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Piston Slap: What Killed the Geo Metro?
Joe writes:
Hello Sajeev,
I am well aware of your love for large land yachts. I used to own a two-door Geo Metro that could probably fit in the trunk of one of your barges. The car was awesome on fuel mileage with my best at 49 mpg on the highway, which is better than most current hybrids or a Smart car. My question is, what is your opinion/thoughts on why the car was killed?
Sales numbers, mini-van or SUV popularity, oil companies not making enough profit, or zero cool factor? Keep up the great work!
Sajeev answers:
You (and everyone else!) is well aware of my love for land yachts, but this Lincoln-Mercury fanboi fell pretty darn hard for the Ford Festiva once he realized you could have performance and efficiency in the same package with a modest motor swap. I’d go so far as to say that the Festiva is a global icon of small-car motoring, and in fact I did just that when I wrote about it earlier this week.
But let’s get to your question, as the problem with selling cars like the Metro (and Festiva) in North America is a multifaceted discussion. Some of those elements are more relevant to the death of the Geo Metro than others, but they point to a general trend away from small cars. I’ll list the salient points in no particular order:
- Low Gas Prices: While Americans rightly complain about spikes in gas prices (since most of us live in places with no access to alternative modes of transportation), we pay much less than other countries. This ensures we’re not a market where small cars can thrive for generations, much less decades.
- Low Profit Margins: As we are seeing in Europe with the death of the Fiesta, it’s really hard to make the nut on a cheap gasoline-powered vehicle. They need to remain cheap, but modern safety, performance, and technology items cost big money.
- Higher Volume, Higher Margin Competition: While a Chevy Cavalier isn’t a competitor to Geo Metro on paper, dealerships can lay down serious cash on the hoods of higher volume, more expensive vehicles to make them more appealing than a Geo Metro.
- Weak Government Incentives: We are constantly barraged by stories like the $6000 Chinese EV, but government incentives to make such vehicles are staggeringly high. Some reports suggest the subsidies range from $10,000-$20,000 per vehicle. Unless other governments do the same, small/cheap cars aren’t a likelihood on every continent.
- Labor Practices: As we recently saw with a BYD plant in Brazil, it is easier to make cheap cars when you are alleged to be using questionable labor practices. Allegedly. Allegedly. American automakers could never get mixed up in something like this.
- CAFE Loopholes: One of the biggest loopholes in the American car industry is the SUV loophole, ensuring these monsters are classified as trucks. When you are a truck and not a passenger car, you can get away with giving people what they want, without the need to innovate on efficiency. And the more folks that gravitate/aspire to own SUVs, the less interest there is for subcompact vehicles.
- Used Vehicles: One of the biggest threats to Metro-like vehicles is the appeal of getting a vehicle with more space, luxuries, and performance for the same price. Unless you are married to the notion of owning a new car, a used Chevy Cavalier is pretty appealing against a new Geo Metro.
- Hybrid/EV Powertrains: The sad reality for “modern-day Geo Metros” is you can have your cake and eat it too. Hybrid powertrains from Toyota have proven themselves in fleets, and new EVs are downright stunning in the level of performance, efficiency, and Lexus-like quietness in the process.
- Easy, Affordable Credit: I am not saying it’s right or wrong to offer 0% financing to car buyers, but it’s definitely been a thing since at least 2001. And low interest rates have been the norm since that magical year of free cash from GM, allowing us to have our cake (with a fancy car) and eat it too (for the same monthly note as a Geo Metro from back in the day).
There are likely other reasons why Metros and other small cars are so hard to keep alive, but perhaps we should drill down and see which of these are germane to the Metro’s departure in 2001.
A combination of low gas prices, thin profit margins, CAFE loopholes, and a lack of government incentives on small cars led to the death of the Geo Metro. I also believe low interest rates make larger, more expensive cars/SUVs more desirable, and there has been a trend of lower rates during the lifespan of this cute little Geo.
Between lower interest rates (from 1995 to 2021), and heavy discounts on mass-produced fleet cars (think Chevy Cavalier), why would your average American motorist want a subcompact car?
If too many people walk into a Chevy dealership and get sweetheart deals on Cavalier VLs (like the one above), the Geo Metro can wind up on life support. Dealership patrons may not be presented with this opportunity every time, but there are certain months when heavy factory-to-dealer incentives on high-volume vehicles make them affordable for more people.
