Today my new blogging friend from The Bean Blog told me that her husband sold their oldest son’s Geo Metro while she wasn’t looking. He apparently made a tidy profit on the sale and so now they are having to look for another car for the newly driving teen.

At first I was focused on trying to help them chose a car and then I had to stop and ask: “Did you say a Geo and made money?”

I remembered some eBay Motors research that I had from a couple of years ago that showed that one of the cars with the highest sell through rate (successfully sold) on eBay were Geo’s. That isn’t to say that they were selling for a ton of money. What it did mean was that when they were being listed they were usually started at a very low price and the auctions were run with no reserve. Highest bidder wins and since someone is always looking for a bargain on eBay, they would sell. But the Geo selling in 2006 were going for under a $1000. Pretty much the bargain rate car.

Out of curiosity I went to eBay Motors completed auctions and found to my surprise that there was a Geo Metro that recently sold for $7300. Another went for $7200. Not only are they selling, they are selling high!

Why is this? The Geo series, a joint effort of General Motors and Suzuki, were pretty well built cars. The Geo Prizm, for example, is a Toyota Corolla rebadged. The Geo Metro though, specifically, gets 40+ miles per gallon. Sure, they were never sexy but with gas prices on the rise, they are looking a lot better everyday. Cute with benefits.

Like the Prizm the Metro has its own re-badged twins which will probably start selling well as used cars soon: the Pontiac Firefly and the Suzuki Swift. I am expecting that the Subaru Justy will have its own comeback as well. Who would have ever guessed that these originally low cost cars would see their renaissance so soon!

Originally posted here