GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Mathias

Name that quote...And then read this and weep: http://tinyurl.com/nzy9t6Oh NUMMI, we hardly new ye!Keep the faith, -Mathias

Mathias

The market is pretty weird, and has been for a year. Once the dust settles -- let's hope it does -- the resale situation may not be all that bad. Remember Oldsmobile? Their resale didn't take too bad a hit, more or less the same as the equivalent Chevy or Olds.As far as Buick vs. Pontiac -- Buick ha...

Mathias

Learned friends:My wife called me the other day at work, and she's a little upset cuz she got hit by a wild turkey. Really.I console her, tell her it's no big deal, we'll fix it, don't worry about it... 5 minutes into the conversation, I come to find out we're talking about *my* car, not hers! Here'...

Mathias

I'm 6'1" and the wife is 5'2" on her best day... but all we move in our cars is the seatback angle, which makes it quick and painless.I don't get it either.-Mathias

Mathias

Next time, open the door for them.Their driver's door to be precise. On the door jamb, there's a sticker giving the car's birth month and location of the factory. That should take care of the misconception. The underlying problem will be more difficult to correct...-Mathias

Mathias

Here are a couple pictures of this debacle. Maybe it can help someone down the road. Before:http://www.msu.edu/~steine13/wl1.jpg... and after:http://www.msu.edu/~steine13/wl2.jpgI would argue that this is not a big deal for a steel wheel and that it'll be fine. So long as it holds air, which it appe...

Mathias

Quote, originally posted by ITcar Â»btw, what year are you mathias? Im a sophmore, if you ever see a debadged silver vibe on campus thats me! lolWhat year? I went to physics grad school and graduated in '95. I still work at the Cyclotron.If I ever see a debadged silver Vibe on campus, I'll wave. I'l...

Mathias

Quote, originally posted by darcmater Â»was she any where near the corner of pensilvania and jolly? I heard that was a giant crater, but the past 2 days lansing put down 200 tons of asphault to fix most the issues here. Only reason I mention this is because your thing says E. lansing : )South Cedar ...

Mathias

Learned Friends,The potholes here in MI are as bad as anyone remembers them. Yesterday, the wife hits one, pinch-flats the tire, and bends the rim. These are std 16" steelies, nothing special.Can anyone tell me where I can get OEM wheels for this puppy? The Pontiac dealer is closed today, Tirer...

Mathias

Pulled the trigger today.'07 Vibe 5sp/pwr/mono/abs/side bags, in shadow, sticker $19,8 for $17,5 OTD.$550 GM Card -- I bled my account last year on a Silverado work truck -- and $2k in rebates. Boy, if I could ever hold out for the full $3,500! That was a sweet deal that started this thread!Thought ...

Mathias

Well.... I was about ready to pull the trigger today... got a written offer of a monotone/pwr package '07 Vibe for $16,400 OTD. Not bad with only $550 in GM Card rebates.But the car I liked better was equipped, additionally, with side air bags and ABS. OK, that's $1270 sticker $1118 invoice, so add ...

Mathias

when you have 3 major car manufacturers and then you add 10 more that sell vehicles (for $1000+ less) to the mix. someones gonna lose market share, and someones gonna gain. basic math.But that does not follow at all... It has nothing to do with basic math. If you add "10 more" companies o...

Mathias

and who in their right mind would think that a 40% reduction in market share was all the companies fault?Well, who else's fault? If you want to see how it's done, just go and copy Toyota. Hugely successful, and not through any kind of flair. I mean, who "loves" Toyota? Hondas have a certai...

Mathias

Ok then... Just now, GM announced $1k "bonus cash" on '07 Vibes. All of a sudden, they can be had for $2k behind invoice and that's not a bad deal... -Mathias

Mathias

Quote, originally posted by jake75 Â»Actually, the stickers prices have not increased much since 20032003 base 16,365; Dest 550; AT 815; Pwr Pkg 625 Net; Monotone 325, total 18,6902008 base 16,760; Dest 585; AT 850; Pwr Pkg 850; Monotone 325; Total 19,370.But the dealer mark-up has shrunk by a few h...

Mathias

I don't know why you're "guessing".. this was all discussed not long ago and came out as the new 1.8l dual VVT-i Corolla engine.And yeah, the present Vibe is overpriced; idiotically so. I priced it out against an LX Element, and if I add the ABS and side curtain air bags to the '08, I come...

