whats so hot about metros?
 

whats so hot about metros?

do they give the best MPG or are they just the cheapest?:D

Both! :)

You've probably figured out by now they're not the same as the Metro you had/have in the UK. (Rover?)

... no AC :D

My two thumbs up go to 1) small engine with a good cam (xfi) and 2) tall gearing. Those two things alone could bring a normal car's mpg up 25%.

what do you mean by good cam Daox ?

are the metros all 1L petrol engines ?

Most Metro models are the 1.0L 3 cylinder gasoline engine, but some came with the 1.3L 4 cylinder engine. The standard shift 5 speed was best for fuel economy.

A good cam would be a swap from a Metro XFi model which was ground for fuel economy or having your cam reground. There are also lots of other MPG improvements to be made to the Suzuki engine such as and advanced timing gear, ignition timing, exhaust upgrades, etc.

40+ MPG easily if it's running right
Really fun to drive
Easy to work on
Park it anywhere
Roomier than expected interior
Good in snow with the stock tires and height
Getting rare in certain parts of US and Canada
Cute?

I am an older guy who used to love muscle cars, but ever since this little car came into my hands, something strange happened to me and this weird addiction with a "piece of crap" is overwhelming. I actually feel like I am 16 again with my very first car.

You either love them or hate them.

When I got Firefly #1, I immediately noticed it was much hotter inside parked in the sun compared to the '89 Accord it replaced.

And it makes sense - the '95s and up have steeply raked front glass, and a high glass to interior volume ratio (higher than the Accord for sure). That's a BAD combination for the old greenhouse effect.

My first metro was a '93... bought it in the winter, figure, naaa, I can live without AC.

WRONG It sucks, my commute includes stopping in traffic.

Took over 6 months on ebay to finally find one that had AC, 3cyl, 5spd that wasn't JUNK. Paied $2900 for it a year ago when gas was ONLY $2ish a gallon.

What I DIDN'T notice, it was rusting from the inside out. Shortly after, what I thought was mild surface rust under the paint, I can stick my finger through the rockers, 6" hole in the back inside wheelwell... It leaks water to the interior, I could never find the leak, so I had to rip out the carpet off the bottom, and drill holes for it to drain when it rains! Then I found the wheel well problem...

I plan on driving this under the doors fall off...... and then I'll just weld them on :)

Luckily, the framework is not too badly rusted, I can still wire brush that and paint before it gets too bad.

Well, they get the best mpg of any non-hybrid in America. I would assume that is why everyone here likes them.

They're ridiculously cheap to own, parts are cheap, and with a 5 speed car it's hard not to get at least 40mpg out of the box. Even the autotragic is fun to drive. I've often had the thought run through my head of driving a metro with stiffer suspension and sticky tires through the local twisties.

I've always thought the Geo Metro was the American equivalent of the car i have, the Citroen AX. They are roughly similar, similar gas mileage, bare bones features etc. Here's a picture of my car to give you an idea.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1164/...7e961500e0.jpg

After visiting this site those rear wheel arches are screaming for covers, especially as older Citroen's like the CX, 2CV, DS, SM had wheel skirts/covers as standard.

Katana - yours is the second AX on EcoModder. And I just noticed the single windshield wiper. That's barebones for sure.

BDC: the ride height on my Metro is almost as extreme.

Well the owners manual said 690 Kg and i put that in, but it won't let you have Kg after the numbers, and the site is stuck in imperial without support for metric units. I'll change it to lbs anyway. Same for the EPA mileage stuff, my car isn't listed on the EPA site, which isn't really a surprise so i just shoved the mpg listed in the manual in combined bit.

What do you mean by nose bleeder? the ride height?
It feels low to the ground once you sit in it, and certainly is when you try and get in/out of it like my friend who is 6ft 6in. In fact the whole car hunkers down when he gets in it, soft french suspension for you, nice for comfort though. I'll add a bit more info in the garage bit about it's lack of features.

As for the wheel gaps, that's just how it is, the car is perched like that, and the wheels are skinny and small. The angle of the photo probably doesn't help much though either.

Here's a picture from wikipedia of a different angle of someone else's AX.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._AX_red_hl.jpg

OK, i just haven't heard nose-bleeder used in a car context before. I know most American slang, seen a lot TV from the states, like The Wire, The Daily Show, Lost, Deadwood and a load more.
Weymouth is in the same county as me, about 40 miles away I think, haven't been there since i was kid to see the sea life museum place.

That C1 has the same chassis as the toyota aygo/yaris (can't remember which) and the Peugeot 107. So I'd go for the Toyota, more reliable.

