Hi all, first off I want to say how nice it is that this community exists, it helped me make a decision to seek a Vibe in my used car search. But I had done my research on many other sites as well, and getting the Toyota quality (I'm definitely a Toyota guy, not GM) with the Pontiac depreciation was hard to pass up. This website just pushed me over the top to look hard for Vibes.
I had a small budget, under $4,000 CAD. Only one Vibe was available in my area in that price range from a private seller. A 2008 base automatic, sport package, sort of a teal colour. It has 110,000 miles on it (it's an American car so it's not in km). If it was in bad shape I was prepared to consider the Toyota Echo, Subaru Forester, or Honda Fit. So I went to see the car and was very impressed with the build quality. Just getting in, sitting down, shutting the door, and starting the engine impressed me greatly with the build quality (I came from a Chrysler so I don't think it would have taken much to impress me anyways). And wow, the engine has such zip, just lightly pressing the gas pedal the car springs forward. Anyways the previous owner took great care of it and I feel I got a great deal, it's easily the best car I've ever owned. I'm going to do my best to maintain it and see if it can live to 300,000 miles.
I have a couple minor annoyances though. One, has anyone else noticed when you use the sun visor it knocks the rearview mirror out of position? It seems crazy they designed it that way, very unsafe. And second, frequently when I go to use the radio dials I hit the shifter by accident, and sometimes I push the O/D off button by mistake. But maybe I got used to my last car so I just need to train my radio-shifter reflexes to be not so, um, sweeping :p