Geo Metros? Wow, I am surprised one is still running around. They were built by Suzuki for GM. They were a piece of junk. VW's like Mercedes Benz are not what they were 30-40 years ago, they are now high maintenance cost cars, I would not recommend them. The best car for mechanical repair incidence is the Toyota Camry with the 4 cylinder engine. If you can find a 2001 or older (see*) with under 200,000 miles, you can get 200,000 more miles out of it easy with just changing the oils. If you find an older, retiree type owner that kept them in garage, you can pay him top dollar and have a good looking car forever.
* Up to 2001 the 4 cylinder Camry engine was a non-interference engine. On non-interference engines if the timing belt broke, the car would just stop running. All you do then is change the timing belt and you are good to go for 120,000 miles to who knows what. On the 2002 models and forward the engines were interference engines, if the timing belt busted on them, the pistons would hit the valves and the engine was destroyed. Not a good thing! If you can find any car with a non-inference engine, you will have that piece of mind. Especially that you are buying an old car. To change the timing belt on an interference engine can cost $1000 and more. Someone sells you an inference engine car that has not had the belt changed, you drive it 6 months and the belt breaks and you no longer have a car. People lie about having changed the timing belt. Mechanics can lie too, and the person thinks they changed the timing belt when they didn't.
Geo Metro. No. Just no. Please don't. As the old joke goes, they have shock absorbers, they're called "passengers". I rented one many years ago in Florida. This is not a car you want to spend any money on.
I hear what LT is saying about <2001 Camrys, and he is right, however, I recently had to invest in a new car in a big hurry, my father was in his last days, and I absolutely had to have reliable transportation, so I bought a new 2021 Camry LE. 3500 miles so far and I'm loving it. Low 20s MPG city, 30+ MPG highway, got it up to 34 MPG on a recent hours-long road trip. Again, I had to have reliable wheels
right now, and after beating back and forth the new-vs-used argument, I had to choose one or the other, so I chose new. No worries so far, it does everything I need a car to do, putting the key in the ignition and having the car run is part of this "everything". I am assuming this will be my car for at least the next ten years.
I tried not to let my desperation show to the dealer, and I think I hid it pretty well. Bottom line, I needed a car, I got a car.