Not quite to sure what to make of this, except that I know it was shot and posted by chasglynn.
Looks pretty professional to me, unlike some of the home-built campers I’ve seen.
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: Geo Metro Panel Van
– Posted on May 2, 2023
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Curbside Classics Archives
Looks DEAD on the side of the road. Totally appropriate for GEO!
It looks parked.
wrong… my daughter’s best friend had a humble 3 cyl Metro that went 200k with minimal issues!
It’s parked next to a stairway. Probably making a delivery perhaps.
Friend of mine had a Geo back in the day and it gave him trouble-free service for quite a while. This particular conversion looks pretty slick.
At least from this distance, it looks like whoever built this did a terrific job and should be quite proud of their work. This thing has a degree of finish that doesn’t usually accompany such things. LIke, matching paint.
Looks completely natural and practical!
It looks professional, my guess would be someone tried to start up a company making them.
Edit:
Apparently a one off
https://dailyturismo.com/loony-labor-day-1989-geo-metro-box-truck/
It looks quite good, even the mirrors have seen an appropriate upgrade. As well as 5-lug hubcaps!
These things (Metros) seem to last exceptionally long, it’s not at all uncommon to see them with 300,000 or more miles on them. Certainly an exceptional value for the money if inexpensive transportation is the primary goal and one isn’t concerned with trying to show off in the way a Nissan Sentra or Lincoln would… 🙂
If you told me these were sold in Europe I’d believe it. Looks quite good for a one off.
Obviously the upgraded 5 lug hubcaps help with the load capacity 😉
The Geo sibling, the Suzuki Cultus known elsewhere as Swift as sold in Europe and there was briefly a 4WD version sold in the late 1990s as Subaru Justy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Justy#Rebadged_models
Only way to make it look more factory would’ve been to start with a black-bumper/sealed-beam headlight base model and paint it white. It’s several cuts above the norm for “hold my beer” barnyard finish and looks like an ’80s/90s European car-derived van.
Love it.
The high rear end provides one way to keep the Lincolns and whatever from running over it.
It reminds me of a Renault 2CV Fourgonnette. It is also almost unbearably cute.
As others have mentioned it looks very nicely done. It definitely has a European vibe to it as well. The only upgrade I would do is some nicer wheels.
The person who made this was onto something. Back in the day, there were so many large commercial vans and delivery trucks/panel vans that would roll around often half full. Talk about a waste of fuel and expenses. I would look at these things and question why there wasn’t a much more efficient way of doing this. Finally you started seeing many smaller and more efficient vans (Ford Transit Connect??) and that tiny little Ram. Now it’s heading to EV delivery vehicles which I feel is great. Maybe this little Geo was onto something big.
It is nicely done; on that other site, someone opined that the owner should have simply bought European to begin with; but this is registered in California and his suggested vehicles are not certified by the Air Resources Board, so would be illegal.
Whoever did it did a nice job. But I can’t imagine that tiny engine pulling around that extra weight and wind resistance, let alone cargo.
The perfect thing for carrying your Geocache. 🙂
My thought is that , the five lugnuts you see ,are just part of the plastic hubcap. I can see a a black steel rim behind . Even if that were the case , Kudo’s for the well executed effort.
I’m thinking the Geo still get’s in the high thirties for mieage . Top speed ..well maybe a very scary 60 .A crosswind would preface many a spooky story..
When I saw “Geo Metro” and “Panel Van” in the same sentence, morbid curiosity dictated that I click on the link. Not the train wreck I was expecting, came out amazingly well, but can’t imagine how low the payload would be. Maybe rated to carry a couple of boxes of packing peanuts.
A 1990 Geo Metro is listed as weighing 1620 pounds. The GVWR of the same car is right around 2550 pounds (GVWR is vehicle plus anything added to it – people, cargo, etc). Glass is probably the heaviest part of the car and here it has less than it did originally, so if we (perhaps?) assume the weight of the vehicle remains the same overall then it would have 930 pounds of payload.
Many new fullsize 4×4 crewcab pickup trucks barely have over 1000 pounds of payload, especially full luxed-out (heavily optioned) ones.
The Metro is likely far more capable than most give it credit for.
You’re right Jim,
These things are remarkably well-built.
This one may have been adapted from a four-door, which is somewhat longer and has a heavier load rating.
I used to have a four door myself. Empty weight was over 1700 lbs and 70
Mph didn’t stress it at all.
In much of the world, vehicles this size take on loads and work that seems impossible to us. So they have to be tough.
A one off build probably, if you wanted an actual van from Suzuki they did make one and GM rebadged it around the planet to suit their various markets It was a Vauxhall/Bedford rascal in the UK, they had a tiny four banger.
The earlier shape Suzuki Swift this is based on was sold as a ‘van’ – actually being a three door hatch with no rear seat, plated to carry 350kg, IIRC. My Swift was one such ‘van conversion’; Suzuki didn’t have the quota to import them as cars, but commercials were exempt from import quotas. Tax dodge. Just don’t try registering it as a commercial.
To carry much more than that 350kg you’d really need the 1.3 four.
But a box truck on one of these… maybe it’s delivering balloons?
I’d love to see under it, to check out how they rigged a very lightly-built unitary shell to take a box body. Not saying it can’t be done, but safely?
“A I” pic?
https://web.archive.org/web/20220927114927/https://dailyturismo.com/loony-labor-day-1989-geo-metro-box-truck/
For sale in 2020. Link includes interior pics.
I like it, the guys at that link are harsh .
Is it -purple_ ? .
Should be perfect for ’round town low speed deliveries .
I’ve been driving my old VW Bug in the high Desert winds and I’m sure that thing would have flipped on it’s side .
-Nate
It reminds me of a Fiat Fiorino, this kind of small car based mini box van used to be common in Europe, but never caught on here