Road trip with new Vibe

[prathman]

After waiting patiently for the arrival of her new Salsa Vibe (base model/5-speed) which took nearly two weeks to travel the 30 miles from the NUMMI plant to our car dealer, my daughter and I set out on an extended driving trip from the SF area to Michigan. We didn't exactly take the most direct route since we stopped at a number of National Parks/Monuments along the way: Grand Canyon, Zion, Cedar Breaks, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Arches, Dinosaur, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Badlands, and Rocky Mountain. The trip was great and so was the car. Only two minor issues came up on the whole trip and one was our fault. The first was that the rear window wiper didn't always work right. When I checked the electrical connector at the bottom of the hatch window I found that the plastic was cracked - straightening it out by hand restored proper wiper operation and now that we're back home the dealer has ordered a replacement part. The second 'problem' was due to insufficient familiarity with the car. At park entrances they hand out brochures with park features. I frequently tossed these on top of the driver's side of the dash, not realizing that the little button there is the ambient light sensor. So every once in a while the dashboard would get very dim since the car thought it was night time. We thought there was an intermittent electrical fault until we finally associated the dimming with the brochure placement.Gas mileage ranged from 37 to 44 mpg with an average of almost 41. Not quite as good as my previous NUMMI product ('87 Nova), but better than I was expecting based on the EPA estimate - and the Vibe is considerably larger than the Nova.The AC outlet and fold-down front seatback came in handy for evening entertainment while camping. We plugged in a laptop, set it on top of the folded front seat, and watched DVD movies from the back seat. I've installed DC/AC inverters in my cars for the last 30 years, but this is the first that came with one as standard equipment.So far I've been very impressed by the quality of the Vibe. After nearly 9000 miles I have no complaints other than the one cracked plastic connector. No rattles and a very solid overall feel. [We thought June would be late enough to avoid winter weather, but apparently not.]

[Pantera99GS]

That's a hell of a road trip! Very cool!!! Glad to hear the Vibe did great as well. Any chance you're posting pictures online? I can't wait to take mine on a road trip from Wisconsin to Colorado and back!

[scherry2]

welcome and pardon the pun. cool! that would be a fun trip.

[Merzbow]

Wow, that's along haul! Where abouts did you pass through in Michigan?

[damronjr]

Welcome to the site!

[AKLGT]

welcome! and yes, it usually doesn't matter when you travel through the Rockies. lol. i've driven thru in july and august and still snowing! looks like a great road trip. we did one similar last year when we drove the hubbies vibe from London, Ontario (Canada) to Anchorage, Alaska (where we live). his is in metric so not sure what our actual fuel economy was. however, 37-44 mpg is AWESOME!!!!

[prathman]

Pantera:We passed right by your area. The functional purpose of the trip was to check out the area around Wauwatosa (near Milwaukee) and find an apartment for my daughter who'll be studying there for the next few years.Merzbow:My wife's family lives in Livonia (near Detroit) so after taking care of the apartment in Wisconsin we spent a couple days with them.Now that the Vibe has been 'broken in' it's time for the long-term durability study to start. The Nova I bought in '87 is running fine so I'm hoping that NUMMI is still turning out cars that reliable. (We signed up for the factory tour there later this month.)

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by prathman »I'm hoping that NUMMI is still turning out cars that reliable. (We signed up for the factory tour there later this month.)Wow, I didn't know they had that, cool!

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by prathman »Now that the Vibe has been 'broken in' it's time for the long-term durability study to start. The Nova I bought in '87 is running fine so I'm hoping that NUMMI is still turning out cars that reliable. (We signed up for the factory tour there later this month.)As long as you didn't end up with one like I had, or my friend had, or a few others here had, you should be OK. Welcome aboard though! Interesting story, and glad you found us.

[AKLGT]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »As long as you didn't end up with one like I had, or my friend had, or a few others here had, you should be OK. Welcome aboard though! Interesting story, and glad you found us.luckily, there were only a few of those it seems... more vibes that are reliable than lemons.

[808 Vibes]

Welcome and congrats on the Vibe!! Sounds like a fun trip breaking in your new Vibe! I would love to take the NUMMI tour too! I'll have to fit that in to a future trip. Last December I went to the mainland for the VERY FIRST time (Vegas...everyone in Hawaii goes to Vegas, LOL) but would love to see Alaska...that is my dream! It must be so nice to be able to drive cross-country! Waiting patiently??? I'm in Hawaii and the dealer put in the order for mine on May 12. They told me it would take 30-90 days. It feels like 90 days already...

[prathman]

Just got back from the NUMMI tour and would recommend it to anyone who'll be in the SF Bay area. It starts with a short video on the history of the NUMMI facility (it was an old GM plant that shut down in '82 and was completely rebuilt for the Toyota/GM alliance), shows highlights of the various work areas, and goes through the various elements of the Toyota Production System philosophy. Parts of the video are clearly aimed at attracting potential employees with discussion of benefits, work conditions, etc. Then we donned safety goggles and got on the tram that takes visitors on a drive through the plant. There's a big emphasis on 'just-in-time' inventory control with many of the parts being delivered to work stations every 10 minutes to keep the assembly areas uncluttered and maintain flexibility. Delivery of parts was through a combination of electric vehicles and automated robotic carts and there were also quite a few workers pedaling tricycles through the plant.I was a bit surrprised to see that the assembly line had Corollas and Vibes with all different colors and option packages completely intermixed. So much of the welding and other assembly is automated with robots that there's no problem switching back and forth from one car to the next. The workers also switch jobs throughout the day to avoid boredom and repetitive stress problems. The plant turns out 970 cars and 660 trucks per day.At the end of the tour someone came up and asked for me by name. On the comment line of the tour reservation form I had indicated that we own two NUMMI products: an '87 Nova and an '06 Vibe, so they had free T-shirts for me and my daughter: white with a red 'PONTIAC' on the front and a bold black 'VIBE' on the back.

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by prathman » so they had free T-shirts for me and my daughter: white with a red 'PONTIAC' on the front and a bold black 'VIBE' on the back.cool lets see pics. Quote, originally posted by prathman »I was a bit surrprised to see that the assembly line had Corollas and Vibes with all different colors and option packages completely intermixed. pretty neat isn't it. computers make the assembly line run much smoother. I recommend anyone to take a tour of any automobile assembly plant. you would be amazed, and will walk away with a whole different attitude on how vehicles are built.

[Pantera99GS]

Quote, originally posted by prathman »Pantera:We passed right by your area. The functional purpose of the trip was to check out the area around Wauwatosa (near Milwaukee) and find an apartment for my daughter who'll be studying there for the next few years.Merzbow:My wife's family lives in Livonia (near Detroit) so after taking care of the apartment in Wisconsin we spent a couple days with them.Now that the Vibe has been 'broken in' it's time for the long-term durability study to start. The Nova I bought in '87 is running fine so I'm hoping that NUMMI is still turning out cars that reliable. (We signed up for the factory tour there later this month.)Hey man- I was born and raised in Milwaukee. Wauwatosa is a pretty nice area. If you've got any questions about Milwaukee/Wisconsin, I'd be happy to try and answer!

[Mavrik]

that looks cold.... brrrrrr....glad you had a great trip and welcome aboard.

[Lancer]

Welcome to the forum and welcome to Wisconsin!!