You have rightly mentioned the benefits of a highly efficient, minimalist vehicle in the context of a specialty car enthusiast website. (Last time I checked, this website doesn’t belong to Consumer Reports.) But enthusiasts aren’t most new car buyers, as your average Geo Metro intender was looking for the best automotive alternative to taking the bus for their hard-earned dollar. The Metro’s monthly payment as a new car may not have fit the bill, getting pushed aside for the reasons listed above.
Or so I’ve seen, but the discussion doesn’t end with me. What do you think, Hagerty Community?
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The end was even more simple.
This was a car built in partnership with Suzuki and GM. The partnership ran its course and GM moved to do small cars internally like Sanjeev said at higher profits.
The sales were not great. In most snow regions these cars rusted out and often needed more work to repair than they were worth.
Most small cheap cars are like Bic lighters use em and toss them.
GM even had the Spark recently. It sold poorly as do most cars in this ultra compact segment. American like larger cars with more utility and size.
I’m a GM guy and can say most GM people were not Geo customers. These were import customers that generally bought Honda and Toyota.
Today Hyundai and Kia are the leaders in the disposable car segment today. You pay less but you generally will have a car that cost more to repair than it is worth,
The Car Wizard on YouTube explains this mon many models today.
I agree. I have the impression, when you see the number of humble, simple, fuel-efficient transportation in use around the world (typically small, single cylinder 2-wheel and 3-wheel vehicles, because the cost of fuel, and general financial burden to own/maintain a car is so much more), it’s obvious the overall global demand for modest, fuel-efficient transportation is very high.
If a huge demand existed domestically for fuel-efficient vehicles, there would be no explanation how the F150 and Silverado/Sierra (and other large SUV) sales continued to dominate for at least a few decades. Things have changed a bit, but I recall some years ago, when the question was asked why there weren’t more, if any, attractive incentives to buy Suburbans, Tahoes and Yukons, the answer was: there could be incentives, but only when GM stops selling every last one they build.
When incentives are offered for pickup trucks, for instance, I think it’s only for competitive reasons, not to move them off their dealer’s lots, but to capture this larger, more-profitable segment of this domestic market.
It seems to me, when micro cars are exposed to the US market, it’s likely only due to the fact they happen to be products in a manufacturer’s portfolio. So, on speculation only, they are only offered here, to pursue even the narrowest segment of automotive sales.
I think this is what motivates corporate management to throw them into the US market, for reasons based purely on speculation, but certainly not to satisfy (a nearly-nonexistent) demand, especially when compared to the overwhelming, ongoing demand for larger vehicles (which also happen to be more profitable).
The Geo Metro was a cheap tin can, IMHO.
Steve, You hit the nail on the head. Foreign car manufacturers did a much better job of promoting their quality compared to American car makers. American car makers also have large stakes in foreign cars so they really weren’t losing too much and didn’t have to work so hard for a buck. Enthusiast publishing also got soundly behind Japanese and German cars and equally against American cars. GEOs are probably collector cars now because there aren’t too many left. The compact Fords went the same way, rotting and unreliable. I liked my Mercury Lynx for the first 30,000 miles, then it was nothing but a disposable piece of junk.
With the Radwood movement gaining in popularity, almost anything in nice condition still running from the 80s and 90s is “collectible”. Yugos, Le Cars, base model Subaru GLs and Ford Escorts get a lot of love and attention at these events, along with anything else from the era.
Cheap? My daughter had one for go-to-work and she liked it. It was a stick shift, and she BROKE THE FIREWALL over a 5 yr period. The thin sheel metal work-hardened where the clutch master was located, and even when I reinforced the area with 1/8″ steel, it flexed so bad she sold it to someone that wanted the powertrain.
What killed it? People’s pride and common sense.
Don’t forget the Swift GTi. My girlfriend bought one new in 1989. Installed H&K lowering springs and a set of 15×6” Fittipaldis almost immediately. Handled like a dream, not harsh, quick enough with 4 valves per cylinder, great on gas, backseat with tall ceiling, and so much fun! I still dream of cars like that and girls like her…
You are spot on. The Suzuki was a superior vehicle to it’s GM cousin thanks to the extra cylinder.
I won several local autocross championships with my ’89 GTi with no modifications other than Yokohama A008RTU tires. Suzuki were also very good about any warranty claims (went through a couple of 2nd gear syncros and front sway bar links). I told them was going to autocross it when I bought it and asked about warranty issues. They said no problem, we want to know what breaks, here is $500 and a set of wheels.
