GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

baltimore17

Hope y'all don't mind a blast-from-the-past update on my Vibe.Tomorrow my Lava Red Vibe will be eight years old; hard to believe. At the rate it's going, with very few unscheduled maintenance actions, it'll likely last another eight years.It has just under 70K miles, kept down somewhat by the 11K mi...

baltimore17

Hard to believe it's been over 3 years since I got the Vibe. Just passed 30K miles. Only failure under warantee was the stock CD player ate a CD and wouldn't give it back. Other than that, perfect.The interior does rattle in cold weather, mostly around the base of the left A pillar and the DRL light...

baltimore17

Back in Dec 02, after having the Vibe for a month, I reported no problems. Well, the car's now 16 months old, has a little over 12K miles, and has not been back to the dealer a single time for any problem whatsoever.In cold weather, I'll occasionally hear one of those rattles that seems to come from...

baltimore17

Lava monotone. No discoloration. But it chips with nothing more than the landing of a butterfly. My Saturn had fewer chips after a decade.

baltimore17

Ordered mine, waited months, got exactly what I wanted. Well, mostly. I really wanted rear disk brakes on the base Vibe and would have liked a bright blue metalic paint with tan interior, but the marketing mavens stood in the way. As it is, the Lava monotone makes me grin when I see it in the sunlig...

baltimore17

Yes I would. The GM credit card rebate keeps me in the GM fold, and GM makes no other small, economical wagon (oops, I mean crossover SUV). Don't want no 20 MPG fuel suckers.The build quality is excellent, although I have more chips in the paint after 11 months than I had on my Saturn SW2 after 10 y...

baltimore17

Whatever you do, don't put in stiffer hangers. The flexible rubber absorbs exhaust noise. You think you like the sound that comes out of your tailpipe? The sound you'd get conducted into the interior by stiff hangers from all the intermediate points, prior to all the mellowing of the muffler, is nas...

baltimore17

I call it "The Vibe". It even came with a nameplate on the door in case I forget.

baltimore17

A little story about a carefully maintained, special car.Once upon a time (1982), I bought a Trans Am. It was very special as it was one of only 2000 built that year with factory installed Recaro buckets. With every option available, the window sticker was joined by a second page. It was black and, ...

baltimore17

quote:Since you only buy a car once every 10 years, GM probably won't exactly consider you a targeted consumer for marketing!This is true. On the other hand, two, six and four are the numbers of friends who bought the same model car after looking over, respectively, my 1975 Chevy Monza, 1982 Trans A...

baltimore17

I stand in awe at your list!PS: "Horribly expensive"? I look at Macs vs. Windoze machines (one of which I'm sentenced to use in perpetuity at work) sort of like power steering and power brakes. Once upon a time, they cost extra. You could save about $150 by getting non-powered versions, bu...

baltimore17

quote: If you want a real laugh, I'll post a list of the Macs I currently own. I'm probably not the most overpopulated house-of-Mac, but it's a start17" flat panel iMac on my home office desk.PowerMac 7200/90 sitting on the iMac's shipping carton next to the desk (host for Zip drive and Minolta...

baltimore17

Go take a look (the pics gotta be out there somewhere on the web) at a late-'60s Chevy Malibu, Pontiac LeMans, Olds Cutlass and Buick Skylark. It's funny how they all seemed to have distinctive styling at the time, but are so very similar on things like the C pillar and beltline. So, GM (and all the...

baltimore17

Do you really need 91 octane with the SC? Will the knock sensor still save your (removed) with 87 octane, albeit with lower peak power? Will the knock sensor so retard your spark that you get nothing out of the SC with regular gas?

baltimore17

Not sure if it's the camera or my monitor, but that yellow looks just a little greenish. I like the warmer yellows, more towards the schoolbus-orange end of the spectrum. I probably would have bought such a color (see the Genvibe banner car), but likely would have lived to regret it. In the long run...

baltimore17

I've not vacummed, swept, nor shaken out my floor mats in 10 months. No wear and tear that I can see. I'll let you know what's under the layer of sand and gravel when I excavate. Probably in late 2005.

