GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

As it was when I acquired it two days ago. Far from perfect cosmetically, but running strong. I'm going to be documenting the improvements here as we go. I'll try my best to keep this updated and not just post them to the Facebook group.

For starters, I'm going to be swapping in a few things from the 06 Lava (wheels, roof racks, stereo, hitch...)

After swapping shoes with the Lava.

Nice fleet there You going to drive both of them or another family member? Thanks for thinking about us non-Facebook" folks out here in the world

tpollauf wrote:Nice fleet there You going to drive both of them or another family member? Thanks for thinking about us non-Facebook" folks out here in the world

Long story short: the Lava is going to my dad. I'll be driving it up to him over Labor Day weekend and then flying home.

His current car is wreck, literally. Its a mid-2000s Ford Focus Wagon that hit a deer with a while back, but it was still supposedly driveable. So, he kept driving it, but shortly there after the hood flipped up and smashed the windshield. I believe at this point insurance totaled it, but he bought it back, replaced the windshield and bought a used hood. Well, he nevr fixed the hood latch, so he uses bungee cords to hold it down. In addition to all of that, the rear hatch doesn't open and there's a weird electrical problem going on so that one of the taillights doesn't work. He's wired in a trailer light to be legal...ish. Since its really just used as a Point A to Point B type of things, he says doesn't care about the outward appearance. Honestly, the hatch is is biggest complaint.... but I digress.

So, when I visited my parents a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he was looking for a car to replace the Focus. He wanted reliable automatic that the hood and trunk (or hatch) worked. I immediately start recommending that he start looking for a Vibe and gave him the dime tour of the features. I then started thinking that I would be pretty nice if I could find him a nice southern rust free car in Texas. Down the rabbit hole of thought, we discussed that if I could find a nice Vibe with a manual transmission that he could have my car and he agreed. So, my search began. I wasn't looking for a GT in particular, but this is the one that I stumbled upon. In fact, I didn't even know this was a GT when I first saw it, and neither did the guy selling it, until I plugged the VIN into Geico to get an insurance quote. I though the guy had given me a bogus VIN until I went to see it first hand.

This picture makes it look so much worse, but something has been sprayed on the cluster and it will not come off. If trying to clean it up with PlastX doesn't work, then I'm just going to replace the cover of the cluster with one from a junkyard.

Eonon GA2154 that was previously installed in the 06 Base. The head unit is slightly oversized, so I got a piece of acrylic cut fill out the bezel.

Well, I've been pretty quite about my car for awhile. Here's a few updates.

Way back in January, I decided to tackle the "tick tick" from the blend door actuator. I got a custom "tool" from a member on the Facebook group, which is really just a 5.5mm socket that was JB Welded to a flat metal bar. The tool actually worked very well and, though it broke, lasted long enough to complete the work. I chose to flip the gear. If/when these teeth fail, then I'll replace it with a new unit. On May 31, it crossed 160,000 miles. Then last Friday, through some generosity of a Vibe friend, the car is now riding on Tein S-Techs. You may also notice in these pics that the car has been debadged. Story time.

It bothered me that the car was badged improperly, so I decided rather than trying to correct the badging that I would just do away with it. It wasn't even a matter that they removed the "GT", since the "vibe" on the driver's door was a good 6" to far to the rear of the car to be correct. My guess is a previous owner debadged the car and then someone hastily rebadged it (incorrectly) when reselling it. When I was looking to buy the car, I didn't even know it was a GT. It was just listed on Craigslist as an '05 Vibe with a manual transmission (no mention of the number of gears) and when I contacted the seller (a used car dealer), he just was adamant that I was aware that it was a manual. After a previous deal for a different car went south after the seller sold it out from under me before I could get to him to buy it, even though we had agreed to a price and I making arrangements to go get it, I wanted to make sure he'd hold the car for me. So I paid him a deposit to hold the car and I asked him for the VIN to get an insurance quote, which is when I was clued into what the car was. I entered the VIN and Geico spat out "Vibe GT," so my first thought is that he gave me a bogus VIN number. I then looked more closely at the pictures and noticed the chrome shift knob and leather steering wheel. Clues. There weren't any pictures with the hood up and I couldn't get a good look at the rear brakes, but I felt good enough that I was willing to make the long drive to go look at the car in person. A few days later, I drive to see the car. I visually check the VIN... matches what he gave me over the phone. Pop the hood... yep, that's a 2ZZ! Take it for a test drive and I was ready to buy. While doing all the paperwork, he and I start small talking. He told me that the mechanic he had check the car out that morning offered to buy it on the spot, because it had a "special engine," but since I had paid the deposit he saved it for me. I proceeded to tell him that the car was a Vibe GT and what that meant. I could tell he only had a passing interest, since he was mostly concerned about making the sale. That knowledge didn't influence the final sale price.

I have a few more plans for the future. I need to re-tint the windows. The hatch window is bubbling pretty bad and the the side windows got scratched up when I had to constantly scrape frost off the windows to see out during a road trip to the frozen north at Christmas... thanks to the malfunctioning blend door actuator.