Rare Pristine 80s Japanes? Economy Car.

"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo)
04/16/2018 at 19:35 • Filed to: None

Check this out guys. An 88 Chevy Sprint Metro. Pretty neat little car that was the beginning of Chevy and Suzuki’s partnership. GM did the early development of the car, I presume as a Chevette replacement, but decided to sell it off. The sold it to Suzuki for a 5% stake in the company(ripped straight from the Wikipedia page).

It was also called... the Suzuki Cletus in Japan (my wife just pointed out to me that it’s Cultus not Cletus but I like Cletus better) in the US it was the Forsa, and in other markets the Swift and those are just it’s Suzuki names. Also a Holden Banria, Pontiac Firefly, and of coarse the aforementioned Chevy Sprint.

So it’s a car without no real identity, it’s mainy American design, but Japanese “refined”, and produced in several countries and then sold under 7 different names, disguised as 5 different brands.

It originally had a rear leaf spring design but in 86 that was replaced by a Coil Spring setup.

Obviously the interior on a basic 80s economy hatchback is going to be spartan but wow. It’s so simple and bare. I love it.

This Particular Car has the 1.0 3 cylinder engine, the ad makes no mention of whether it’s carbureted or EFI but both were available for this model year. Along with a Turbo 1.0 model in some markets.