Well Hyper, You were pretty correct on the Metro and way off base on the Spark. Low sales on it? Sure, although there were periods when its sales weren’t far off of the Camero. (And that is North America only. Globally, no contest.) To really be fair you need to understand that there was little to no marketing support for it from the corporation as they were cowing to the UAW as it wasn’t a UAW product. (Don’t believe me – when did you see it on a TV ad?) And, if my memory was correct – its volumes were restricted by the corporation. I can think of a number of “car guys” that drove it and walked away complementing it. Were its standards lower than the rest of GM’s offerings – nope. Same requirements. Of course physics always come into play when big sleds (aka Pickups and SUVs) hit smaller vehicles. One of the reasons, in addition to uber poor driver training, crappy traffic enforcement and distracted driving that the US stats are so much worse than many other advanced societies.
The one small car that was head and shoulders above it was the Honda Fit – a really ingenious architecture.
I don’t think the Fit got good enough mpg for its size. Who’d pay an mpg penalty to drive a smaller vehicle?
Agreed. In October of 2008 I paid cash for a top-of-the-line 2009 Honda Fit with 5-speed manual transmission. (in Canada, OTD price was $22,350). My daughter still has it, now approaching 400,000 kms (250,000 miles). Best fuel economy (long hwy trip with the space-saver spare limiting my average speed to around 55 mph yielded a carefully-measured 46 miles per Imperial gallon (about 39 miles per US gallon). Zero-to-sixty came in about 8.6 seconds, quicker (and better handling) than any of my stock 1st-gen RX7s. It was dead-reliable and cavernous enough inside to remove any excuse for owning an SUV outside of (marginally) better ground clearance and AWD.
Contrast this with the 1995 Pontiac Firefly (5-spd manual, also sold as the Geo Metro) that I sold privately for $2700 immediately after buying the Fit:
I’d bought this otherwise-nice-condition Firefly from a Westjet flight attendant for a whopping $700. Why $700? Because the exhaust valve at cyl #3 was burned rendering it barely drivable. I decided to tear down the entire engine, a task that could only have been easier it the label on the engine had read “Briggs & Stratton”: only three cylinders, with a single overhead cam acting directly on the valve stems with no rockers in between.
I took the block and head to an engine machine shop where it was bored 0.050″ oversize, new pistons/rings and valves. reassembled with new timing belt, proper TQ-to-yield head bolts, re-painted-to-match-body (metallic-wine-red) block and valve cover, etc. Total cost in parts and labor: $1200. Including original purchase price of $700 this added up to $1900 out of pocket plus about four days’ worth of my leisure time.
After break-in I had a decent car for the three months that I spent waiting for the new Honda Fits to become available. This refurbished Firefly got an all-time best measured fuel economy (at 55 mph on secondary routes) of around 42 miles per US gallon. Zero-to-sixty required the width of Montana. 70 mph was a scream that drowned out the radio. Passing on two-lane blacktops was life-threatening and cargo space could almost accommodate a watermelon.
For a sub-$3000 car it was still a good buy – for someone looking for a very cheap and economical city commuter. But it offered nothing back in ’08 that could not be had for just a few dollars more in say, a similar-condition 1990 Honda Civic DX – a car that was quicker, handled better, was better built, just as economical and had far more utility than a Suzuki-built Pontiac Firefly – even if it was five years older.
Jack
According to GM they stopped sales as they were in a steady decline from 2017-2023.
Also the market was growing with small CUV models that had more utility.
The best year was 2014 with 39K units But 2020-31K then 2021-24K 2022-13K 2023-149 units.
These are very poor numbers for a low price car. Low cost cars need volume to survive. A V series Cadillac and live on low numbers due to high prices.
If you are using the Camaro as an example well what happened there? It too is no longer in production.
Anything under 100K units needs top make money on price. That is tough on low price cars.
If a company invest money into a model just making money is no longer enough. Today you must make the most ROI you can. That is why GM invested into the small Trail Blazer and Trax. These are moving more models and at higher transaction prices.
Anymore to measure the strength of a model it is the transaction price that is more telling vs volume as that is where the real money is made.
The Spark died as there was no money in it, plane a simple. If they were making money it would still be in the dealers.
Also Jack if cars don’t make a lot of money they are not heavily marketed.
But do not think it was never marketed. The truth is today cars are market on the web. The hundreds of test drive videos and web sites are pushing the advertising not TV commercials.
Customer don’t shop dealer lots anymore they shop the web till they are ready to come in and buy. Or like myself I made contact with a salesman. We then worked a deal buying a car not the web. I agreed to a price and then we did a search for the car I wanted. I did all while I was at work.
Small cars just don’t do well here in America. We use our cars for our life styles not just going point a to be. Unlike Europe where a long drive is 30 min here we can drive 5 hours just to visit a friend. It is not one world. Most people in other countries choke when they find out NYC to Chicago is not an hour away.