baltimore17

I've really grown to love the adjustable tiedowns and tracks in the back. I bought a batch of bungee cords, keep them in the car, and find myself using them about three times a month.The biggest thing carried so far was a 24-foot extension ladder (12 feet collapsed length) with a couple of feet hang...

baltimore17

quote:Vibe: The Vibe will be freshened for the 2006 model year. In the long term, GM is looking for a V-6-powered vehicle for that segment and may replace the Vibe with a vehicle on the Epsilon mid-sized car architecture. The Toyota-engineered Vibe is offered with a four-cylinder engine. GM just doe...

baltimore17

Does this mean that Pontiac finally figured out that customers couldn't read the all-red gauges while wearing dark sunglasses?

baltimore17

quote:Question: seems you work at a dealer...any chance you could look into finding out if 03 owners can upgrade to the 04 gauges, and if so, what it would cost?Any word on that? I think Pontiac should offer the upgrade for free to those who wear sunglasses and think it's a safety issue being able (...

baltimore17

After washing the outside of my Vibe and drying it off with a cotton terry towel, I take the damp (not wet) towel and wipe down the interior. So far, that approach has completely removed the marks on the upper part of the dash every time. You'll probably get streaks with a wet towel, so go for only ...

baltimore17

The PT Cruiser cargo cover really impressed me when I first saw it. Chevy is coming out with a five door hatch "Malibu Maxx" that has the same kind of multi-position versitility in its cargo cover. You'll have to wait about a year, though. The hired-for-eye-candy spokesperson at the NY Aut...

baltimore17

From the plant nursery, I hauled home four flats of flowers, three cubic feet of peat moss, and a 50 pound sack of planting soil. From the Home Depot, I hauled five, ten foot long PVC electrical conduits. A trip to the North Central Railroad trail had my bike in the back (no rack, no wheels removed)...

baltimore17

quote:Its like the car I'm driving right now ('93 Saturn SW2) was the first SW2 sold in this area. The car I had until I got my Vibe last November was a '93 SW2. I was the first to order at Saturn of Glen Burnie when they finally could accept orders, and the second to pick one up; I was on a busines...

baltimore17

Scott: Take a pill and chill. Nobody in the world likes getting called stupid or clueless. Your response is deliberately offensive. The fact that you still have a 100% rating after 1113 posts just means that the moderators don't care to limit your pervasive flames. I, for one, am sick and tired of i...

baltimore17

Got the call. Usually hate phone surveys. Really was glad to tell her that the NUMMI folks had produced my car with absolutely no defects whatsoever. And after ten weeks, still nothing has gone wrong.Regarding the other thread weaving its way into this one, the dribble on the back window does the jo...

baltimore17

It looks like Pontiac is taking factory orders for the packages. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a while to get your car. According to http://www.donlen.com/Whats_New/new_production_cars_gm.html in the 2/3/03 update, The following options are on indefinite restriction: Spoiler Package (PDE) Sport...

baltimore17

Some suppliers claim to use real wood or carbon fiber. I'm still wondering if these are replacement panels or thin, flexible overlays that stick over the existing plastic.

baltimore17

quote:$1k for solenoid remote electric door lack !!!!! I can ave it for about $150 (canadian) if I install it myself or for about $300-$350 (cdn)installed.Do such things actually exist? Cool, I want one! I was using my overheated imagination for that (Ben, ton anglais, pas parfait, est mieux que mon...

baltimore17

I'm looking around the house for a wall I can tear out and rebuild so I have an excuse to go out and bring home some 8 foot 2x4s. Or big, long pipes! Oh boy, I know there's a bathroom somewhere around here that needs some serious renovating.

baltimore17

Mini Cooper because it's really small, is great in a city environment, is very cool looking, and can carry at least some stuff with the hatch.Celica GT, because it's really, really cool looking, can carry some stuff with the hatch, and is (in style, size, and layout), a 2003 equivalent of my first a...

baltimore17

I'd go for the rosewood, although it would look best if you got aftermarket black leather seating as well. I thought about carbon fiber while I was waiting all those months for the delivery of my Vibe, but when it arrived, I realized that the dash trim was pretty good looking silver metalflake (almo...

