The Geo Metro Is One Of The Greatest Cars Ever Built5/12/10 11:00am The Geo Metro often serves as a punch line for small-car jokes, but even modest machines have their benefits. To illustrate this, we've invited Jalopnik reader Matt Moore to speak about the distinguished joys of the sweet Met life. Every so often, we find ourselves caught up in the new-car crush of Bigger! and neglect the noble econobox. The workhorse of the long-haul commuter, the subcompact is an unjustly maligned hero for the frugal. Fuel-efficient microcars may be simple and without flash, but gosh darn it, they're honest and easy to live with. We've asked one of our regular readers to tell us why he loves his three-cylinder wonder. The bold emphasis is ours, but the love? Portrait of a Geo-Metro-Driving GentlemanMy daily driver is a 1991 Geo Metro 5-speed with 254,000 miles on the clock and a current Kelly Blue Book trade-in value of $138 (Edmunds puts the "True Market" trade-in value at $58). My mother-in-law bought it for my wife when she was in high school in 1996.

Ten years ago, you could pick up one of these cars for $400. That same car now, even with ten years of extra mileage, goes for around $800 to $1200. Last summer, on three separate occasions, people walked up to me on the street and offered $1500 to $2000 for my car.I get 40-45 miles per gallon without trying at all. Given my 55-mile daily commute and $3-per-gallon gas, my Geo saves me $1500 a year on fuel over my Chevy Silverado. There're guys on the internet who've gotten Metros up to 75 mpg and higher.The motor's simple enough that I can work on it myself, so it saves me a ton on mechanic's fees. I've torn the little engine down to a bare block twice. A thought for everyone who makes fun of my 55-hp, three-cylinder Suzuki G10: I can lift my motor out by hand. On a recent junkyard trip, I got the wheels, front hubs, and brakes for the 13-inch wheel [conversion] off a 1991 Metro convertible. I mostly did this because 12-inch tires were suddenly very expensive — even online — but the improvement in braking performance due to the larger vented discs was absolutely incredible!

Inspired by the idea of improving rather than simply maintaining, I went back and got the front stabilizer bar off a Metro sedan (mine had no stabilizer bar at all). Why didn't I do this years ago?Whenever I get around to buying a LeMons car, it'll probably be a Metro or Suzuki Swift (same body). For starters, I know the car intimately, and that'll make hopping it up on the cheap a whole lot easier. What's more, fairly simple suspension work (i.e. the brakes and stabilizer) can turn it into a great handler. If I can find a Swift GT cheap enough, I'll really be set. The GT adds a cylinder and a double overhead cam, and puts 100 horsepower into a 1600 lb car. I've ridden in one, and it was awesome. The 1991 MSRP for the Metro was $6750. And this car, when most of its contemporaries have long been converted into Chinese razor blades, still outperforms a lot of brand-new hybrids on fuel economy. I wonder what would've happened five years back if GM had revived this little jewel, with cheap 20-year-old high-mileage technology, and sold it for $9,999 right as gas prices spiked and the $18K Prius became the new gotta-have.

Would it have changed GM's fate? Done on its own, I doubt it, but a high-mileage philosophy across the fleet couldn't have made things any worse than they became under the Big-Ass Truck & SUV regime. GM might still be king, and the Federal Department of General Motors an idea to be laughed at, instead of a sad reality.Yeah, my car looks like a piece of junk. The hood is held down with cargo straps. The windscreen is cracked. Alternative To Vitamix UkThe dash trim is gone-stepped on during a heater core replacement project-and the windows don't like to go upward. Domesticated Fox For Sale In CanadaBits of interior trim have disappeared over the years, the seats don't match, only one 3-inch speaker works and you have to yell to be heard over the wind noise. Solar Powered Lights Menards

The driver's side window crank falls off every time I slam the door. But I love this car. It's carried my butt nearly 200,000 miles, never once left me stranded, and all it asks for is gas once a week, oil every now and then, brake pads and a clutch once in a while. Blue-book values provide a great scale of what a car is worth when buying or selling, but they don't put any value on owning it. They don't give a rat's ass about my ability to fix things myself versus paying some un-trustworthy schmuck $80 an hour. They never measure the inconvenience of monthly payments and higher insurance rates. They don't know how wonderful my car sounds at 63 mph in 5th gear. They don't care at all about personal knowledge of an individual car.My wife and I dated in this car. My kids love riding in it. And I love driving it. Maybe I'll go for a drive tonight. Nothing like a deserted country road on a warm spring evening, engine purring like an affectionate cat, window down, arm playing in the wind.

Where'd that dang window crank land this time? The Official Speedhunters Twitter Feed. 3,562 Photos and videosViewing Tweets won't unblock @Speedhunters.You drive, I'll shoot. That is exactly what I said to Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire when we chased all sorts of drift cars in a brand new BMW M2.How to Get the Perfect Drift Shot With Larry Chen of SPEEDHUNTERS! EA headquarters in Redwood City, California Electronic Arts is a company that is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games, that was founded in 1982. Products of the company include EA Sports franchises, Sims, and other titles on both handheld and home gaming consoles. Electronic Arts often acquires new companies to expand or add to new product lines. For instance, EA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Probst said after the acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile that "we intend to build a leading global position in the [...] business of providing games on mobile phones".

[2] EA followed through with this later, making the company into EA Mobile, and allowing people to purchase and download content produced by them directly onto their phones.[1] After the acquisition of Origin Systems, some staff in that company claimed that Electronic Arts initially gave them more resources, but allowed little latitude if employees made a mistake, and in some cases no longer trusted them, and even worked against them.[4] EA has shut down entire companies or the studios thereof after acquiring them, including the studio DICE Canada, Origin Systems, EA Chicago (NuFX), and Pandemic Studios.[8] Gaming blogger Brian Crecente has said that fears that EA doesn't care about the quality of their products after they are acquired are debatable. As of February 2015, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of VG Holding Corp., the then-owner of video game developers Bioware and Pandemic Studios, for $775 million. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in the U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe, and eight elsewhere.

Some of these companies or their respective studios, however, are now defunct. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold a remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010. Each acquisition listed is for the entire company, unless otherwise noted. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between Electronic Arts (EA) and the subject of the acquisition. Unless otherwise noted, the value of each acquisition is listed in U.S. dollars, because EA is headquartered in the U.S. If the value of the acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. If the EA service that is derived from the acquired company is known, then it is also listed. ^ Includes $650 million in cash and the issuing of $100 million in EA common stock to certain shareholders of PopCap Games. Does not include additional cash possibly received based on earnings before interest and taxes milestones through December 2013.