I just bought a 1992 geo metro convertible at a garage sale. After I bought it I had to replace the rear brakes and brake drums, and now I have to replace the rear wheel bearings and spacers. I’m trying to figure out if I should sell the car after I get that done. I wanted to get a car for my 16 year old to learn to drive a stick shift on, but I’m thinking I may have bought a lemon. I bought it for $2,300, and put $1,000 for new brakes and am looking at another $500 for bearings.
Also, I wonder if I could have my son replace the wheel bearings. Or should I go to the mechanic?
I think you paid a pretty penny for a 92 Geo Metro. I have a friend that must have 15 of them for parts.
Being a 1992 you have to expect that there will be many parts that are on their way out. But I don’t know if I’d concider it a lemon just yet.
I figure that your son must be in his late teens, so I’d like to make the sugestion that you do this work as a father and son team. He is young, and sometimes the young want to take too many short cuts and too many risks.
Please teach him well and buy some jack stands for safety and keep an eye out that he works in a safe manner.
I think if you got a Repair manual, and your son was a little mechanicaly inclined, he could do the bearings. I’m not sure what you mean by spacers though…unless you mean the races that the bearings ride on.
You are way overpaying for things, my friend. You might want to start checking the values of things out better and price-shopping work before agreeing to things.
If rear bearings are all that’s left to be done,
and if the unibody isn’t badly rotted and if you live in a relatively safe driving environment like a rural area in the Midwest,
and if your son is a basically safe driver,
I think you should keep it.
I think it’d be a cool car for a young fella. He’s not going to be using this car to transport a family around, and 16 year old kids don’t usually drive all that many miles, so unless the driving environment is unsafe he should be fine. My first car was a '61 Beetle, and I survived.
Metro ragtops can be a fun in-town runabout for a HS student without being powerful enough (or having a back seat large enough) to get into serious trouble. I know, I know, my taste is in my feet, but that’s my feeling. And generally they’re dirt-cheap to run… but you gotta stop paying those Mercedes repair prices for the Metro. Get away from the dealer. Find a reputable local shop.
The metro is an easy 3 cylinder car to work on…plus your convertible is basically eliminates the need to fix the air conditioning(that likey isn’t working).
Let’s see, you want to give a 22 year old car to a 16 year old?
A Metro COUPE may be OK for an adult that drives well. A convertible Metro is just a sardine can waiting for a tractor-trailer to open it. Try this test, open the drivers door all the way and push down at the end of the door. You can touch the ground over 6 inches away with the door edge. The car will roll on its springs, sure, but it also flexes the body, a lot. Not real safe. Sell.
These cars were not exactly the safest ones on the road when they were manufactured 22 years ago.
Now, after rust and corrosion have weakened the originally weak structure of this car, it is…let’s just say…not something that I would put any of my loved ones in.
I strongly suggest that the OP sell this car and buy something much newer, with less chance of major rust damage, and with more passenger protection than this low-rent, now-deteriorated tiny car.