Finally People also like the stronger trucks and larger vehicle safety. I was sitting at a stop sign last week and was hit head on by a 2024 Rav 4. I drove home and she was on a hook. It was only a Canyon.
People like the CUV models as they can get near the MPG and they can haul the things they need and not sit with their kids in the back seat with the their heads on the real glass like a Fiat.
Nope Hyper, I know as I was I. The middle of the fun. I’m also guessing that you never drive one – at least not for more than a brief test drive.
And having lived and driven in Europe, South America & Asia I don’t think your argument is with too much foundation. Sounds more like a Detroit-centric sound bite. BTW – it had annual sales over 100K. Don’t forget it was a global offering. The biggest issues were the U.S. infatuation with big and the NA GM NIH head space. (To say nothing of the ROI – which, I hate to tell you, was another point in favor of the Spark.
Prof-X. Spend any time with a Fit? Betting you haven’t. It was some of my competition – and damn good. Brett’s experience was normal. Amazing space and awfully good low-cost REAL economy. Again, a global car.
Do
+1. Right. SUVs often don’t have more utility than an equivalent car. They have many drawbacks. Madison Ave is good at propaganda and people eat it up.
Same goes for 4WD. As a GM engineer once said on a nationwide car radio show. “95% of people who own a 4WD never use it off road.” But it “looks cool”
Disagree on your repair comment on the Hyundai, Kia. I have a 13 Sonata since new with 220K not a single repair other than wear items. I have only replaced the brakes once and the tie rods when my wife hit a curve head on at night at a gas station. 17 Elantra with 100K and no repairs.
I bought a 93 metro brand new for 6300.00 It was great on gas, the 3 cylinder with the 5 speed had enough power for that light of a car. I used it when I didn’t need to drive my truck and it served it’s purpose.
It takes just about the same amount of labor to build a small car as a large one. It takes almost the same amount of parts to build a small car as to build a large car. A small car takes up about the amount of space in a transporter and dealership lot. A small car takes almost the amount of paperwork to buy, license, and insure. A car manufacturer can sell a large car for 2 or 3 times the price of a small car but have a lower percentage of the above mentioned “fixed” costs compared to the small car, which results in more profit.
I’d love to have a small, reliable, and economic car in my stable, but I can’t afford one! B^)
Geo didn’t get the same push as Saturn, and I think Saturn was a mistake (put all that effort into Oldsmobile and the brand probably still exists).
Geo was an 8-year afterthought on Chevy lots. Half the lineup was competing with Chevs… could just have made the Metro as the new Chevette and probably done much better.
Parts of the world buy Suzuki cars… NA not so much. Many Geos were Suzukis…
GEOs were Toyota, Isuzu and Suzuki. Poorly marketed and managed on the GM side.
Saturn was a bad idea and then GM ran out of money and let Saturn rot till Lutz tried to use Opel to fix them. But GM had way too many Divisions.
Most companies Today have a volume brand and a luxury. They just can’t afford 5 versions of the same car under 5 different names. Olds and Pontiac had to go and if Buick sales slide in China they will be gone here.
Only GMC with the Denali line is safe. Denali makes a ton of money with higher prices but low development costs.
The economic climate today on new cars is staggering with such high costs and difficulty in offering affordable cars worth owning.
There are new tactics brining employed where some platforms are now FWD only in the CUV segment. It saves weight and costs. The Trax is an example. If you want AWD you go to the smaller Trailblazer.
Those who can’t make a reliable affordable car will struggle unless they are a low volume high priced brand.
There’s another thing: Cars are lasting longer and longer. If a car depreciates to 10% of MSRP in 10 years instead of in 5, you can spend twice as much money, and generally speaking, people will choose to spend money on more capability / more space / more safety / etc. We don’t have Geo Metros now for the same reason we didn’t have (the old) Fiat 500 and Isetta in the ’90s.
The eating-and-having-of-cake is also real; my current daily get significantly better mileage than a Metro if you allow for the nearly-free electronics it eats, has 460hp, and carries five people in luxury and silence (or startled screams, if so desired). Granted, it’s a lot more expensive than a Metro even accounting for its longer lifespan and cheap money, but you can get most of what it has at half the price. Metros really just aren’t necessary anymore.
I had one. I saw some Youtube video called “Can’t Kill a Volvo” where some guys got junkyard Volvos running and drove around the junkyard smashing things; they smashed a Swift/Metro like an aluminum can and drove away with a barely dented fender. I sold the Swift that week. I’d like to survive the fender bender.
