The year 1995 was an important one for me. I moved from busy Myrtle Beach to sleepy Aiken, changing high schools and meeting a new set of friends that I still have today. I earned my drivers license and bought my first car, a 1961 VW Beetle.
It was also very busy for many other people.
O.J. Simpson’s trial finished up with a not guilty verdict, Pamela Anderson married Tommy Lee, Forrest Gump took home six Academy awards, and Sony released their home console, the Playstation.
It was an interesting time to grow up.
It was also a transition time for the automotive industry. Many models were going through refreshes to comply with new standards in on-board diagnostics and air conditioning refrigerant changes.
Solidly out of the malaise era of the ’70s and ’80s, many auto companies put out products that were so good, they are gaining value today as collector cars.
One of the most unlikely collector vehicles from 1995 is the Geo Metro.
For Geo, an offshoot of General Motors, the 1990s was their heyday, with slick advertising campaigns aimed at a younger generation. Most of the Geo lineup were rebadged models from other manufacturers like Toyota and Suzuki.
The Metro wore the crown for being the cheapest car you could buy in America in 1995.
For the price of $6,995, you could get a hatchback Geo Metro, with a three-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission, and that’s about all you would have got.
“Base model” had a different connotation in 1995 than it does now. With the miniature size and price, the Metro was the butt of many automotive jokes until the Prius came out a few years later and took the lead in that category.
My colleague recently bought a 1995 Metro hatchback for the low price of $400. The transmission had failed, and it was otherwise in poor condition. He bought it just to have a manual transmission car to teach a few members of his family how to drive one.
We had to buy another Metro that had been rear ended to get a transmission, paying $200 for the parts car. There were also a few odds and ends we had to fix on the car, but we got it fully functional for less than $1,000, but it’s not a pretty sight.
The almost 30 years of service and 200K miles on the odometer were telling. Dents, scratches, crumbling interior plastic, and missing pieces are like scars of a well-lived life. Completing major repairs on this car is like taking a goldfish to the veterinarian office.
These cars were never meant to last as long as this one has, but many have. So how does it drive?
As I shoehorn myself into the driver seat, I find the position much like I would in my bathtub at home. Being six and a half feet tall, the Metro would not be in the top 100 cars I would consider owning.
My knees almost touch the steering wheel, which makes it difficult to manipulate the pedals. The headrest hits me slightly higher than my shoulder blades, and my elbow touches the door panel.
I crank the car and the three banger chugs to life.
The original muffler had rotted off and we found a somewhat comparable replacement, but it was still loud. Not V8 loud, almost like a deeper chainsaw sound.
I clicked on the radio, which blared out static since the antenna was broken.
Trying to find reverse gear to pull out of the parking space was a crapshoot. Between the less than precise design and years of use, the shift linkage was reminiscent of rowing a boat oar. Letting out the cable clutch, the car lurched rearward.
Even though the car weighs around 1,800 pounds, the steering is somewhat stiff due to no power steering. Acceleration is surprisingly okay, considering the 79-horsepower engine had so many miles on it.
The road and wind noise drowned out any thought I had going through my head. Trying to see any good in this car was going to be a chore. I continued to drive on residential streets for a few more miles, and then headed back to the shop. There is no way I would drive this on the highway.
Pulling back into the parking lot, I started to think how far we have come as an industry. I was trying to think of the 2023 equivalent to the Metro, so I looked up the “cheapest car for sale in America.” Results came back from Edmunds.com as the 2023 Nissan Versa S at $18,745.
Adjusted for inflation, the Metro would cost $14,121 in 2023 money. Is the Versa at $4,624 in 1995 better than the Metro?
That may be the silliest question I ever ask my readers. For this column, I could not find an available Versa with similar equipment, but I have driven them before.
For that extra money, you get much better performance to keep up with modern traffic. At 122 horsepower, the Versa is fine for highway driving and still gets a respectable 35 miles to the gallon, which is about five miles less than the Metro.
The Versa also has eight airbags instead of two in case something goes wrong. Electric power steering, power locks and windows, and a respectable radio with Bluetooth.
The Versa may be the lowest class of the vehicle market, but it is ridiculously better in every way than the Metro. What a difference almost 30 years makes in the final product of the cheapest car in America.
See you on the road!
