Hi. Have you had any experience with a Chevy Metro car?
I saw a car like that with 29,000 original miles being sold for 5000. I could be interested in buying it, but I have never driven a Chevy car.
What do you think? What would you recommend me?
Thank you very much.
$5000 is VERY high (the Kelly Blue Book site gave me a $2,000 estimate for a base model), it was just about the smallest, cheapest car one could buy in 2000. Good mpgs, but I sure wouldn’t want to be hit while driving one.
And 29,000 is actually a bad thing to me, it indicates lack of use, which can go along with lack of maintenance.
I agree that the price is too high for a 12 year old Metro.
But if it checks out in good shape and you can get the price down, it’d be a good mode of transport for arount town of around campus.
Get it checked out by a mechanic.
Pay extra if necessary to get compression checked and see how clean the engine is under the valve cover.
Chevy Metro with 29000 miles is near the end of it’s life expectancy. Do you ever wonder what almost bankrupt GM ? It was selling dreadful cars like these under their name plate from foriegn outsourced labor. That, instead of using American labor to build good American cars which we all would like to see them continue to do more of. No matter how many decent Buicks they made, a few of these would drive buyers away for life.
@texases is very astute too. Someone didn’t want to drive it much. And parts…ldon’t plan on them being anymore available then the soon to be defunct Suzuki car line. Run, run fast away from these cars.
Condition is more important than anything else. If the car is in good condition and you can negotiate a fair price, then take it to a shop to get a prepurchase inspection as @circuitsmith suggested. Make the negotiated price contingent on a clean inspection. You should negotiate the price first. If the owner won’t cut the price to around $3000, there’s no sense in getting it inspected. Let them know to call you if they change thier mind. You can keep looking. If they call and you are still in the market, it might be worth the pepurchase inspection.
An LSi hatchback with auto transmission, AM/FM radio, and air conditioning is worth a little less than $2200 in a private sale. A similar sedan is worth $2100. The mileage adjustment is only $550. Many owners have an inflated guess at the value of low mileage. It’s still 13 years old.
Tell is what model (hatchback base, hatchback LSi, sedan LSi) and the options, and we can give you a better estimate of what it is worth.
Some of these cars were built by a GM-Suzuki joint verture in Ingersoll, Canada. The Tracker and other small cars were assembeled there from imported parts. They were not bad machines, infintely better than the cars made by the Daewoo plants in Korea, such as the Aveo…
However, I agree with dagosa that you wont be able to find many parts as Suzuki is departing the US. Theres a girl down the street who still drives one, and although she parks it outside, it always seems to start. Interesting to see how long she will hang onto it.
My point is…OP says he has never driven a Chevy car…like this thing is actually a Chevy. IMO, Impala fleet cars and anything else GM actually built under their name ( except Vega) would be a better representation amd give better overall service. Now, maybe some one will buy it, hate it and never buy another Chevy. GM hopefully learns their lesson sticking their name plate on junk, replaceable cars.
Honda did that with Isuzu and it took a while to live that one down. Toyota uses lots of Chinese parts and cars built around them now. But they are smart, they call them Scions so a few potentially crappy ones down the road won’t hurt the name as much. That’s one reason cars like these are so cheap and the quality can be so variable…Walmart cars we can call them.
I have driven one. Even if it was free, it would be too expensive. For affordable basic transportation, stick with Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru or later model Hyundais.
Dagosa,are you referring to the Passport? Had two of those things one new,finally got the wife to get rid of it and I be darned if she didnt go get a used one later,that was twice the Joner the first one was. The only thing good about them was they wore the tires evenly-Kevin
Yes Kevin,
Funny thing. It could have been sabotage as I heard fewer complaints about the Isuzu Roseo then the Honda Passport. I knew a couple of people who owned them. They weren’t exactly creme of the crop but the were functional and not Yugo’s. They were not trouble free as the rep. of Honda hoped to convey.
the Rodeo had a better warranty then the Passport,thanks for the answear-Kevin
Kevin,
That would certainly make owners feel that the Rodeo was a better buy…I get it.