Vehicles that Aspies and others hate to get behind!

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i used to drive a prius, and my mileage never dropped below 40 miles per gallon despite a heavy right foot. but the insurance premiums doubled on me [the electronics cost a helluva lot so it is easily totalled] when i got that car, so i had to trade it in on something more conventional.

THREE cylinders! can you tell me if it has an exhaust which sounds more like a 5-cylinder job or a 4?

I don't know anyone with a 5 cylinder gas engined car so I really couldn't tell you. It definitely has it's own special sound and feel though. If anything, it has more of a Subaru boxer 4 sound to it. The engine seems to have an interesting personality and little things affect how it runs. For example, the idle is smoother when it is hot outside than when it is cold. The idle is never all that smooth to begin with (the Suzuki G10 engine does not have a balance shaft), but in the winter it becomes quite noticeable. I drive the car 30-40,000 miles a year (it has over a quarter million on it now) and so I tend to notice every little thing it does. Mostly this is in city traffic, where it gets 40 mpg with the A/C off and 28mpg with it on. If it was an automatic, it would probably lose another 5-10 mpg over the 5 speed mine has. It's actually more fuel efficient than a Smart Fortwo (the only 3 cylinder car on the market in the US) and has almost exactly the same turning circle. Unlike the Smart, it seats 4 adults in reasonable discomfort. It also weighs 100-200lbs less than a Smart car and is easier and cheaper to service.

thanx for the info. it's been my experience that the smart4two is not a practical vehicle, because it requires expensive premium gas, rides horribly roughly over the smoothest pavement [like it has no suspension to speak of] and handles poorly to boot [like a go-cart on stilts driving too fast]. but i've long like metros, they have a certain charm about them and a practical outward size. i'm amazed that nobody considered making a luxury version of one [with air suspension, enhanced sound insulation/NVH suppression, et al].

But my other car does that and isn't a hybrid.

is it an automatic?

2000 Mirage 1.5L 5 speed manual If I drive for max mileage I get 50mpg but with my heavy right foot it averages 40-42 mpg.

Actually, they do! In Pakistan, they still make the 1989-94 Metro 4 door hatch and sell it as the PakSuzuki Cultus. It has power everything, but they have recently switched to a 4 cylinder 1 liter engine instead of the old 3 cylinder 1 liter. PakSuzuki

As far as it goes, I have added some luxury to mine. It has the seats from a Suzuki Esteem, and a stereo that combines a decent HD radio/iPod receiver and bits and pieces from a Jaguar XJ-6 and a VW Pasaat. The pieces I used were the map pockets and speaker housings from the Jag, and the woofers from the Monsoon sound system that came from the VW. I had to make mounting plates for the speakers and they were cut from a scrap hood off an old AMC that I had lying around. I also made my own door panels for the front and am planning a space-efficient speaker box for the cargo area that will integrate a set of Rockford 6x9's I pulled from another junkyard car and a 10 inch Alpine sub I had left over from another project. The dash has a set of JBL coaxials I took from a junked MK II Jetta many years ago. I also integrated a GPS into the dash and it has somewhat cold A/C that I fixed to work using pieces from a few different Metros. I'm also planning on adding sway bars from a later Metro (I have them already) and want to add some of the heat shielding from a late model VW or Cadillac too.

honda odysseys. ive yet to see one which was not packed full of people and everyone wasnt on a f*****g phone, feet on the dash, driving erratically, not following any of the normal courtesy/rules of the road and being a general pain in the ass.

Water trucks.

wow i don't mean to embarrass you but you are my tech hero

The scary thing is, this is the vehicle I have probably done the LEAST to! I have cars that I have stripped to a bare shell and built back from the ground up. I also do my own paint and body work, welding, electrical and all my own mechanical stuff. I want to learn to sew so that I can also do upholstery work on seats and such. Right now, I am limited to carpeting, door panels and headliners.

I am also gathering parts right now to build the ultimate Geo Metro. I have the transmission and some of the engine, as well as a spare rust and accident free shell so far, but I still need a lot more. When it's done, it should get 45-50 mpg city and 60-65 mpg hwy due to the engine I am building and the gearing in the transmission I am using. I am painting it a bright blue color (the original "competition blue" color that was available when new) that looks like a blue M&M candy. I'll also have the Metro decals reproduced in a lime green color for contrast. I plan to go one step further though and call it a Metro "XFE". It's basically a pun on the original Metro XFI, which was the ultra efficient model that got 58 mpg hwy. I always hated the XFI designation though since it didn't mean anything. My designation will mean "Xtreme Fuel Economy", which I hope it will get. Unlike the original XFI though, it will be a different color (originals were only metallic green or white) and have air conditioning. I also want to buy a "MPGuino" kit so that I will have a fuel economy gauge and can then hypermile it for maximum efficiency. I just have to figure out how to integrate it into the gauge cluster and make it look factory. Perhaps I will need to modify the circuit board a bit and make it work with a smaller LED display...hmm...

BTW... can you tell that my "special interest" is cars and mechanical engineering ?

can you do suspension work? my interest would be in taking a car that rides roughly over pockmarked/rutted/bumpy roads [stiff suspension] and give it an improved supple suspension that can enable the wheels to step over the bumps but still handle decently. i've noticed that nearly all cars sold nowadays have suspensions heavily biased towards handling sharpness and away from ride comfort.

You would have to be able to find someone who makes springs for the vehicle that are softer than stock, and that is normally impossible to find. Alternately, if you knew what you wanted in terms of spec, you could have a company that manufactures springs like Eaton or Eibach make a set for you. This would be outside my area of expertise though as I always want stiffer suspension and so my knowledge is slanted in that direction. My cars usually ride like trucks, and I drive them 30-40k miles a year.

Or you can roll up with one of these:

i can tell you are far more physically rugged than i am. my back protests when i hit a bump.