Faults:

Nothing major!

I put in new shocks and brakes as required from normal wear.

Had to replace the window regulator which got bent. Went to a junk yard to find a new one. Many of these 4 door Geos have window regulator problems. In removing the regulator, one tip is to use a vise-grip to get the very tightly bound screws.

General Comments:

The best small car ever made. This car is tough. I love the way it handles. It feels zippy. The 1.3 works well with this car's weight. It is so small and fun to drive. The 5 speed gear box is smooth and fun. The sedan also has really good dynamics in snow and quite a bit of ground clearance for its size. It is fun to drift the car and it is predictable. If you have good tires and know how to drive in snow, you can pull this car around corners and have lots of fun. At the time I had it I lived in the mountains of Colorado. With good tires it even worked better than a lot of 4x4s because it is so light. I felt like I was in the Dukes of Hazzard on small windy dirt and mud roads in the snow.

The trunk is quite huge and accommodating for such a small car. It's a pretty good highway car and keeps up with traffic. Tires are cheap to replace, and it costs very little to run.

The cons are the window regulators. Since the car does work good on the highway, I wish it had cruise control (not an option, but it might be able to take an aftermarket cruise if you spend the $). Another con is the seats are sort of mediocre (you can swap replacement seats from some Suzuki Esteem models for a bit more comfort). Also, although the brakes work good in most models, they are not anti-lock.

Even the less popular 4 door models are still on the road, and one can find parts on eBay. Of course the 3 cylinder 2 door hatchback sold a lot more vehicles and is easier to find because it is the iconic Geo Metro and gets 40 to 45 MPG; this 4 cylinder with the manual 5 speed gets 35-42 MPG. I would average about 37 MPG. It is a better car on the highway and can keep up with traffic better than the 3 cylinder. But never buy the automatic transmission, which ruins everything good about this car.

My Geo Metro car was totaled in a car crash, when I let a friend without experience in manual transmission drive it. I then bought an automatic Geo Metro sedan really cheap from a guy around the corner, and although it was reliable, it was so poorly geared. Only 3 speeds. Much poorer MPG and less power because of the automatic transmission, so I sold it very fast.

I still miss my Geo Metro sedan 5 speed. The best car I ever owned.

Faults:

Exhaust, water pump, alternator, timing belt, air conditioning.

General Comments:

This car has been the most reliable car I have ever owned. It has had very little go awry, has never left me stranded and just keeps running.

It is not the most comfortable car on the road. I am over 6' tall, but I bought this car to save on gasoline expenses and that it has done. It has about a 9-gallon tank, so no matter the gas prices it isn't going to pry too much out of your wallet to fill. I have driven this car both in town and on long 400+ mile journeys to excellent results.

It hauls a lot too. Mine is the 4 door sedan model so it first has a large trunk and the split-folding rear seats can fold down to hold even more cargo if necessary.

The A/C stopped working, but when it did work it would inhibit this car's performance so I never repaired it.

For the most part, this car has been about driving it, changing the oil and simply depending on it. I am very impressed and would hope more economical inexpensive reliable cars like this would be built for the masses.