hmmm... dot sorta makes sense.

oh. Then this opens the door to conspiracy theories.

Question: On my '05 Vibe, the front windshield has a black patterning on the glass mainly behind the rearview mirror and along the passenger side edge (but *not at all* on the driver side edge). I assume this has to do with cutting down glare or reflections or some such. But I was wondering why the ...

Quote, originally posted by 5lbsofswisscheese »The look of the '05 Vibe is starting to grow on me now that I've seen it in more flattering pictures. The first pictures of it made it look like bland city. For some reason, the 05's front end now reminds me of flesh stretched back tightly over a skull...

Quote, originally posted by debi5475 »The car didn't even wobble. Didn't jerk. Didn't rock! I tried rocking the steering wheel from side to side also, as I went down the center line, nothing. Solid as a rock, so to speak. And I did not feel a jerk as anything kicked in. And I didn't even take out a...

Quote, originally posted by debi5475 »Golly, *Debi goes out to see if she can drive the test course in her Vibe*Looking forward to your impressions about Stabilitrak.

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »these threads talk about dexoolhttp://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=7072http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=7942http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=6940Thanks for the thread links. I skimmed through them. It's hard to be sure what to make of this issu...

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »There's a lot of bad thing s said about dexcool here on genvibe. If they are true, then it would probably be a good idea to replace that with a different type coolant soon.I tried searching for dexcool, but didn't turn up anything (maybe I wasn't searching corre...

[QUOTE=MBS] ... Overall, the effect was slightly more than subtle -- meaning I noticed "something" by way of trajectory correction, but it was jarring. QUOTE] ... [should be:] ...but it *wasn't* jarring.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »How's stabilitrak working out? I was reading about it in the '05 owner's manual, seemed pretty neat.It seems to work. There were a couple of times when I went through a quick, curving manuever and the car smoothly held its ground and stayed on course more t...

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »It's all part of the sinister psycho-marketing plan.By removing standard features, making some of them available as expensive options, and restyling the the appearance to remove things that added to the unique appeal of the vehicle, they make the earlier model y...

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »If I had the money, they wouldn't have to twist my arm too much to get me behind the wheel of an '05... I'd really like to have one with stability control and all the various other goodies not available on the first two model years (only option that doesn't...

Well, I may be of a relative minority on this opinion, but I like the 2005's design more than the 2004 (was willing to pay a bit more for the '05 actually). Plus there's other features available in the '05 that aren't in the '04 (safety features, subwoofer). The front end of the '05 seems more sport...

[QUOTE=joatmon]This review http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04268/384429.stm from 9/24/2004 has a similar comment:QUOTE]Anyone else coming up with new reviews of the '05 Vibe?

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic » A Tacoma owner parked next to the Vibe at the car wash the other day... He started scoping it out and asked me about it. "I don't think I have ever seen one of those before." Sheesh, three model years into production, and the thing still is a fre...

Well, I can understand Pontiac wanting to promote other cars, BUT the Vibe should be better advertised and more widely reviewed. On the other hand, given the dearth of public relations support for the Vibe, I kinda enjoy having one of the few decked out '05 Vibes in my part of CT -- it's more of a b...

Or, you could experiment and try to make a pair of sunglasses using rotatable circular polarizing photographic lens filters (i.e., the type that screws on to the lens). It might be simpler, though, to use "flip up" sunglasses so that you could quickly go between polarized or not.

well, maybe you could rotate the dash sideways, at 90 degrees to your sunglasses. That would be pretty cool -- a rotatable dash.

Yep. Same story when I use polarized sunglasses. However, the problem goes away at night when I toss the shades. During the day, I generally leave the XM radio on the comedy channel (#150) and drive around, amused.

I'm wondering if the reason there's relatively less promotion about the Vibe has to do with the Toyota/NUMMI relationship. Maybe there's less profit in the vehicle as opposed to a more home-grown vehicle? Or maybe there's a revenue sharing thing between Toyota and GM, and this has the effect of bein...

Yes, thanks; I have seen that review - it gives pretty good coverage; I've also seen the same text at more than the nctd web site. I'm pretty amazed that given what a great package the Vibe is, that there's not more media interest. And it doesn't seem that Pontiac promotes the Vibe that much; I can'...

I have not seen too much out in the way of in-depth reviews of the 2005 Vibe on the web or in print. Mostly it seems to be fluffy, quick overview stuff that recites the features that are available. I'm wondering what folks on this forum may have come across by way of useful reviews (for the '05).

kostby - thanks for the contact info! Much appreciated. ---MBS

These are all helpful comments and suggestions! It's nice to see that the to-do list for breaking in the Vibe is rather short and easy to accomplish. So far, I give the '05 Vibe itself an A+ and an F- in customer service to the dealer I purchased it from. Just wondering -- do any of you have the nam...

yes, the location is within the center armrest; from the link you provided, it does look like Pontiac simply eliminated the 12v outlet in 2005. darn.

Thanks for the various advice postings. I have another quick question: The center front console is supposed to have a 12-volt cigarette lighter-style power outlet in it, according to the manual (to help provide power to things like a cell phone). However, when I remove the rubber covering near the f...

Just picked up my new 2005 Moonstone Vibe this afternoon (base model, with automatic, assorted options). I'm very impressed so far. The manual (& dealer) seemed rather sparse on suggestions for the initial driving period. What suggestions might you folks have on, let's say, driving the car for t...

Following up to my original post: my main interest is to get a general sense of likes/dislikes about the '05's. Also curious why folks purchased a Vibe over other models. For myself, I checked out a variety of "regular" SUV's and basically didn't care much for their larger size, relatively...

cool picture.

I have a 2005 Vibe on order (FWD, auto trans, monotone Moonstone, graphite trim, ABS, Stabilitrak, side/curtain airbags, Moon/Tunes/XM radio, alum. wheels) -- it is scheduled to be built this week. In theory, I should have delivery early Sept. or so. In theory. Anyway, I'm curious as to forum member...