baltimore17

Hmmm, a Mercedes fan. Hate to say this, but "capable" doesn't have to drag along "ugly" to form a complete package. Regarding the Unimog, is it not about double the size and two and a half times the weight of the G-Wagon? Would a similar comparison be calling the S-10 pickup the ...

baltimore17

Just what the world has been crying out for: A five thousand pound Porsche.

baltimore17

quote:I don't eat in the car. It would be kind of hard to do anyways because I have a GT. My hands are a little busy between steering and shifting.That's what automatics are for. The great thing about eating in the car is that you feel so good after you vacuum up all the stiff french fries once a ye...

baltimore17

It's Photoshop. Here's how you can tell for sure. No guy's gonna spend $2K on a respray over bondo plus another $1K for a solenoid remote electric door latch and then keep the original 16" alloys!

baltimore17

Another possibility is a bad tire. I had a tire with some sort of a belt problem years ago (not on the Vibe). The tire ended up looking kind of lumpy, but the first indication was a tendency of the car to pull toward that tire's side (it was on the front right). This was the tire that was on the car...

baltimore17

quote: The Mini Cooper has a center mounted speedo. A friend just got his Cooper S about two weeks ago. He mentioned that the central speedo is so recessed that he can't easily see the numbers on the left side of the face. You know, where the needle is pointing 98% of the time.Every time I try to ch...

baltimore17

I curbed a wheel the other day. Just a glancing swipe and was gratified to see very little permanant marking. To bend it that much sure doesn't sound like a minor incident. Ask him if he gets up to 65 MPH in his driveway.

baltimore17

quote:I wish there were more european styled GM cars on the road That's what we got with the Catera and the Saturn L. The Catera is gone and the Saturn L has been significantly face lifted.

baltimore17

Just to give you some real jargon, the mid range drivers used to be called squawkers, like back in the '50s and early '60s. I just recalled that one from somewhere in the depth of wasted neurons.

baltimore17

quote:yeah, they really dont count as speakers, but gm says they are. What, exactly, about the tweeters makes them not count as speakers? Subwoofers are speakers. Woofers are speakers. Mid range drivers are speakers. Tweeters are speakers. Flat panel electrostatic drivers are speakers. Piezoelectric...

baltimore17

quote: I wonder where they run the line at in the car? Just be careful where you nail in the picture hangers when you decorate the inside of your Vibe

baltimore17

I ripped out and completely rebuilt a bathroom and bedroom in my house. The only things that didn't come home in my small Saturn wagon were the 4x8 wallboard and the whirlpool tub. For those I borrowed a friend's pickup. Even the 12' wall of 8' tall wardrobe cabinets (unassembled) came home in the S...

baltimore17

quote:Am I the only one using a Mac?Mac OS X at home by choice. NT 4.0 (soon to be 2000) by what gets crammed down my throat at the office. Nope, no bias here.

baltimore17

On the underside of the removed dash pad, he's noted the cursed DRL light sensor. I wonder how easy it would be to relocate it to mount just inside the defroster vent, also seen in that view. You'd have to cut a small entry hole into the defroster duct, visible in that mass of clutter in the picture...

baltimore17

That really does look good. The silver paint brings out the grill's hex pattern, something that gets lost with the stock black grill. The up front GT emblem works well. Hey, if you want stealth against Hondas, why worry about the front grill? Hopefully, you're gonna be showing them your tailgate. Ho...

baltimore17

quote:Why did you redo your truck. Shouldn't it have been covered by Ziebart's warranty? The warranty in 1975 was only for five years. Is it lifetime now? At five years, I took the car (never have gotten around to owning a truck) to take care of the rust. They sprayed a little more Ziebart around th...

baltimore17

Experiences: My 1975 Chevy was given the full Ziebart treatment the day after I bought it. At five years, it was rusting. At 13 years, I had the body redone, including replacing a passenger door that was too rusted to save.My 1993 Saturn used galvanized steel for the spaceframe. While crawling aroun...

baltimore17

quote: I don't like the PT Cruiser at all. It looks like an old persons car to me. LOL! Some of us are old persons. At least relative to the age of people who think that the PT Cruiser looks like an old person's car. PS: We're making a mess of Pontiac's demographics! hahahahahahaha!

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