Mathias

Not that I'm bitter or anything...But can anyone here tell me how the General thinks he can sell Vibes without serious incentives? My present transportation is two Cannondale bicycles and an '85 Conversion Van in great shape... this works "good" until the snow starts flying in another coup...

Mathias

That's outstanding! Great "pictures".The best one, IMO, is the last picture (not couting the one in you sig), named vibe800eq9.jpg.The upper half of the car is immediately familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it.. BMW X3? Very squashed Honda CRV? It works "great" with the...

Mathias

The car does look nice.So do the roof rack.But I gotta ask.. if you're into kayaking, why oh why would you lower the car....? I like to canoe, and some of the places I go to I'm grateful for every quarter inch of ground clearance. So that's about the last thing I'd want to do to a functional car lik...

Mathias

Learned friends,Am I correct in assuming the GM News Police has caught up with our friend eastbaysaint and the rest of us for bandying about news on the upcoming '09 Vibe?Or is something wrong with my browser?I can't get to the pictures, or the latest messages of that discussion... or the earlier on...

Mathias

The matrix/vibe will not be "getting the axe", that has been confirmed over in the Vibe Lounge by someone who works at NUMMI.No word yet on the powertrains. I'm waiting to find out, 'cuz if it's really a big honkin' 2.4l, I'm gonna buy the last of the 1.8s. I buy stick shifts whenever I ca...

Mathias

The new Corolla was supposed to be an '08, but TMC sent it back for rework because they thought it was too stodgy to compete with the '07+ Civic.Who knows what it'll look like, as I don't think Toyota does sexy very well. Anyway, because of that, the Vibe is necessarily also six months late.I do not...

Mathias

...it doesn't make much sense... Well, this IS the General we're talking about, right...? FWIW, I do believe the Vibe will be back as a rebadged Toyota. What else are they going to build at NUMMI that GM can sell? The Astras will all come from, err, Belgium; only if it sells really well will they th...

Mathias

The problem with Buick is this: It's a cash cow.Buick has been selling very steadily for years. I do think it's a target for elimination, but right now the General would shoot himself in the foot.The 60+ crowd may not have much panache with the marketing gurus. But they have lots of money...Pontiac,...

Mathias

My prediction is that Pontiac is going to get the axe.Why? For the same reason that they killed Oldsmobile, and the pattern looks familiar.First, Olds got revamped. New product, big advertising (not your father's Olds...), some success with the Aurora and the Intrigue. Then the fatal blow a few year...

Mathias

How can it be all-new and in showrooms in September if it's going to appear at the LA show???Are they fixing to roll out an '09 in early '08, like they did with the first generation?And if it's Mazda3-like, with less cargo space and more engine, I'll make sure I get one of the old ones before they d...

Mathias

Another sign of life: The NUMMI agreement will be extended, wikth both GM and Toyota investing equal amounts at NUMMI to keep it competitive. Found a short article in the business section of the local paper. This is good news.So long as GM has at least one Toyota in their programs, I'm keeping my GM...

Mathias

As to the question of whether or not there will be a next-generation Vibe and/or Matrix:Edmunds says in their "Future Vehicles" section that the Corolla redesign has been postponed to 2008 -- as in "Spring of 2008", therefore probably a 2009 model.That means the Corolla will sold...

Mathias

We got a car keyed when it was bout 1 year old. Deep scratches, just like yours are bound to be if it was loud enough to "SCREECH".Act quickly. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but I'd get after it unlesss you're in Arizona. Rust forms quickly, and "rust never sleeps".Here's what isn...

Mathias

Oh no, not at all... I'm glad we're having this discussion. And I'm not "blasting" anything, I'm sharing my observations. And I'd like to think they're informed observations.Do you think I want to see GM die? I live in East Lansing; I was here when Oldsmobile left. It was no fun then, and ...

Mathias

only in your opinion.And in the market. The wholesale value of a 5-year-old Malibu is about half of that of a CamCord. Similar stickers when new. The used-car market has a way of reflecting quality. and based on your sig how would you know? you've only owned 1 GM vehicle. and the word formerly means...

Mathias

You could not sell me an ecotec. Dunno about reliability, but a friend had one in a Saturn LW200. Piece of junk. Niggling little problems, had to replace the BCM -- Body Control Module, as every Saturn owner knows -- and to add insult to injury, lousy gas mileage. 26-27 mpg highway consistently. He ...

