This is also incorrect.
The Pontiac Vibe was also a rebadged Toyota vehicle, but it was a Matrix, not a Corolla.
The Pontiac Vibe is a compact car that was sold by Pontiac from 2002 to 2010. It was jointly developed by General Motors along with Toyota, who manufactures the mechanically similar Toyota Matrix. Manufactured by the Toyota-GM joint venture NUMMI in Fremont, California, the Vibe succeeded the Chevrolet Prizm in production at NUMMI and like the Prizm, it was derived from the Toyota Corolla, making it the last of the GM and Toyota developed S-body cars.
and
The Corolla Matrix, better known just as the Matrix, shares the E120 and E140 platforms, and is considered the hatchback/sport wagon counterpart of the North American Corolla sedan, as the European/Australasian Corolla hatchback is not sold there. Toyota frequently combines the sales figures of the Corolla sedan and Matrix. The Pontiac Vibe, which is the General Motors badged version of the Matrix, shares the Corolla platform. The Vibe was exported from Fremont, California, to the Japanese market where it was sold as the Toyota Voltz .[132]
One variant of the Tracker / Sidekick / Vitara that I found too cute for words when it came out, but which I only saw a few times on the road : the Suzuki X-90. It’s a high-heeled, T-top car with a trunk. I don’t think that one was ever rebranded as a GM / Geo.
I and my bf at the time went to visit my family in SoCal and were more than a little dismayed when we picked up our Geo Metro at the rental office. The only thing sadder than watching him fold his 6’1 frame into the front seat was watching all the cars passing / going around us on the freeways of L.A. It looked so sad parked on Rodeo Dr.
Back in the 1990s when I was a poor grad student I had a Geo Metro. Two doors, tiny back seat, four speed manual transmission.
As basic as it was, there was a lot to like about it: It got 50 mpg driving around town (I didn’t use it on the highway much) and never any breakdowns, even at 100,000 miles plus…
Some limited styling was done by GM, including choosing which engine options were available. And the Prizm was technically a joint venture car with Toyota.
My first car was a 1997 Suzuki Swift bought in 1998. It suited me very well. When I wanted to upgrade in 2015 it had zero trade in value though, which was a bit disappointing, but the Norwegian car market had left that level of trim and conveniences far behind. I could probably have sold it privately, but likely not for much more than scrap value.
The Matrix was a Corolla with a different back.
Potato Potahto.
I loved my Geo Metro. I needed to buy a car quickly, due to reasons; anyway, it was one of the cheapest cars on the lot, and as a manual, which I considered a plus, because I far prefer to drive them over automatics. The clutch was so tiny, it required almost no pressure to depress.
The car got about 42 mpg. I drove about 35% of my miles on the highway. I took the car out east from Indiana a few times, and it did just fine. I drives the speed limit, because I am the person who gets stopped for going 67 in a 65mph zone. Just my dharma, for some reason. Anyway, I never had any problem getting it up to speed, with the exception of climbing big hills. I had to put it in fourth, and then I could get it up to speed, with the engine roaring, but I did that only when there was a lot of traffic.
It handled REALLY well, and having a tiny car that handled well, meant that when the SUV was waiting to turn left, I could get around it, while the sedans behind me had to wait.
I had it for several years, and put well over 100,000 miles on it, ad it was running just fine. Then someone hit me and totaled it.
Here’s the thing: I was hit nearly head-on by a car almost twice my size, on a state road, going 55, and it crumpled, it didn’t cave, which it was designed to do. All I had was a sprained ankle, and a cut on my forehead (and possible concussion, but not a serious one), because of the bad luck of the rearview mirror detaching and hitting me in the forehead, but that had nothing to do with the size of the car.
The car had a series of roll bars in it, and had a very high safety rating. You would expect me to have much more serious injuries in a tiny car getting hit by a big steel car (it was a 70s model something). The other driver was more seriously injured-- but he had back problems to start out with, and they were apparently exacerbated by the accident.
I went looking for another Metro when I was looking for a new car, but couldn’t find one.
I, too, have a very soft spot for that car.
In fact, I had no hesitation in buying a Chevy Spark when I was looking for a car to take on highway trips, based on my experience with the Metro. So far, it’s been a good little car, in spite of being an automatic.
