1997 Geo Metro LSi Hatchback with 342,694 Miles Is Junkyard Treasure

General Motors' Geo brand was launched in 1989, selling cars built and/or designed by Suzuki, Isuzu, and Toyota until the end came in 1997. The best known of the Geo models was the Metro, a rebadged second-generation Suzuki Cultus, and today's Junkyard Treasure in Colorado is the highest-mile Geo (and the highest-mile Suzuki) I've ever found during my junkyard travels.

Metros still had five-digit odometers until fairly deep into the 1990s, so I may have walked right by better-traveled discarded examples without knowing they were special. Prior to this car, the highest-mile Suzuki-built vehicle I'd found was a 2000 Esteem wagon with 237,255 miles; the top Geo-badged vehicle was a 1990 Prizm with 321,981 miles (but that car is really a Toyota Corolla, well known for longevity).

This Metro also ranks as the third-best final odometer reading among Canadian-built cars I've documented in the boneyards, after a 434k-mile Dodge Caravan and a 412k-mile Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.

The June 1997 date on the build tag tells us this is one of the very last Geos built at the CAMI plant in Ontario, where GM now builds electric delivery vans. Production of the Metro continued after that summer, of course, but the Metro, Prizm, and Tracker became Chevrolets for the 1998 model year.

This is a Metro LSi, so it has the "big-block" 1.3-liter four-cylinder and its 70-hp instead of the 55-horse 1.0-liter three-cylinder that went into the base Metro. The MSRP for this car started at $9,180 ($18,149 in 2024 dollars), while the base '97 Metro hatchback listed at just $8,580 ($16,963 after inflation).

That made the latter the cheapest new automobile available in the United States for 1997, beating the Hyundai Accent, Ford Aspire, Kia Sephia, and all the rest (including the Metro's near-identical twin, the Suzuki Swift).

While the original buyer of this car felt willing to part with $785 extra for air conditioning ($1,552 in today's money), the transmission is the base five-speed manual. This shift knob is a bit of a puzzler.

Someone applied patches of red paint and glued on some Suzuki badges, presumably not long before this car arrived here.

CAMI kept building Metros in Canada after the 1997 model year, but they were badged as Chevrolets from 1998 until the end came in 2001.

This car has an innovative padded T-handle gearshift for the five-speed manual transmission.

Air conditioning cost an extra $785 in this car. That's $1,552 in 2024 dollars, raising the total price of the car by close to 10%.

The base Metro hatchback was the cheapest new car available in the United States for the 1997 model year, squeezing under the price tags of such affordable machines as the Hyundai Accent, Suzuki Swift, Ford Aspire and Kia Sephia.

Burt Chevrolet Geo is now John Elway Chevrolet.

This exhaust tip added precisely zero horsepower.

The base Metro still got the 1.0-liter three-banger, but the upscale LSi received this "big-block" 1.3-liter four-cylinder and its 70 horses.

Someone was very proud of this car's Suzuki heritage and glued this badge on the driver's door.

There's also a Suzuki hood ornament, but the VIN says it's a Geo. Geo Metros and Suzuki Swifts were built on the same assembly line at CAMI Automotive.