Faults:
Driver side window would come off track 9 out of 10 times. The most annoying flaw this car had.
Overhead light worked when switched on, but did not work when doors opened.
Piece that make the vents go back & forth broke. Not just one vent, but all of them!
Driver's side keyhole would not unlock door. This happened a few months before I sold the car.
Back passenger & front driver side tires would occasionally lose air due too bad valves. No fault of the car, but it does require abnormally small tires...
Fan decided to stop working while in rush hour traffic (that was a fun experience - NOT!) Fixed that day, never happened again.
Starter Coil came loose once. Rolled car to my mechanic and fixed that day (no one knows how that happened, but it never occurred again).
Belt would loosen up approx. once a year or so and squeal like a pig. Easily fixed.
General Comments:
My 92' Metro was the best, most reliable car I have ever owned hands down. On the coldest of days this baby started up with no problem. It is so much fun to drive. Like riding a go-cart.
I bought it from my neighbor for $200 and it had only 40,000 miles. It was a bare bones model (no A/C, radio, power steering, creature comforts of any kind, etc.). I've owned several older luxury vehicles with power this & that and things would expectedly just stop working after time. My attitude was the less toys a car has, the less can go wrong. This car had nothing and nothing went wrong. Although on 90+ degree days I did suffer.
I live approx. 15 - 20 miles away from my job. Only filled up the tank once a week. About $11 - $13 from 'E'. Gas mileage was upper 20's, lower 30's.
I am 6' weighing in at approx. 325lbs. A guy of my lovely physique fits in that car like a glove. It's very driver friendly, but me being a passenger once in a while was tight. What's cool is the fact that you can actually roll up the passenger side window while driving by just extending your arm.
You'll eventually get used to people's stares while driving. My wife even laughed at me when she first saw me in it. But she wasn't laughing when she asked me to bring her car in because her 'check engine' light kept coming on. HA-HA!!! Mine never, ever reared it's ugly head. Never!
This car was a nice little sprinter for a 3 cylinder engine. I drove like it was a 6. This car can sure take a beating.
A lot of fun to drive especially in the snow. I never got stuck in anything ironically.
The manual steering made no difference to me, but once in a while parallel parking could get annoying.
I could fit in these small spaces that no other car could.
Due to my ever growing family, I eventually had to part with my girl. I miss her. I sold it to my buddy who is 6' 4" and over 400lbs. Gas prices were killing him. He says he only puts gas in it once a month since he works only a few miles away from home.
15th Jan 2005, 16:07
I wish the u.s. version would have had the 1.3 engine during the first years of the Metro, all we had was a painfully slow 1.0 3 cylinder engine, in 1995 the 1.3 engine came available on the hatch back and standard on the sedan.