1996 Geo Metro problems
Owners have filed 116 complaints with NHTSA about the 1996 Geo Metro. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 25% of complaints. After that come electrical system (12%) and brakes (8%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 116 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 25% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 34 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 30 and 1
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
What the data shows
Safety-related details: 34 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 30 injuries reported; 1 death reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 98% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1996 ranks 2nd most-complained-about out of 10 model years of the Geo Metro with enough data (78 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Consumer was driving at approx 25 MPH, aprroaching red light, another vehicle came into contact with consumer vehicle which was running at approx above 30 MPH. Hit head on, extensive damage to front end. Drove vehicle 15 feet after impact , no airbags deployed,consumer sustained injuries in chest area/neck/right shoulder. Had seatbelt on.
I have already sent in a form but have never been contacted since by neither yourselves nor the manufactures of the vehicle. I still want to know why the air bags did not deploy with a perfect, headlight to headlight, front end collision. My first throught is that the things just don't work or that the airbag imprints are just for looks. The outo body shop at the chevy dealership could not even show me the sensor on the front end of the car.
I owned a 1994 and a 1996 geo metro I was involved in a head on with the 1994 and my air bag did not go off. When I reported it the dealer said I did not hit the sensors right. So I bought another one a 1996 lsi. I hit a chevrolet s10 going 15 MPH with no time to brake and nither one of my air bags went off in the car. The front bumper on this car had been removwed for repair and was not in place at the time of accident.
My daughter was turning into a private driveway. Lost steering and car came to immediate stop. The right front frame had rusted through and dropped car onto the assembly for the right front tire causing it to break and allowing the tire to turn outwards and stop the car. There is no repair to this, the car will be junked. If she had been on the highway this probably would have been a very serious accident. This really surprised us as the car had only a small amount of rust on the surfaces that we could see.
I purchased a 1996 geo metro sedan from a friend and I had driven it for about 3 months. The frame had rotted away from the control arms and broke the axel out of the transmission. I have also started to see this in other metros. I was wondering why there wasn't a recall on this from the manufacturer and if there was I would like to know because now I am without a car. If you could contact me that would be great.