Curbside Classic: Geo Metro Convertible

Welcome to yellow convertible week at CC. Intimations of summer are in the air, and what better way to immerse oneself into its mood-enhancing, Vitamin-D generating goodness than in a convertible, especially in a yellow one? We’re going to sample a highly diverse lot, starting with the smallest and ending with the biggest. And for true top-down motoring, its hard to be in something with four much smaller than this Metro.

Since I only have the one profile picture of the yellow Metro, this happy pair of red ones will have to do for the rest of the shots.

There’s something so endearingly goofy about this little ragtop, like it somehow escaped the Autopia ride at Disneland. It has no genuine sporting pretensions whatsoever, just a tiny two seat convertible. When was the last time that was offered for sale here? And with a remarkably similar name, no less.

Yup, the Metro is the Nash Metropolitan reincarnated. They both pursued a niche market, and one that proved to be somewhat illusory, but helped keep the production lines moving. Which in the case of the Metro, was always a bit of a problem.

Beginning with the 1990 models, Geo Metros, Pontiac Fireflys (Canada only) and Suzuki Swift were built at the CAMI plant, a 50-50 joint venture between GM and Suzuki in Ontario, Canada. Production briefly peaked at 100k units, but then began a steady slide downwards. By 2001, the Metro was history at CAMI, GM having found its successor Aveo at its Korean Deawoo division.

We’ll take a closer look at The Metro and its Chevy Sprint predecessor. It’s a polarizing car; people love it or love to hate on it. Druing times of high gas prices, the pendulum drastically swings to the positive. In 2008, folks were paying big premiums, and I seem to distinctly remember someone paying $7k for one at the height of the last gas price run up. With its little 55hp 1.0 L three-pot engine, Metros had an (adjusted) EPA rating of 38/45. The specially tuned 49hp XFi pulled a 43/51 rating.

Like most oddballs, these Metro convertibles seem to be falling into the hands of their devoted followers, just like Metropolitans were in the seventies. It’s a winning combo: top down motoring on the cheap. And who ever sits in the back seat of a convertible anyway?

More new Curbside Classics here