Jbenrod wrote:Very sharp. That pin stripe detail really looks nice on your car.
I'd enjoy learning more about all the differences you are noting between this car and your Gen1.
I like the pin strips too. I'm assuming it was done at the original dealership and not by the owner by the way it was perfectly applied tastefully and not overdone and tacky looking. I had to remove the 3m clear door edge protectors that were installed because they were all moldy looking and ugly from exposure to our Florida rain and humidity over the years. That was a pain, my hands are still sore from trying to carefully scrape it off with goo gone to get the sticky residue off.
One difference off the bat I noticed was when I was first going through the car to top off the fluids was no power steering reservoir. I was looking everywhere for it. Come to find out it has electric power steering and not your traditional hydraulic power steering pump connected to the engine. I never heard of such a thing. Too funny, hope they're reliable. Also, after driving this new car for a while, I definitely feel like my 04 vibe had much more comfortable seats and better quality interior. This newer one has firmer seats to the point I've already had to buy a memory foam seat cushion to make it a bit more comfortable. And also the plastics used in the interior are harder and feel cheaper than my 04 vibe. The center consul arm rest is as hard as a rock. On the plus side, the engine is super quite smooth running when idle, and the automatic transmission shifts much smoother than my old vibe. You can barely feel it shifting into gears. I also like the exterior, much cleaner lines visually without looking so busy. And no roof rack, since I never used it, I didn't care for the look of it much. Oil changes are a little different as well. I had to buy a special wrench to remove a plastic oil filter housing that contains a paper oil filter, not your regular spin on metal canister oil filter type like you see in the 03-08 Vibes. I plan on keeping this one for a while, so I'm using Mobil one synthetic 0W20 and changing it every 5,000 miles along with using Toyota oil filters.