Harlan Ellison wants to sell you a Geo Metro
Posted Apr 10, 2021, 10:26 PM UTC
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Hey, I owned 4 of them in my lifetime. As the commercial says, they are the logical choice if you don't view a car as a status symbol and just see it as a tool to get you from point A to point B. Hard to beat the gas mileage. The one I finally sold last year still got 47 miles per gallon and it was 24 years old. They last forever...
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Probably terribly unsafe by modern standards, but they got the job done.
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I had one friend call mine a coffin on wheels, but I would respond back that it was a very nimble coffin on wheels, and I had been able to dodge several sketchy situations that could have become accidents.
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To be fair, pretty much anything at that time was a deathtrap compared to what we get standard today. I honestly don't think these were all that much less safe than most of the rest of what was on the road then.
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You're probably right.
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Yeah, the only safety features they really have are seatbelts. But for a reliable commuter car for the city, they were perfect. Put $10 in the tank and you were good for the week. Even at today's prices.
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47 miles is 75.64 km
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“Noted Futurist.”
Well, it helped pay the bills.
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Over 30 years ago and it got gas mileage similar to what Hybrids of today get. Wow.
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Different time.
The vehicle featured a 1 liter, inline 3-cylinder engine that made a whopping 60 horsepower to schlepp around its 1,500lb body. To describe the vehicle's performance as “beyond lackluster” would be about appropriate, as joked about on The Simpsons.
53/58 was also on the old EPA testing cycle, which was notoriously optimistic. Under the revised 2007 cycle it would only do 38/45. To achieve these numbers the vehicle was stripped down. The only safety feature was the seatbelt. Manual transmission, no air conditioning, not even a cassette player. The NHTSA gave the car an over all three star safety rating, making you an element of the crumple zone.
For comparison my 2001 Toyota Echo could produce around 100hp with its 1.5L I4, and did similar to EPA numbers in the warmer months. It at least had air bags and AC. My 2011 Fiesta gets slightly worse numbers, but also has a better crash test rating, ABS, TPMS, ESC, keyless entry, power windows, voice controls, and plastics that don't deform your skull should you slam into them if the car comes to a sudden and unexpected halt.
Comparatively my Fiesta also produces fewer pollutants than the Metro.
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This is what happens when you don't pay the writer.
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See, it should have been a Geo Metro that Lennier assembled in Eyes instead of a motorcycle. With that gas mileage, he wouldn't have even had to adapt a Minbari power source for it. :D
Fantastic idea. Sinclair was much more zen and would have wanted a geo.