The single windshield wiper is bare bones, but can be a little dangerous in heavy rain, even worse if it's rain and night time. I was coming home one night and this monsoon of rain came down on a bit of road with poor streetlights, i couldn't see for ****, i just had to hold the car steady and concentrate for tail lights in the distance until got to a better lit area.

Updated the description in the garage bit if you are interested.

I'd never heard it before either, so don't feel bad, ;)

Explain it to me as well, I've never heard that expression before.

Katana - you should post your car write-up & pic as an intro in the Introductions forum. I think people would be interested. Other than the 4-speed, sounds like a good platform for mods, as you say.

Welcome to the forum.

Any particular info you think i should put in a write i missed?

I did ask MonsterAX on here to do a write up of his AX mods but he is getting rid of the car.

BDC, just out of curiosity... Is picking fights your hobby?

Katana -

Welcome to EM! Citroen's have a very nice aero-pedigree. I like the design touches that I *think* are justified for aero reasons :

- Flush door handle.
- Slight wheel skirt over the back wheel.
- Clean straight horizontal lines along the side.
- Smooth nose with emphasis on lower grill access. Reminds me of the 2nd Gen CRX.
- Smooth wheel covers that are almost racing disks.

CarloSW2

That explains it. :D

Seriously, veggie is cool. I was just wondering, because some people enjoy going at others for no reason but to do it. Well, I guess ego often has a great deal to do with it. ;)

yeah, i was just wondering. no, your cool (all lower case) HA HA HA HA

@BDC
Now you've explained it i think I've heard the expression in the past. I don't drink alcohol myself, the smallest amount give me itchy skin and make me very queasy, so it's not something i would hear in conversation a lot as i don't frequent pubs and clubs. I know what a ploughmans is, but i don't like cheese either so they aren't my thing.

@cfg83
The only pics i have are a bit random as i did them while polishing the car last year.
I documented it in a thread on detailing world forum if you want to see the rest.
Pink to Red - Citroen AX

I never really thought about the design touches until i was browsing this site recently, mainly the wheel trims, i always thought they looked dorky but they serve a purpose.

I am smart enough to figure it out, and i don't mind. *looks at signature*
I'd much rather be living in canada or a moderate european country with free healthcare, i'd be broke without it.

I know this thread has roamed around a number of topics, but let's not get into politics please. Thanks!

I imagine the SUV craze in the late 90's killed them off, not much point in trying to sell something if no one wants it.
In Europe the move away from cars like the GM/AX and lightweight cars is mainly for safety reasons. Though manufacturers are now making small cars that get great marks in the Euro NCAP crash tests.

I think when the production of carbon fibre materials becomes cheap enough it will be used in affordable cars to save weight and increase mpg while still being very strong if not stronger than steel/aluminum. The VW 1L car is a good recent example of a completely carbon fibre car made with aerodynamics in mind.
Though high end cars like ferraris, lambo's, koeniggseggs, mccalren slr etc. all have had carbon fibre bodies for years for weight reduction, but that's more for increasing the power to weight ratio than mileage.

I won't bring political things in to this, sorry, but i will say i have a couple of stories like that myself BDC and so do many people in this country. (last OT comment i swear)

Like the new SIG, Katana. Yours and dcb's both. :)

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I suspect the car was killed by the same thing that kills most models: declining sales and/or low profit margins. I've only ever found one reference to the Metro's sales figures: "GM sold more than 700,000 from 1989 to 1998." (source)

Though it doesn't say what the sales were in the final years (they actually continued selling through 2001).

On an average yearly basis over 10 years, 700k reprepresents slightly better sales than the current Chevy Aveo has seen on average since '04.

I wonder if that means the Aveo is doomed too?

Katana -

Hmmmm, I am not sure. Did you create a grill block behind the lower grill (passenger side), or did the car come this way? :

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1437/...7bccb1686d.jpg

If that's the way it came from the factory, that's another built-in hypermiler mod.
CarloSW2

I haven't made any mods to my car at all, it's all stock design.
The u-shaped "grill" between the headlight is different now after a run in with a wall in that car park in the picture, and the rust bubbles on the lip of the bonnet (hood) have gotten worse.

I always call it the French peasants car. Cheap, comfortable, good on fuel, can shove a lot of crap in it if you need, nippy to, but unstable, flimsy and not hugely reliable compared to cheap Japanese cars.

I only added the sig because was saying in another thread about how i heard one British comic call Americans "obese, burger eating invasion monkeys", and Americans calling French "cheese eating, surrender monkeys" so i thought I'd make a British one, since we are supposedly good at self deprecation :)

The only thing A/C left in my 99 Chevy Metro 3/5 is the button on the dash. I ripped the rest out. I use the button along with the fan switch to act as an idle boost when she wants to idle too low after starting it first thing in the morning.

I really really hate cars. Love my little Metro though...