surface rust underneath but nowhere near as much as it should being 16 years old and in New York. The p/o said him and his girlfriend used it as a commuter car mainly in the summer and drove their 4wd truck in the winter, which would explain its lack of rust

Also, I have a question for all you metro owners, would I be better off making my own exhaust with a obd2 compliant catalytic converter, or just buy the entire Oem exhaust? I can get everything oem manifold to rear bumper for about $300 or spend just $160 on the cat section and make my own after that, most likely with a cherry bomb. Would just the cat and a glass pack have enough back pressure or would it hurt mileage? I would definately rather save $140 but if it'll hurt mileage I'll just spend the money