I wouldn't buy the Metro if you have any intentions of ever driving someone around. I was driving two friends yesterday (granted both are probably over 200 lbs) and it was the worst driving experience I've ever had. The Metro could hardly make it over the tiniest of hills, pulling them at 30 mph with the pedal pressed to the floor. Then when I finally built up speed and had to brake, I also had to press the brake pedal to the floor to get it to slow down. Handling was horrible. Nearly ran out of the road several times.

The Metro really is a one person car. I wouldn't ever reccomend driving more than 2 at the most....

Go with a Civic.

VX was discontinued and HX is the new high fuel efficiency gas only all though not nearly as good FE as a vx... really the hybrid is the true VX replacement because it has similar FE... my sister has a new honda civic hybrid and she said they only get 40mpg. I think its a shame, I told her she should join gassavers, but she hasn't replied. At any rate Si is the highest trim with largest motor, EX is the highest trim with the LX, DX, HX motor. Depends on what years you are looking at as to if the HX is a hatch or if the Si is a hatch or so on. Hatches are generally lighter than the standard civics.

There is a great resource that I always go to for my cars... auctions. You simply can not beat the prices. Many of the cars just need bolt on body parts to become drivable again.

Here are a couple examples...

1996 200SX paid $1200 with parts sold for $2500 two years later.
1996 200SX paid $1100 with parts sold for $1500 a year later.
1991 Integra paid $1000 with parts sold for $500 five years later (with no clutch!!)

Point being, if you have any skill (or a desire to learn) in fixing up bumps and scratches, then there is big money to be saved, or even made, by buying cars at auto auctions. Just try to go for the cars with clear titles.

Erdrick:

I'll have to look into the auction thing. How far is Toyota from Tokyo? Didn't they rename that city after the car company? I should have went to the plant while is was in Japan.

Welp, in atomicradish's defense, it is an auto. That being said, my 45bhp when brand new diesel can pull me, my buddy, and groceries uphill in 2nd at ~45mph, and it has 350k miles on it w/ way too much oil consumption. A standard is definitely nice for certain cars...

A standard is nice for any car its available in, I think that some people shouldn't be driving and maybe an automatic is the only thing allowing them to drive. Erdrick how do you get into an auction?

Yeah, unfortunately it is an automatic.

It does need to have the steering re-aligned, but it is not nearly that bad. I was fighting the manual steering all the way. It is definetly not for curvy mountain roads, which I was driving on. The grades were not exceptionally steep though. I can't imagine trying to drive it up an actual mountain. I laughed just thinking about how the car would drive with the AC on.

A manual is always nice. I am very capable of driving one.

I wasn't aiming the comment towards you atomic, just to how people drive in general. I think highly of most drivers on this site.

What kind of driving do you expect to be doing? All city? Highway? What kind of communt? Considering where you are moving to, like others have suggested a Civic would be best with any freeway travel.

Yes, auto auctions are the way to go. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about how they are run.

Toyota is about a 4-5 hour drive from Tokyo. It is to the west, kind of a mid-way point between Tokyo and Kyoto. As for the town name, yes, it was renamed after the car company. The car company's founder's names were originally Toyoda. They actually changed it because they knew that they would one day dominate the global market, and they wanted a name that would be easy for all people around the world to be able to pronounce.