I find tons of survivors stuck in the wide gulf between classic and just plain old still plodding along. Why not turn some attention to some proper jalopies? The cars that survive out of spite rather than their owners’ dedication to maintenance?
Examining truly used up cars still parked on the streets may be more insightful into socio-economic conditions than the strengths and weaknesses of a particular model. Nevertheless, I find such “beaters” to be almost as interesting as other pristine time capsule cars I come across.
I find a strong sense of individuality in these hoopties and, occasionally, even pride in ownership. Many sport modifications designed to make them more appealing despite their decrepitude. The mismatched spoiler on today’s Metro is exactly such a mod.
The Geo/Chevy Metro and its Suzuki badged twin are finally starting to age off the streets. They’re getting old enough that even the hypermiling crowd seems to have abandoned them. This particular Metro is the Geo-only (in the US market) convertible, available from 1990 to 1993. Curiously, they were produced in Japan while other Metros came from Canada.
The convertible had some of the goofiest proportions of any vehicle you could buy at the time, but their owners didn’t care. It’s rare for both a convertible and a two seater to have absolutely zero sporting pretensions as the Metro convertible did. Its market niche was small but dedicated, naturally leading them to fall into the hands of longtime owners.
This particular Metro LSi convertible is showing its age in many ways. The trash bag top is the most obvious; however, the low-quality respray over the original emblems and even the dealer badge complete the look of carelessness. Some scary rocker rust earns it bonus points. It’s unclear where the spoiler that is affixed to this car came from; curiously, it brings about competing center brake lights! What are the chances both function?
Despite its condition, it appears to have been driving around until shortly before these photos were taken and disappeared soon afterwards. Is it still bringing honest top down fun to its owner? Or is it simply donating its parts in a junkyard somewhere? Such is the way of hoopties.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: Geo Metro Convertible – Did I Take The Autopia Offramp?
Good catch. There’s a near-pristine one of these convertibles that I’ve seen on the road a few times here.
A neat little car to be sure .
Not too many left in So. Cal. but as you said : very loyal owners .
-Nate
Any car is expensive to restore. Such cars are unlikely to be restored, but wouldn’t it be cool to have one like this done because of is oddity?
My favorite car I ever owned was my Geo Metro convertible, in Mystic Magenta. I saw it on the lot of the Chevy dealer and I had to have it!
No AC, manual transmission, manual top, 2 seats and 3 cylinders. At the time, I was commuting from San Diego up to San Juan Capistrano – an hour on I-5 with beautiful views of the Pacific and lots of Marines in their lifted trucks on their way to work at Camp Pendelton. I would zip in and out in my tiny little Metro (well, as fast as 3 cylinders can let you zip).
My partner at the time worked for the police, and was not out of the closet there…when I made him take the Metro to his work once (I needed his Grand Cherokee to haul something to work that would absolutely not fit in the tiny Metro) he parked it far away from the station and told anyone who asked about the bright magenta car, “Um, girlfriend’s car.” (Although, as you may have surmised, I ain’t no girl.)
I probably would have kept that car a lot longer, but one of the three cylinders went bad, and so after about 95k miles, I had to say goodbye. The Carribean Green Ford Escort I moved to was a poor substitute.
So, is “Hooptie” the final stage in a vehicles life before going to the knackers? Exceptions are those cars who make it to “collector” status. It is an interesting timeline. The brand new shiny pride and joy parked in the driveway or Garage. Then it becomes a “Preowned” vehicle, maybe sold at a new car dealers “Preowned” lot. Then time for the third owner., bought directly form the 2nd, or maybe as a trade in that goes to auction and ends up on a high tier used car lot bu more likely on a “Buy here, Pay here” operation. From there it becomes a beater, an appliance to get as many miles and use out of it before a huge repair develops…..when it does… it might sit at the back of the owner’s property, but more likely if it gives out while in use. might be just abandoned. either way, the usual next step is the knackers, where it sits for maybe 30 days, giving up parts for its brothers in better shape before it meets the crusher. When visiting the parts lots, I would love to hear the stories the vehicles could tell.
Sometimes, the stage after “beater” is low budget project car. Much like my daily driver, in fact. But sometimes that stage ends in “parts car” or the junkyard anyways. It’s quite a rare thing for a car to be fully restored after the condition has deteriorated so much. Even for cult classics like VW Vanagons and Ford Mustangs, some rough but restorable examples still end up junked or stored improperly until they turn to a rust colored heap.
Question of the day:
What car is the spoiler originally from?
I guess 80s Firebird.
CC Effect: I saw a blue one driving along the highway, top down, just south of Flagstaff AZ about two hours ago.
My guess is that neither of the auxiliary brake lights work, and maybe none of the others as well.
These tough little cars have my respect.
But even it’s Mama gotta think it’s ugly.
I picked the year 1992 for this and looked up the MSRPs for Geo.
Interestingly, you could get a 4×2 Geo Tracker convertible for $300 *less* than a Metro convertible. $9695 vs. $9999.
The Metro got 50% better fuel economy and had a locking trunk, but all things considered, I would have had an easy time picking the Tracker over the Metro.
There’s one around here that I see every spring and into the summer, then it seems to go back into hibernation around this time of year…It’s the faded red version, otherwise pretty much like the pictured car.
These things (at least the tin-top versions) can rack up stupendous mileages, far more than they were given credit for when new, well over 200,000 miles is not uncommon at all, Suzuki seems to engineer a long-lasting car…if it’s cared for at all at least – My opinion on Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and some older Hyundai/Kia models is that many of them can last for amazing amounts of time and miles if they are just reasonably maintained and taken care of; what tends to befall them is owners that don’t do so and the cars then got stuck with the reputation instead of many of the owners…
That bodycolor paint on the badges was something that was somewhat popular back when this car was new…Numerous cars had bodycolor badging, the dealer tag though being painted does give it away in the pix on this one.
The need to replace a convertible top is what was probably the final nail in the coffin of so many aging convertibles down through the years. It takes a dedicated DIYer to take that job on at home, and the job is pricey if done at a shop. Without a garage for keeping a convertible with its top permanently down, normal weather will kill one of these in this condition quickly.
Actually when stored for long periods we’ve found that keeping one inside with the top up and stretched out, always covered, seems to be best, at least in my wife’s experience with her ’07 Fire Engine Red Mustang convert (her pampered “baby”). The original top still looks new at 17 yrs old.
Yep, I see plenty of duct tape convertible tops around, but rarely one that has been entirely covered in trash bags as we see here. But as the owner of a not-very-watertight car that is kept outside, you just kind of get used to not having very good protection from the weather. “eh, it rained pretty hard. Better go check the car for water.” Only twice have I ended up with a bit of a massive waterfall soaking my passengers. One of those times was an especially memorable date that went quite wrong in other ways as well.
These aged off the streets decades ago. Daughter’s BFF had a red convertible she bought new as her first car, and one day she asked to borrow our D-250 to pull her horse trailer as her Comanche was ailing, so in return offered her Metro for the day. It was a hoot to thrash that little 3 cyl w/ manual tiddler around town and on country roads. Even slow felt fast, kind of like a Spridget. I almost hated to return it. Haven’t seen one of these in like forever… these had their place!