New driver/Vibe gets new lease on life

General discussions about the Pontiac Vibe & Toyota Matrix. New members, introduce yourself here!
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sweetsweetvibe
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:03 am

New driver/Vibe gets new lease on life

Post by sweetsweetvibe »

We have owned our 2006 Vibe (Base) since 2015 and it has been my husband's daily driver. It fit our requirements at the time...in reasonable shape, based on a Toyota, and under $4000. I loved it from the start.
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My 17 year old is finally getting their license, so it was time for a new car for hubby and passing down the Vibe to the kiddo.

It has not been particularly well loved these last five years. She has almost 230K miles, and other than regular oil changes and a new alternator a couple years ago, it has been sadly neglected. I can't even remember the last time he washed it.
So now the Vibe is finally getting some love. My teen and I replaced all the door pulls, the driver's side door lock actuator, polished the headlights, replaced the fog lamps, emptied and reseated the A/C blower motor, and today finally dealt with the dreaded P0171. We pulled the intake manifold and replaced the gasket. While we were at it, gave the old girl some new spark plugs too. RPMs at idle dropped from 2K to 1K, and she runs smooth and clean.

We ordered some touchup paint but they sent the wrong color (got black pearl with blue granite label), but in the meantime the rest of the body looks pretty good. I'm absolutely thrilled for them to have this baby as their first car. And I'm an awfully proud mom that they have taken ownership by doing so much themself.

I got a lot of info from this forum, so thank you all, and thanks in advance for all the help I anticipate getting her to 299,999.

Ali
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SeattleJeremy
Posts: 1170
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:02 pm
Location: Tacoma, WA

Re: New driver/Vibe gets new lease on life

Post by SeattleJeremy »

Congrats on your 17 y/o getting their license! The intake manifold gasket is a perfect first deep dive in to an engine. It's really satisfying to have that fixed.
*Sold* 06' Vibe Base - Mono Platinum - Manual
Turo'ing 15' BMW 328i Sport - Jet Black - Auto
Daily 19' Toyota Camry SE Hybrid - Galactic Aqua Mica - eCVT
tpollauf
Posts: 4027
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:37 am
Location: Toledo/Oregon, Port Clinton Ohio
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Re: New driver/Vibe gets new lease on life

Post by tpollauf »

Nice story :D Oh, and welcome to GenVibe ;) What took you so long to join up with us? Anyways the Vibe is a great starter car for the newer drivers. My son got his 2009 Vibe Gt 10 years ago and is still driving it today with practically ZERO issues! Extremely dependable little cars. Hopefully he takes very good care of it and drives it for several more years.
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2009 Vibe GT (manual), 2009 G8Gt, 2009 Vibe GT (auto)
2014 Silverado, 2004 Vibe GT

"everything is modifiable"
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