When you read about an engine that can go for a million miles or half a million miles with no rebuilds, it’s usually something on the bigger side. A straight-six diesel or a 4.9-liter V8 or something, right? Not to say there aren’t plenty of dependable four-pots out there, but big, robust, high-displacement powerplants are simply built tougher than most engines.
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What you don’t expect to see making a lot of lists of dependable engines is a 1.0-liter three-cylinder, but the humble straight-three in the Geo Metro, arguably the most unremarkable car of the 1990s, has proven to be a heck of a trooper. It can be a bit of a shocker the first time you see one of these cars with 300,000 miles and up on the odometer, but the Suzuki engine’s simplicity has turned out to be one of its greatest assets.
A Look At The 1.0-Liter Suzuki Three-Cylinder
The 1.0-liter found in the Geo Metro was a G10, which was part of the Suzuki G engine family. Over the years, these engines have been found in a whole range of small Suzukis like the Jimny off-roader, and kei trucks like the Suzuki Carry.
The most well-known road application for the three-cylinder G10 was the Geo Metro, a rebadged Suzuki Cultus, but the engine was also available in the Geo Sprint, another rebadged Cultus, and it was available for use in the ICP Savannah, an Italian airplane, which should tell you just how feather-light this motor is.
Like the rest of the G family, the G10 uses an aluminum cylinder block with an aluminum head, and it’s water-cooled with a wet sump oil system. The G10 is a four-stroke which was initially built with a carburetor, then with electronic fuel injection, and, eventually, with a turbocharger as the G10T.
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1.0-Liter Suzuki 3-Cylinder Engine |
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G10 |
G10T |
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Displacement |
993 cc NA 3-Cylinder |
993 cc Turbocharged 3-Cylinder |
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Bore |
2.91 Inches |
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Stroke |
3.03 Inches |
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Compression Ratio |
9.5:1 (fuel-injected) |
8.3:1 |
A big part of the G10’s reliability has to do with the simple fact that it’s not biting off more than it can chew. When the engine was first released in the US, it only produced 48 hp, and that number was actually lowered to 46 hp for the Geo Sprint ER. Those numbers might seem laughable in 2026, now that the weakest car on the market, the Hyundai Venue, starts off at 121 hp, but, back in the late 1980s, 48 hp was plenty for a compact weighing in at 1,633 lbs, at its heaviest.
Is A Geo Metro Worth A Buy In 2026?
A Geo Metro definitely takes some getting used to in 2026. You might have never driven anything this wimpy. There was a 1.3-liter model available, delivering 70 hp, but at that point you might as well buy a real car, right? The charm of this thing is it’s basically a bumper car with a compact body.
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1995 Geo Metro 1.0 |
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Engine |
1.0-Liter NA 3-Cylinder |
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Power |
55 hp |
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Torque |
58 lb-ft |
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Transmission |
5-Speed Manual |
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Drivetrain |
Front-Wheel Drive |
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Fuel Economy (city/highway/combined) |
37/44/40 MPG |
Obviously, the key appeal here is the fuel economy. There are modern compacts that would be jealous of the Metro’s incredible 40 MPG combined average. For this model year, the car weighed in at just 1,751 lbs, not even a full ton.
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Reviews for the second-gen Metro note that the handling is surprisingly sporty (even if nothing else about the car is), and it offers a decently smooth ride, as long as you stay away from big bumps. The car doesn’t inspire much confidence on the highway, but as a cute little city car, you’ll never have an easier time finding a parking space or making your way through narrow alleyways.
What Will A Geo Metro Cost You In 2026?
To get an idea of what a Geo Metro is worth 30 years later, we’ll have to skip the classifieds and go right to Classic.com for a valuation. Here’s what the website gives us, across both generations, and all model years.
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Geo Metro Pricing |
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High |
$6,800 |
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Low |
$4,400 |
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Average |
$5,488 |
These numbers are based on just four sales over the last 12 months. To go over them…
- An 18,000-mile 1996 Geo Metro LSi sold for $6,800 on Cars & Bids last November.
- A 19,000-mile 1992 Metro sold for $5,00 on Bring A Trailer last August.
- A 95,000-mile 1991 Metro sold for $4,950 on Mecum last May.
- A 62,000-mile 1993 Metro LSi Convertible sold for $4,400 on Mecum last April.
The surprising thing about these listings: even the models with incredibly low miles are going for a song. You could buy one of these cars on a whim, and you would be unlikely to regret the purchase, just because it’s such a low-risk buy.
These Cars Will Outlast Some Toyotas
JD Power does not have any Quality & Reliability ratings available for the Geo Metro, but we do have plenty of driver testimony courtesy of Kelley Blue Book. One driver reports “I bought my 95 base model hatchback six months ago with 108,900 miles on it… The car runs like a champ and is very reliable.” Another, presumably middle-aged driver, states “This is the only car I’ve had to buy since I got my license at 16. It has never failed me driving. I never had to do anything but routine maintenance on it.”
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Collectively, KBB drivers give the car a 4.6 out of a possible rating of five for reliability. And these are all recent reviews, not comments collected from the dial-up era. Not bad for a car that’s older than some of our staff writers.
The Geo Metro has just 12 complaints in total on file with CarComplaints. 1995 is the most troubled model year, but that’s with just four reports on file. The most worrying of these is a complaint for engine rattle at 95,000 miles, but the driver provided no further information. Another driver reports loss of acceleration at 40,000 miles, again with no further information.
The Engine Will Probably Outlive The Car
According to drivers on the Geo Metro Forum, the interior features and body are likely to fall apart long before you have any major issues with the engine. User dayle1960 reports the driver’s side window needed replacing in 2010, a simple $40 fix at the time.
The fact that the Metro used the same 1.0-liter engine throughout the 1990s means that it’s not all that difficult to source parts when you do need some more serious work done under the hood. You can pull the engine from a 1991 Metro and drop it into a 1999 Metro and have no problems.
According to RepairPal, you should be spending just $243 a year on maintenance, with the following accounting for the most expensive common fixes.
- Clutch replacement $1,029–$1,240
- Air bag control module replacement $909–$966
- Radiator replacement $782–$839
- Alternator replacement $769–$862
- Air conditioning refrigerant line replacement $605–$632
You’ve likely heard the news of President Trump hoping to bring kei cars over to the US, as an alternative to hybrids and EVs. On the one hand, you could argue that Americans will never warm to these tiny city cars. They feel downright piddly on American highways, as if a stiff breeze could throw them to the wayside.
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On the other hand, the success of the Geo Metro stands as proof that the idea might not be that far-fetched. Maybe the Metro was never anyone’s dream car, but it sold enough units to stay in the game for more than a decade.
If you do most of your driving in the city, and if you’re after a charming used car that will last for hundreds of thousands of miles with routine maintenance alone, you could do a lot worse.
Sources: GM, RepairPal, CarComplaints, Kelley Blue Book, GeoMetroForum.
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