Introducing myself

[spkaSS]

HI my name is Dan and I now am the proud owner of a 2003 AWD Vibe:

Look forward to learning all about what you all can tell me. I am diggin the car so far. It is basically replacing a corolla all-trac wagon that I put 370,xxxx miles on and sadly parted with a couple of years ago. The car between then and now was just a rebound and meant nothing to me... But with the Vibe I feel like I am making good car decisions again.
Thanks for letting me be here

[vibenvy]

Welcome to GenVibe Dan! Wow, 370,000 miles on the Corolla is awesome! You should have no problem getting that many (or more!) out of the Vibe as well! Kudos for posting a picture of your Vibe already ! It appears to be in great shape! You definitely made an excellent decision by getting a Vibe !

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe Dan Update your profile showing us your location! Nice white monotone vibe, and YES you'll get as many miles out of this as your old Corrolla

[lowincash]

Welcome! Wow how many years did it take you to accumulate 370,XXX miles??? haha oh and have fun with the vibe

[vibolista]

Nice frost white Vibe you caught yourself there in Roslyn. Another Corolla owner that got to mega mileage levels... we like that a lot! Welcome to the Vibe site.

Roslyn is the town that they used for the '90s television series "Northern Exposure", right? Roslyn's Cafe was always in the opening credits. All that still there? A celebrity town!

[spkaSS]

hey all, thanks for the warm welcome. Roslyn is that town and the cafe is most definitely still here, as is the Drs office and the radio station.

As for the corolla, I got it in 1994 with around 60K on it and handed it off to a friend in 2011 with the odo reading 367K but there were a couple of summers when we were a young family where the odo wasn't reading and so I always add 10k to that... It was a 91 all-trac wagon and it was just fantastic. It had been though a lot of beating and just kept pluggin away.

Really hoping my Vibe has the same spirit!!

[vibolista]

Think you'll find that your Vibe has the potential to last even longer than the Corolla. Looks well taken care of.

Thought Roslyn was that town! Very nice area... with lakes and mountains near. I drove by it a few times on I90 during the years I lived in northwest Montana... and didn't even realize it was the town depicted in the TV series!

[Doug14]

Welcome! What was your car in between the corolla and the vibe ? lol

[spkaSS]

My tweener car was a 2006 Corolla S, black, tinted windows, blah blah. Not my style but I got a good deal and wanted to try FWD and a gas mileage bump. It was a great car for what it was but I really missed having the wagon to throw my bike/skis in. The tinted windows drove me nuts-guess I am a visibility freak. And, as I drive over the pass between here and Seattle A LOT, the AWD is nice. I got the corolla up to 150K and decided it was time to either move it or stick it out. I am really excited about the Vibe. The only two things I miss are the stick shift and the corolla had an ipod input that I got addicted to. SO, one I can fix and the other, oh well.

Also, are there any upgrades to the engine that have given good results in improving the mileage?

Thanks
Dan

[vibolista]

Also, are there any upgrades to the engine that have given good results in improving the mileage?

Thanks
Dan

Mobil 1 5W30 oil, new set of NGK plugs, new plug wires, new air filter element, 39 psi front and 37 psi rear if the tires are rated for pressure that high, the least amount of stuff possible in the car (only what you need for that day or trip) and most important a light and steady touch on the gas pedal!!!

I've squeezed 40 mpg out of a couple of Summertime tanks of gasoline, commuting to work on back roads. Takes some patience and light traffic. Speed limits on the back roads ranged from 35 to 50 mph. I stuck to them as close as I could. Results were impressive for a car this size. Your Automatic and AWD should easily get up into the 30-35 mpg range during the summer.

Read up on Hypermiling techniques on the internet. Some of those techniques are not usable or suitable for most daily driving situations, but using what you can when it fits your driving environment can help significantly increase your MPGs! Let us know how that goes.