Mathias

I know you posted this a while ago... I just stumbled across it."18 months from now" my foot... if the '08s are supposed to be in the showroom in late summer of '07 -- and Corolla/Matrix/Vibe were introduced very early in '02 for the '03 model year -- then they ought to have the darned thi...

Mathias

"I would love to explain the complexity in making vehicles (design, engineer, test, market) and meeting shareholder values while providing living means directly to more than 1 million people, but do not have the time."I don't think the negative things being said about Pontiac or GM stem fr...

Mathias

Regarding resale:Right now, anything that gets 30+ mpg has pretty darned good resale. I bought my car for $15,500 on Halloween 2003 -- 2004 base stick pwr monotone -- and knocked another $2,500 off via the GM Card (praise be!).I just sold it a month ago for $11,500, and that's in MI, where selling a...

Mathias

Go to edmunds.com; go to the forums, go to the Smart Shopper board. There is at least one thread dealing with "Auto Insurance and Accidents" or some such title.Read the whole thing; lots of good information by people in the car as well as the insurance business.Including an account by your...

Mathias

This morning, I ordered a Hidden Hitch from etrailer, and put "genvibe" into what they call the "Reference box" or some such.Sure enough, $6.99 discount.-MathiasEast Lansing, MI

Mathias

I wash our cars twice a year, whether they need it or not.-Mathias

Mathias

JohnC,Thanks for your tips.Any thoughts on where to use an hydraulic floor jack to lift the entire front or entire back of the car?TIA-Mathias

Mathias

your owners manual will show you exactly where they need to go!The factory jack, yeah. Jack stands, no.I knew this.But like an idiot, I searched through the PDF of the owner's manual anyway. The only instructions are for using the factory under the pinch welds.The big deal with the jack stands is al...

Mathias

My seat looks the same ('04 in MI). Never gotten flooded or anything... the seats on my wife's '03 Sienna -- which sit in the garage a lot during the summer, as she's an antique dealer -- look just about as bad as these pictures.Also, the car interior gets wet in the winter from snow ... I don't wor...

Mathias

The rear crossbar moved rearward about 2".The front cross bar slipped 3/8" or so through the right-hand Q tower, loosening the grip that the rack had on the car.The entire assembly of rack + canoes slid backwards 2". The force to do this came from driving at 70 mph.Yakima says they've...

Mathias

Yakima Replies:Hello, Mathias. Thank You for your inquiry about Yakima Products, Inc!We have since changed the design of the q-towers. Drop us a line withyour address and phone number. I will get some new towers out to you.Other then tightening the tower more it sounds like you have doneeverything c...

Mathias

"nah, there are plenty of brand spanking new 4' x 8' trailers you can buy for $500, I have a flatbed one i bought from harbor freight for $200"Agreed, but they'll look a little funny with 10 feet of canoe sticking out the back, no? Typical canoes are 16 to 18 feet long and mine are no exce...

Mathias

Thanks for the welcome and to everyone for their suggestions.As far as using padding; i used pieces of bicycle innertube to protect the paint, but when the whole shebang wandered back 2", they became useless... the rubber stayed put, though :-)"Any reason you went with the Q-towers rather ...

Mathias

Learned Friends,Having sold my canoemobile/minivan, and having decided on one final trip this season, I wound up carrying a couple good-sized canoes on my Vibe. Nothing terrible happened, but the car is a little worse for wear.I would appreciate comments or advice.... the Vibe is a great little car ...

Search found 46 matches

Hidely-Ho, Neglecterinos!

Turkey Attack -- mirror damaged -- what to do?

Re: (jimincalif)

Before/After pictures

Re: (ITcar)

Re: (darcmater)

Bent a steel wheel..

Re: (scherry2)

Re: (scherry2)

Re: (jake75)

Re: (Petrucci914)

09 Vibe -- can't find earlier information.

Re: 2008 Vibe (Toasted7)

Re: (vibebuilder)

Re: (Yoda)

Re: (jake75)

Re: mailbox and vibe dont make a good match (ashleymc_38)

Re: (scherry2)

Re: (scherry2)

Re: (csharrigan)

Re: (IMakeVibes)

Re: (michaelgt)

Re: (ZubenElGenubi)

Re: Need help! Wrote off my Vibe today (Rocketfella)

Just an update

Re: Jack Stands (JohnC)

Re: (zionzr2)

Re: (ColonelPanic)

Re: Roof Rack -- not-so-great experience (GMJAP)

Roof Rack -- not-so-great experience