• DigitalDruid@lemmy.sdf.org
    12·
    1 month ago

    I drove across the country with my best friend in his 3-cylinder aqua geo metro that had a huge eagle on the side that said Windrider.

    After going over the Sierra Nevadas there was a horrible clicking in the engine. It was Sunday evening, in a small town, and we thought we were screwed. After calling around a mechanic answered his shop phone and invited us to bring the vehicle to his house! After a brief inspection the fella walks up to us in disbelief and says ‘boys that car ain’t got no oil in it at all!’; He gave us oil and we were on our way!

    We tried to take it to Area 51 but the roads were INSANELY bumpy and we couldn’t find it as it got dark. Then a half hour later we are driving down the freeway and we hear an awful series of clunks from the engine compartment. Then the car stops working! We pull over and have to call AAA. The next morning at a shop the mechanic comes over to us in disbelief and says ‘boys, yer alternator is missing!’. Damn alternator fell off!

    Later in kentucky on a long long long ass downhill straightaway we managed to get the vehicle up to 87mph, which had the speedo pegged but I had an old garmin gps that clocked us. It was difficult for the windrider to hit 65 usually so this was quite exciting for us.

    Also got a speeding ticket in kentucky, in the middle of rush hour traffic. While moving along bracketed tightly in on every side by vehicles, the traffic was moving about 10 over the limit. Cop saw our out of state plates and singled us out and I got the ticket. He probably thought I would pay it since I was obviously from out of town. Hell no I just never went back to kentucky!

    It was a pretty magical trip. We listened to Art Bell live on the radio, played tapes from a box of tapes we brought and heard the Diamondbacks win the world series live.

    If you ever get a chance to go across country on a road trip with your best friend I highly recommend it.

  • retrospectology@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 month ago

    I do wish we had some modern iteration of this, super efficient little cars even for gas-powered. I always wanted one of the hatchbacks.

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      1 month ago

      They were basically Kei cars for the US. This was before every suburban mom and dad-bro decided they needed 3 ton trucks to drop the kids off at school while watching TikTok videos though.

      Safety requirements basically make building cars this cheap and light impossible now. Also the overweight trucks make them less compelling and more risky to drive.

  • Bob Robertson IX@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 month ago

    This was almost my first car: the Geo Metro convertible.

    If I’m remembering correctly the weight capacity of this car was something like 350 pounds, which meant that my dad and I wouldn’t have been able to ride in it at the same time. That wasn’t the reason I didn’t get it (it was used and had been wrecked and the radiator was held in place with Bondo)… I really wished it would have worked out.

    I went on to get a 71 VW Super Beetle. I like cute cars.