I still have a 1995 Geo Tracker. 4WD for the occasional snow here in North Georgia. I’ve had many offers to sell it, but I won’t give it up.
I don’t drive it much, and it’s a little ragged but it still runs well.
In my first job out of college, I worked for a subsidiary of GM when the Geo line was rolled out (with Harlan Ellison’s ads. I hope he got paid really, really well.) GM had a policy that when you traveled on company business, you had to rent a GM car*. But they also had a policy of treat any employee that isn’t in midde-to-upper management like absolute shit. So us entry level drones were forced to rent the cheapest cars on the lot, which were Geos, and had absolutely no option to upgrade, unless it was on your own dime.
The three times I got stuck with a Geo Metro were a nightmare. Completely underpowered death trap piece of crap. That soured me on the entire Geo line, and on GM as a whole. I’ve still never owned a GM car, despite being offered a quite sizable employee discount.
*The policy was actually you had to rent from one specific agency that maintained an all-GM fleet.
My first car I ever owned was a ten-year-old Geo Metro. What a piece of crap. I used to have to speed before getting to a small hill in order to have enough momentum to get to the top of it.
Now, that might have been that particular car. It was very poorly maintained and was a lemon. After owning it for a few months the transmission died. It turned out that that previous owner never had the transmission fluid changed, and when I paid a shop to do a full diagnostic of the car before I bought it they didn’t check that either. The transmission fluid was as black and tar and you could see shiny fleck in it from the transmission gears grinding off.
So maybe I’m misjudging the Metro but that was an awful experience. I drove the car for 3 months and it took 3 years to pay it off. I paid $2,700 for it and sold it as a junker for $300 to a guy as a project. And this was when I was very young and very broke.
My second car was a piece of crap Chevy Impala that was built the year I was born, and was almost as bad as the Metro. I could go on and on about the problems that car had, describing it sounds like something from a cartoon. But it was just barely good enough to get me around if I was careful and cost me $100 cash so I can’t complain.
My third and fourth cars were bought brand new from dealerships and I’ll never go back to buying used again. My third car, a Toyota Echo, lasted 17 years and was still a decent car when I traded it in, it was just time to upgrade. My current car is a Chevy Spark and I love it to death.
I hope the day never comes in my driving lifetime that I have to own a vehicle like that.
I would have been in middle school when they first came out, and I too thought they were really cool looking cars at the time. But when I see one now I just see an economy car dressed up to look like a sports car, which is pretty much what they were.
I see a surprising number of old three cylinder Metros on the road. Apparently they have a following among a certain crowd that wants the most fuel efficient car they can get with out the extra expense of a hybrid.
I have heard that the Nova/Prism/Vibe all depreciated faster than their Toyota counterparts, because a lot of people just saw the GM badge and didn’t know they were basically Toyotas. So for those that did know what they were, buying a used one was a great way to get a bargain priced Toyota.
In April 2000 I passed a blue Geo Metro hatchback that was waiting at a red light at the intersection of Georgia Ave and East-West Highway, and in the driver’s seat was George Burns. Glasses, suit, cigar, the whole deal, it was him. Of course, he had died a month earlier…
He might have died waiting for that Metro to accelerate away from a red light. 
I’m sure I sat at that intersection in April 2000.
Drove a Metro for work way back when. It was fine. Was what it was. Cheap little car.
In my many years of owning Suzuki products, I’ll say I’ve very impressed with the company. Bought an SX-4 for the wife a few years ago. Fine car. I miss it. 
I bought a used Prizm back around 2002, and it was a PHENOMENAL car. Had it not been for an EPIC hailstorm (literally every bit of the car was dented all to hell, all glass destroyed) back in 2003, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was still driving it today; it was one of my favorites I’ve owned over the years.
I drove a little black suzuki swift GT for a number of years. Stick shift, good gas mileage, GREAT car, until I lived in a snowier area and it was so light that it didn’t do well (granted, I was not particularly skilled at driving in snowy conditions). Biggest problem I ever had was that it was black and had a dark interior and no air conditioning. It had great pickup, but would have been painful if I’d ever been in a serious accident, as it had no safety features beyond seat belts. But it got me through my first jobs out of college, then grad school, and the first couple of years post grad school before I sold it.