Back in June the Wife and I decided it was time to unload our '98 Honda Passport in the midst of its spiral downward. Loved it for the snow (when the 4wd was working, which wasn't very often), but the continuous repairs, hard to find parts ($$$), and soul-crushing 14 mpg made it hard to justify.
Back in 2007, my bro purchased a 2005 Matrix XRS and I'd coveted that thing from day one. Always thought it needed a stick tho. So, when I stumbled upon a 2003 Vibe with that 3rd pedal, I had to look into it. Turns out the thing wasn't in the greatest shape, but I managed to work out a straight-up trade with the guy for my POS Honsuzu Passpordeo. Guess he's a glutton for punishment.
Here's the list of what was wrong with it:
- Clutch was so shot I could barely take it for a test drive.
- Dreaded C59 bearings starting to make a racket, along with a shot 3rd syncho.
- Bald tires.
- Moldy carpet in the rear left footwell from spilt milk that was never cleaned up.
- Stains on the seats and hair everywhere, from a dog I'm sure.
- Thunking blend door actuator.
- Massively vibrating blower motor.
- Thrashed shift boot.
- Mostly warn through carpet in driver's footwell.
- Desperate need for a brake job.
- Super foggy headlights.
Tell ya what tho: the engine seemed strong and smooth (for a 1ZZ-FE), the only rust was a spot on the hood, it had the roof rack, and most importantly, the AC worked.
I definitely came out on top on this deal.
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I wish I had gotten pictures of the thing before I dug in... it really was that bad. Anyhoo, I decided since I had to replace the clutch, I'd go ahead and preemptively swap out the transmission, and since the C59s are so notorious I decided to swap it out for a C60. I've always wanted a car with a 6-speed
so sporty! Only problem was, now I had a knob with the wrong shift pattern... after much deliberation, we settled on a shift knob from a 2014 Mustang GT. Looks great! Course, now the awesome shift knob looked awful with the ratty shift boot, so I got a generic/universal leatherette boot and sewed that in place.
After that was done, the Wife and I took the entire interior apart (thanks to tips from this site) and shampooed the poop (literally) out of the thing. Obviously didn't do much for the warn-through footwell, but the new mats I got cover the problem areas nicely. Next, using info from this forum again, I removed the blend door actuator, flipped the main gear over, and all is well! I also replaced the silly blower motor (and I don't think I'm the first one to have done it... the one I took out looked much too sketchy, even for GM.
I hate factory steelies, and all but one of the wheel covers were cracked, so I decided to acquire some alloys. I found some Forester wheels for $100 I thought would look nice and should fit.......... should... Yeah, didn't think about that little thing we call Offset. Turns out the Vibe 38mm (35??) and the Forester wheels I acquired are 48mm, so I had to get me some spacers. The back was no problem b/c I thought the wheels were too sunken into the wells anyhow, so I got some of those bolt-on 20mm spacers to make up for the increased offset, and to move them an extra 10mm outboard. The fronts were a little more difficult since I didn't have enough room inside the wheel wells to get the bolt-on style (min of 20mm), but the min 10mm plate style was too thick for the stubby little wheel studs. After far too much fretting, I ordered some extended wheel studs (70mm IIRC). Once I got the brake discs off (after breaking them with a puller and having to take it to a shop and have them cut off; yeah, that rusted on), I was able to tap the shorties out and slide the long ones right in! Worked out great, and the 12mm plate spacer I got made the wheels clear the brake calipers nicely. The wife also wanted colorful lugnuts, so I got blue.
Finally, for the tires. I toyed with a bunch of different sizes, but finally decided that I should get a taller size to counter-act the shorter final-drive in the C60. I did a bunch of measurements and certainly far too much research, I settled on Continental TrueContacts in 205/65R16. I really like them so far! Pretty quiet, decently smooth, and they fit perfectly in the wheel wells.
I also decided to try my hand in window tinting... I see now why people pay to have someone else do it. TEDIOUS. But it turned out well enough for now, and the overall look works great on the black Vibe! (so long as you don't look too close haha)
All-in, I've got about $1,800 into this bad boy (excluding whatever the Passpordeo was worth, and the price of the tires since I was going to need to get new ones for the Passpordeo soon anyhow). I think it was a good investment, as the insurance was surprisingly cheaper, I'm getting more than twice the gas mileage, and replacement parts are infinitely cheaper and easier to find. I'm loving it so far! Feels pretty peppy (though, my other car is a Gen 1 Prius, so you probably can't trust my evaluation), and I love the cargo space - pretty much the same as my POS SUV I unloaded.
Thanks for checking out my new toy, and thanks for all the help youins have already provided! Sorry for the long post.