What was your opinion of GM’s Geo line of automobiles?

I saw a Geo Storm today, when I was younger, I thought they were the coolest looking cars.

On the other hand, the Geo Metro with a 3 cylinder engine was considered a joke, known for high gas mileage and a loss leader for rental car companies as customers booking the cheapest option had to upgrade at the rental office after seeing how tiny it was.

Anyone own or work any of the Geo line? What were your experiences?

You have to be specific about which model Geo. The Storm was made by Isuzu. The Metro came from Suzuki. The Metro was basically a Toyota Corolla and the highest quality of the whole lot.

I think you mean that the Prism was a Toyota Corolla.

In around '91, I was looking to buy a small sedan, and the Geo Prizm was on my short list (as @Kent_Clark notes, it was a rebadged Toyota, and thus was seen as being good quality), but I wound up buying a Mazda Protege.

Overall, the Geo badge was essentially GM’s effort to offer low-price-point cars that weren’t crap (which was the reputation that the U.S. automakers had at that time).

(Edit: thank you, crazyjoe, for the correction on the model name)

Duh. Yeah, um.

But just to redeem myself, the Pontiac Vibe, which came along a few years later, was also essentially a Corolla.

There was also the Spectrum (Izusu Gemini) and the Tracker (Suzuki Sidekick).

I had a Chevy Nova, which soon became rebadged as the Prizm. It was indeed basically a Corolla and a great car.

The Tracker and Metro apparently came out of Canada.

The Storm was apparently built in Japan.

I had a GF who drove a Prizm; it was a fantastic vehicle.

I had a Chevrolet Metro. Liked it and it served me well until I left the country for work.

I owned a Geo Prizm in the 90’s and I loved the car. I would have kept buying them if they hadn’t stopped making them. Basically a Toyota Corolla at a much cheaper price.

I defer to Ned Flanders on this one.

I had a 1992 Geo Prizm that I bought new and kept for about 12 years/144,000 miles/231,000 km. It was fine mechanically, but had defective paint that after a few years became badly blistered.

I had a Suzuki Sideflip, which was a fun car (ragtop, stick shift) and that’s the same as a Tracker. Good, reliable car until the engine started suffering from vapor lock. I had it for a while.

I had a ‘98 four door hard top. Tough little suv for the money.

But you had to get out and lock the wheel hubs by hand in order to shift into 4-wheel drive. An absolute pain in the nuts especially when they were froze up on a cold winter day.

Yeah, and you couldn’t really drive it with them locked – turning was interesting on dry roads (and, mine didn’t have power steering). It was the first car I ever bought!

OP, it’s really odd to talk about GM’s Geo line – I think they were all just rebadged Japanese cars, right?

I had a Geo Prizm in the late 90s. Great workhorse of a car. Had to get rid of it when we upgraded to a minivan to get all the carseats in.

A red 1990 Geo Metro hatchback was the first car I ever bought. Fresh out of law school and not making much money as a prosecutor, it made sense. It was a manual, had great gas mileage (I was driving about 10 hours a weekend to see my girlfriend, who, incidentally is now my wife), and was easy to use in Chicago (where she lived).

It was great. I had it for about 6 years, put 137,000 miles on her, and didn’t have any real problems outside of normal wear and tear. Traded her in when we got a new car.

It was a bit ridiculous looking, especially when I climbed out of it (I’m a little over 6’1"). And it certainly struggled when getting above 80. But, all in all, I have a very soft spot in my heart for my old Geo Metro.

Just so that this doesn’t go down in SDMB history as an accurate product name : the small SUV in question was called Suzuki Sidekick . I had a 1994 4-door, hardtop version.

Before that, I had a 1990 Suzuki Swift, which was the same as the Geo Metro, but mine was a sedan (notchback) with a 4-cylinder engine instead of the 3-cylinder in the Geo.

In both cases, reliability was acceptable. I had ignition cable problems with both, and the Sidekick also gave me trouble with the catalytic converter and an air flow sensor which I had to keep disconnected.

I think Suzuki car dealers were generally more abundant in Canada than in the U.S. in that period. Before the Swift and Tracker, they sold the Forsa and Samurai.

The Swift was rebranded in Canada as the Chevrolet Metro and Pontiac Firefly, then as the Geo Metro.

The Sidekick was rebranded in Canada as the Chevrolet Tracker and GMC Tracker (my hubby had one of those), and eventually as the Geo Tracker and Asüna Sunrunner.

Sorry. Sideflip was what we always called it – it came out shortly after the Suzuki Samurai has all those rollover issues (or perceived issues or whatever).

I had a Geo Storm coupe and absolutely loved it. I liked the looks. It had pretty good acceleration, mainly because it was so light. It got over 30 mpg. I could do a U-turn on a two lane road without having to do a three-way turn. It was even easy to maintain.

Unfortunately, it got hit by a drunk driver when it was parked at the side of the road and totalled.