

Fiesta will be rated at 29/40 city/highway









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RE: Geo Metro 20 years ago..
By teldar on 5/17/2010 8:14:32 AM , Rating: 2
And it was a 4 wheeled, 1400 lb death trap compared to today's cars. The new fiesta weighs 2500 pounds to meet current safety legislation. Do you think that makes a difference?
Lets compare apples and oranges.

RE: Geo Metro 20 years ago..
By bety on 5/17/2010 10:48:15 PM , Rating: 2
LOL! It was hardly a "deathtrap". today.

However, I am well aware of the weight differential. I was not trying to say that current cars do not have other advantages!

Only making a note of how, in terms of actual MPG, we've gone backwards in some ways!

Thus, it's hard for me to get excited over a fiesta with 40mpg.

RE: Geo Metro 20 years ago..
By goku on 5/18/2010 3:50:18 AM , Rating: 2
The only high MPG vehicle that I'm aware of that weighed that little was the 1986 Chevrolet Sprint ER; even the '89 - '94 Geo Metros weighed AT LEAST 1650lbs. For those who aren't aware, the "Chevy Sprint" is the 1st generation "metro" with the "Geo Metros" being the Second generation ('89-'94) and then the ('95-'01) being the third generation, which btw are all just rebadged Suzuki Swifts. The beloved CRX weighed at a minimum 1800lbs and got up to 2100lbs in the higher trims. Also, the CRX was crash tested and received 4-5 stars; 5 for driver, 4 for passenger, then in later years it was 5 for passenger, 4 for driver which is very good. However, the Chevrolet Sprint received 1 star and was probably the worst rated vehicle I had ever line with the 80s Chevrolet Suburban (also 1 star rated). It's not hard to make a good crash test rated vehicle that weighs very little, what's difficult is making that same vehicle safe against a much heavier vehicle. There is a reason why people die when they crash head-on into a semi-truck, regardless of what they're driving.

As for the Fiesta weighing what is weighs, most the reason isn't the safety systems but because it's actually a pretty big car inside..big enough for at least 2 tall people (over 6 feet) to comfortably sit in the back seats. Safety systems don't weigh 1000lbs, what weighs 1000lbs are "luxuries" and the fact that the vehicle's shell isn't made of iron oxide (it can actually withstand a crash). You can call a vehicle that comes with a rigid body a "safety system" but I feel it serves at least two purposes, one is better handling and the other is safety..

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here, let me just point out how much bigger say a '97 Civic Hatchback is compared with an '88 Chevy Sprint, much like the one I started off this response with.

Chevrolet Sprint Metro (85?-88) Rear leg room, 29.8", Front Headroom 37", Rear Headroom 36"
Geo Metro hatch (89-94) Rear leg room, 29.8" Front Headroom 37.8", Rear Headroom 36.5"
Civic Hatch (96-00) Rear leg room, 34.1" Front Headroom 38.8", Rear Headroom 37.2".

Also, the shoulder room in the Civic is about 1" more than the metros.. But the reason is very obvious for why the metros weigh so little and have so little interior room (relatively). The '85-'88 Sprint Metro is only 144.5" long and that is increased to 147.4" for the '89-'94 Geo Metros while the '96-'00 Civic Hatchback is a "whopping" 164.5" long.

To conclude, the weight of these vehicles is what it is not because of "onerous" government mandates (there really aren't all that many) but because people don't want to feel like sardines and because people think they need 3 moonroofs, air conditioning, power everything, an assload of sound deadening, etc. If you scrap all of those luxuries, you'll quickly see the weight of vehicles fall. Either make the vehicles smaller, remove some "luxuries" or switch to what we currently consider "exotic materials" by using lexan instead of glass, or aluminum instead of steel for the body. Now, if you want to talk about how costs to purchase a new vehicle has climbed since the mandate for such things as car airbags, I'm all ears because those things aren't cheap.

RE: Geo Metro 20 years ago..
By bety on 5/18/2010 6:17:36 AM , Rating: 2
Wow. Great post.

Yes, I was going to point out that my CRX was nowhere near 1400lbs...but once people start throwing around rhetorical nonsense like "deathtrap", it's a safe bet that they just want to vent their emotional bias, and aren't genuinely interested in a thoughtful, informed discussion!