I rented one while on a trip with my Dad. I was making a left against oncoming traffic, nailed the throttle and.. nothing. Ended up getting Tboned, but miraculously we were ok. Not only was the car flimsy, but the lack of power was dangerous at well.
User error
Excellent ! Try stacking 6 Metros on top of one another, and see what happens… (referring to an old VOLVO ad)
I drove a 4-door Geo for 2 years, and that thing saved my life in an accident. A Prius tried to pull out from a side road to a highway going the opposite way as me and stopped half in my lane to let a car going that way go by. I stood on the brakes knowing we were going to hit. I never turned the wheel, no time. I swear, though, that little Geo turned itself just enough to hit corner-to-corner instead of t-bone, and spun us both off the highway neatly into turn off. I’d buy another Geo in a heartbeat.
In the 90’s there were small Japanese 4 cylinder cars that did not feel like a penalty box like the Metro did. Other than the MPG number it had very little going for it.
As the owner of a pizza parlor, we had a small fleet of Geo’s as delivery cars. Cheap to buy, very cheap to maintain, great gas mileage, made for a super bottom line. We never wore them out, just sold at 150k miles and moved on. I know they were a Bic Lighter type vehicle, but sure worked well for our purpose.
We had a courier service where I worked that came every day. The regular driver had a Geo Metro (built by Suzuki) that was pushing 300,000 miles and still running strong. The comical part was he was about 6’4″ and 350 lbs… he barely fit in that little thing. Passenger side seat and floor was always buried under discarded fast food bags and wrappers. He did regular maintenance and claimed only repair was an alternator at around 250,000 miles. I was pretty impressed and it was part of the reason I bought a Suzuki Grand Vitara at one point, which was fun to drive and we never had any issues with.
Every time gas prices soar back up, Metros and smaller cars like them end up selling for large premiums. There are many Americans who actually need larger vehicles because they have three or more kids or they need cargo capacity for their work demands. But it seems to me that most of the SUVs and pickups locally (and there are many of them) have empty beds and rear seats most of the time. Of course, owners of these vehicles complain loudly every time fuel rates go up. It’s sort of like having an adjustable-rate mortgage. When rates are low, things are good. When they go up, though…
American society emphasizes that bigger is better, more power is always required and you must at least keep up with your neighbors on a social status level, if not outspend them at every opportunity. Hence, too few small car buyers.
I asked the question. I had one and my kids were embarrassed to be seen in it. I got it for free. Gas at the time was something crazy like $4 a gallon. My coworkers would spend $100 filling their trucks and Tahoes every week. I would spend $35-$40 every 2 weeks. It was a little junk box but basically a commuter car for work. We had a nicer car for days off. Cheap transportation
The GEO was D.O.A. they were ugly–3s a crowd-seating-not enough room for a mid-sized pet–and flat JUST NOT COOL.
@David W. York would like to know what you drive
There was one key point that was missed: it was a horrible car. I had a friend who was wiped out by hurricane Hugo in St Croix and moved back stateside. He needed the cheapest new car he could find and we went to test drive one. While we were out with the car he looked and at me and asked “how do we hand it back get out of there without even talking about this thing?” It was instant hate. It made a Yugo look like a good alternate. He ended up with the Pontiac LaMans (cheap Pontiac import but better) for one reason; the radio came standard with a cassette player. Honestly. And it was only a few hundred dollars more. He ran the wheels ff that Pontiac and it held up. Not so sure the Metro would have.
Pontiac LeMans. An Opel Kadett design sold by Daewoo and by Pontiac in the States. Hit the brakes too hard and anyone’s guess as which end would get to the accident first.
True story – many years ago at our local county fair in WNY they used to have contest called BO Geo! 4 contestants got in a Geo Metro (windows down ‘cause it was August) and they had to remain there as long as they could. The fair was 10 days. The last one left won the car!!
IMHO, the Geo Metro was a cheap tin can.
When surveyed, people think they should say they want small, inexpensive cars that are better for the environment, but they really don’t, and never buy them.
We bought 1998 Metro new for $8K. Put 256K miles on it. Mileage was mid 40’s, I have a heavy foot. It was a 5 speed and I LOVED that car. The only reason we sent it to junkyard was the body was rotted from Wisc salt. The engine & trans were still going and original clutch. I would buy one again in a heartbeat. Bring it back!
The Nissan Versa is a really good small car that you can get stripped down (5-speed manual, manual windows etc), brand new for about $19K. That’s probably about the same amount of money $8K was in 1998 adjusted for inflation.