Plans

WARNING this post may ramble a bit.......

I have nearly finished my Geo project, and so in the back of my mind there is a nagging feeling...soon I won't have anything to fix. This happened on my previous car, a 1986 Volvo. After I put in a lot of work, learned alot about Volvos, I got it fixed up pretty nice. Not perfect, but anything further would have been mostly expense, and not much experience. So I sold that, and bought this broken down Geo. Once that is fixed, I will be out of projects, but also out of cash. So I have a chance to dream a little bit.....

Part of me wants to make a mileage-getter. I could do it to this car, but I don't have a good feeling towards how long it will last. Its not rusty or anything, I just don't know on a fifteen year old car. So I could start looking for an engine/tranny, rebuild it completely - like balancing the crankshaft, and put in a 3.79 tranny, get it all ready to drop in. Then I would look for a prime candidate with a bad engine/tranny, and swap it in. This way I can go a step at a time, and not have too much invested before I decide.

Another intriguing possibility is making a wood powered truck. I have researched this a bit, and there is a hopper, some filters, and a little fabrication to do. Yes you can run a car on wood. I would do a truck, simply for the extra space in the bed to hold the gasifier. Also a truck is a good candidate for conversion to steam power, as it is rear wheel drive, and again has plenty of room in the back. I would dearly love to do a Metro conversion of some sort, but they are very tight on space.

Perhaps a diesel Metro....I have seen some videos on Youtube of them, they have been done. It would be fairly simple compared to the other options. The question being, is it worth it? Would the mileage go up enough to make it cost effective?

The car of my dreams......a Cyclone engine in a Geo Metro. Google it.

Anyways, enough rambling and daydreaming.....Ive got a gasket coming Monday that will get me back on the road, and finish this stage of the project. So what next?

Redeveloping the Plan

I've decided to take a new direction with my Metro. As you may remember, part of the original idea was to buy a cheap one that needs work, and fix it up for sale at a higher price. The first questions, then are:

1. What can I buy them for

2. What can I sell them for,

3. What does it cost to fix it.

I have yet to find any concrete answers to these questions.

In the first question, I have been monitoring Geo prices for over 4 months. They range from $3000 down to $100 in this area. Now of course that is only the listing price, I have no way to know what they are actually selling for. I paid $200 for one, only to find so many problems that I would gladly have paid $400 to avoid them. But if I hadn't seen that one, then I might have paid $400 for similar problems, and wish I'd bought a better one for $600! The same junker could be sold for $50, $100 $200 or $400 and its hard to tell what's a fair price.

In the second question, I really am lost. First off, how much would a person pay for a fixed up geo metro? It depends on the person, I suppose. And the car, to a lesser extent. I don't think there is an established price, except for basic transport, which is 1000 to 1500. There may not be a market above this level. On the other hand, at least a quarter of the metros I see are priced around 2000 or higher, as high as 3500. So what makes these cars different? Maybe the owners are dreaming. Maybe the cars really are “better” in some sense. They certainly are clean, with no obvious problems. So is that worth $1000? I don't know.

The third question is relatively easy to answer. The parts are readily available, and you simply total up what needs replacing and weigh that against the cost of the car. Then you know if its worth purchasing. But that calculation depends on the answers to the other two – like this: I see a car for $200. I can fix the car (I think) for $800 in parts and 30 hrs of labor, at $35/hr, about $1000, so I need then to sell for $2000. But if I can't sell it for $2000, I can't make that one work. How do you find out the absolute sale price without risking a lot of investment? I don't know. I suspect there is not a market for “fixed up” Geos, only for cheap ones that still run. The “nice” metros are few and far between, and those who appreciate them are mostly already members of the GMF.

So, as I said I am changing direction: I am going to keep the metro, because I do appreciate all the finer points, and I can just fix the parts that I care about. I may put carpet in it, but I am much more anxious to get it drivable first. This takes out the guesswork of knowing what I should fix and to what degree – I don't really know what “most people” value in a car, but I know what I want.

I am selling my Volvo 240 wagon, to clear the decks and free up some cash. The metro will be my only car, and I hope it does me well. Of course, I have the use of other vehicles, but this one is mine, and I will use it as such.

Developing A Plan

I would like to get into the business of buying junky Metros at a low price, and fixing them up for sale.

I have reason to believe this could be lucrative, but I don't know for sure as no one I know of does this exactly. PAMetrofixer, and many others on this page do the actual work, mostly the mechanicals on the engine. However, no one buys them, fixes and resells them. Johnny Mullet said if he had a supply of them, he would consider rebuilding them for sale. So, the idea is there, but the details have yet to be worked out.

The thing that will be the hardest I think is quickly identifying good deals at low cost. One critical factor is developing an eye for problems. There are a lot of “inspecting a used car” guides out there, but all of them say, have it looked at by a pro mechanic. That's got to be me. So. To gain experience, I want to look at lots of “deals” and try to identify problems. There aren't many Metros in my area, so I will mostly look at other makes and models.

Once I have identified problems, I can make the adjustments in price. Basically, I want all the costs of fixing these problems, plus the purchase price, to add up to $500 or less. So, if the head is cracked and the carpet is shot, I add $100 for the head, plus $130 for new carpet, plus say a $250 asking price equals $480, just under my ideal price and thus a good deal. But if the asking price was already $400, then I could offer $250 or leave it alone.

Then there's the travel problem. I want to physically inspect everything before I commit to buying it. This requires two trips. Also, a non- productive trip costs gas and time, which must be paid for by the profits from selling other Metros. Craigslist does not provide much information, usually you get an asking price and maybe a picture. Sometimes if there's an obvious problem they'll describe it in the ad to explain the low price.

A second problem is how to detect problems when the engine isn't working. This can be gotten around somewhat by checking the condition of the fluid (oil, coolant, ATF)

Rust is a no-brainer. If the frame is rusty, then no go. Body rust, I will deduct something from the price. I think Johnny Mullet is right about the body shops that won't touch frame problems, for liability reasons. Maybe there's a way around that, I don't know.

Once I have a fixer upper, then I have to fix it. I need to make a serious investment in space to work and specific tools. This has to be as low and recoverable as possible. Used and borrowed tools should help with this. For a list of intended fixes see here. This part has been well documented and I expect to find lots of help from the forum community. However, my fixes may tend towards the cosmetic stuff, depending on what the market is interested in.

Now that the car is in good shape, I expect to sell it for $2500 to $3500. Watching the market for a while may help me fine tune that. My ideal customer wants to save gas, but doesn't like the stereotypical junky little car that smells bad, etc. These folks probably are not inclined to do the major reconditioning themselves, but some may return later for service at my self service garage (more on that idea another day). These potential customers have been looking at cars priced several thousand dollars higher, so maybe these prices will not turn them off.

Attracting customers is always a challenge. I intend to make full use of the internet, but cars by nature are best sold locally. Craigslist is a good possibility, being localized. Billboards cost $500 to $1000 per month, so that's not an option. Maybe word of mouth is enough, I doubt it. Having the cars in a lot by a busy road may help. A display of Metros is certainly unusual.

Sorry for the long article, but I think best by writing it all out.