GM marketed Geo as a Chevrolet sub-brand that may companion with Japanese automakers like Toyota, Suzuki, and Isuzu so as to add a house twist to low cost import vehicles.

It was a transfer designed to see GM compete with the rising import market throughout the Nineteen Eighties. In actuality, it left us with a wake of lifeless, uninspiring, and downright miserable examples of badge engineering. However there’s one automotive that stands head and shoulders above all different within the annuls of historical past because the very worst from Geo: the Metro.

The Geo Metro was mainly a Suzuki Swift with a brand new badge on it. However maybe the zenith of all Metros is the automotive that Doug Demuro obtained his arms on lately: a remarkably authentic and well-kept Geo Metro Convertible that’s up for public sale proper now.

Time hasn’t been sort to the Metro. Heck, even throughout its launch, it wasn’t precisely a head-turner. Not like most of its Japanese competitors that got here with sparkle and just a little little bit of oomph within the energy division, the Metro’s three-cylinder engine produced a measly 50 HP that would offer you a high pace barely extra vital than the typical jogging tempo. Nevertheless, all was not misplaced, as a result of although it lacked in, effectively, every little thing else, the Metro was capable of do 46 miles per gallon within the metropolis and as much as 49 on the freeway, which is fairly spectacular even right now. No fancy hybrid-tech or cylinder deactivation, simply good outdated engineering and a severely restrictive engine.

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Taking us by way of a number of the options of the Metro, Doug commences his overview revealing a budget key and paper-thin door panels whereas mentioning that the automotive doesn’t provide any type of safety. Nonetheless, the mushy high on this open-top Metro is nostalgic, with one of many first quirks talked about within the video being simply how you use the handbook mechanism.

The inside isn’t a lot both, however what else aside from low cost plastic and ugly seats (albeit with color-matched stitching for a sporty really feel on a price range) might you ask for from a convertible that value below $10K off the showroom? All is just not misplaced, although; you continue to get an airbag and air con. The latter, coincidentally, cuts the ability by round 20% when used, or so says the proprietor. Nonetheless, it was a superb choice to have for the time. Should you can look previous the entire unhealthy, which is so much, then this automotive is likely to be of value to somebody, maybe merely for the “uncool” issue alone.