Vibe Newbie - need advice.

[mynameismatt]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for letting me join the community.
I'm looking at getting a vibe but need advice. Tomorrow I'm planning on checking out a 09 Vibe GT. It has 144K on it. Looks like a solid car (but will find out more tomorrow). Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? Any "newbie advice" for me? They are asking $7500 but I know they are hoping to get around $6800 for it.

The mileage is a little higher than I'm used to - but it sounds like Vibes are solid and can go go go.

thoughts? Many many thanks for your help!

[Caretaker]

Matt, that is a ton of miles for that year. In contrast, I have only 82,000 miles on my '09. Obvious the car you are looking at has wracked up a lot of easy highway miles; as such, I'm not concerned about the 144k. Just make sure the transmission has been flushed out twice at that mileage with World Standard fluid (if it is an auto), radiator fluid flushed out at least twice with NON Dexcool fluid, and that the brake fluid has been replace multiple times. If any of these are not the case, I'd walk away. At 144k, this could be a case of the last owner thinking: "its a Toyota; I can run it until it breaks." Neglect will kill any car. Just make sure you are not being handed a neglected car that may have only 30,000 miles left on it. If all the fluids were swapped out at reasonable intervals, then the car will be good for another 160,000 miles. Check the price on any of your favorite internet car websites to ensure those numbers you posted are not a bit too high. Good luck.

[trb]

Ditto on the info the Caretaker mentioned, but the coolant is supposedly good for 150K miles or 5 years per the owners manual, so if it was changed at least once, I would not worry about it. But I would be specific that the fluid was preferably Toyota and not Dexcool, as the owners manual is WRONG on the coolant used. It is Toyota long life pink fluid, not GM garbage. The AT fluid should be changed every 60K miles, using the Toyota WS fluid as noted on the dipstick, not T-IV like the manual says, as the manual is WRONG again.

FWIW, we have a few members with more miles on their 09s than that one, so they do run a long time if maintained.

Good luck with your search and let us know what you end up with!

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe Matt. First off, NICE choice on this "possible" new to you Vibe GT Don't let the mileage steer you away from this car. Lots of questions though before you commit. If it is from a personal seller do they have the complete history on the car? Were all the recalls done (only three on this model)? What are your driving habits and patterns going to be? Getting this in the $6k range will be a good price provided that it was well maintained. Things to look for: Steering column rattle. This is common on all 2009-10 Vibes and some are worse than others. For now, it is more of a nuisance noise/feel BUT I'm concerned about long term damage and safety. Time will tell on this one. Some of the 2.4l engines are oil burners. You won't see any smoke BUT after 1500-2000 miles you could be a quart low. Again not a big deal but something to watch and/or keep an eye on. We have TWO of these in our family as you can see in my signature. One only had 18k miles (Red with a manual 5-spd) is garaged and still has "new car" smell. The other (Blue with an auto) has 57k miles, steering column rattle, oil burner, is outdoors all the time, and driven by a college kid like yourself. Both are very reliable and fun to drive. You just can't beat the storage of these cars. You can pack a ton of S H I T in these small cars and still drive around. Keep us posted as to what you end up getting. I hope this deal works out for you. Good luck!

[mynameismatt]

Many thanks for the welcome and advice.
This car will be our commuter for my wife and I to drive to work (we work different shifts). My commute is a whopping 6 miles round trip and her's is about 12. I can't imagine putting more that 5-6K on this car a year. The only other real use will be my ride to and from the local mountain bike trails. We've got a crossover that we use to haul the kiddos around in.

From the conversations I've had with the current owner - They don't seem overly car savvy. So I woudn't be suprised if they didn't do any preventative maintenance. They purchased the car 2 years ago with 100K miles on it and put another 40K on themselves. I would imagine a large majority of those are highway.

I would assume looking at the AT fluid and giving it a smell will tell me alot.

Thanks for the heads up on the steering column and burning oil. I'll be sure to check those out.

I'll keep you all updated and let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

[Nasmfell]

Hi Welcome.

[vibenvy]

Welcome to GenVibe Matt! Great call on coming here to do some research before pulling the trigger. Everyone else has pretty much covered everything, so I will just say good luck and I look forward to hearing whether you end up with it or not...

[mynameismatt]

Well the Vibe found it's way home with me. Talk about a fun car to drive! Holy smokes! I used to own a '02 Jetta 1.8T and while the vibe isn't quite as zippy, it still puts a smile on my face like the jetta did. The seller was asking $7500 (over priced IMO) but I brought it home for $6600. Previous owner said that he did not change the AT fluid or filter, but that the original had said he did. In any fashion, I took a look and while it wasn't clean fluid, it wasn't DARK or metallic . I plan on dropping the pan as soon as it warms up (its freakin' cold here in michigan) and changing out the fluid and filter. Other than some paint chipping on the hood - its in great shape and i love the styling of the GT. Did these come with such dark window tinting from the factory, or is this aftermarket? Looks nice either way.

Also - already thinking about next winter - would plastidip be a good solution for protecting the alloy wheels from salt and winter junk?

I'll try and take better pics - but here is a quick cell phone shot from my driveway.

[Adam24303]

Matt, that is a ton of miles for that year. In contrast, I have only 82,000 miles on my '09. Obvious the car you are looking at has wracked up a lot of easy highway miles; as such, I'm not concerned about the 144k. Just make sure the transmission has been flushed out twice at that mileage with World Standard fluid (if it is an auto), radiator fluid flushed out at least twice with NON Dexcool fluid, and that the brake fluid has been replace multiple times. If any of these are not the case, I'd walk away. At 144k, this could be a case of the last owner thinking: "its a Toyota; I can run it until it breaks." Neglect will kill any car. Just make sure you are not being handed a neglected car that may have only 30,000 miles left on it. If all the fluids were swapped out at reasonable intervals, then the car will be good for another 160,000 miles. Check the price on any of your favorite internet car websites to ensure those numbers you posted are not a bit too high. Good luck.

Any advice on where to go for the fluid services. My 09 GT just rolled over 60,000. I don't particularly know much about mechanics and I'm sure I could tell the guy hey treat this like a Toyota and never know if they actually do or not.

[trb]

Any advice on where to go for the fluid services. My 09 GT just rolled over 60,000. I don't particularly know much about mechanics and I'm sure I could tell the guy hey treat this like a Toyota and never know if they actually do or not.

If you can't do it yourself, I would either check with a Toyota dealer or an independent shop that works on Toyotas to see their prices. I would just drain and refill the transmission at this point, about 4 quarts of fluid. It must use WS trans fluid and Toyota compatible antifreeze. If I had another place do it, I would probably supply the WS fluid and Toyota antifreeze myself so you know they most likely used the correct stuff.

[trb]

Well the Vibe found it's way home with me. Talk about a fun car to drive! Holy smokes! I used to own a '02 Jetta 1.8T and while the vibe isn't quite as zippy, it still puts a smile on my face like the jetta did. The seller was asking $7500 (over priced IMO) but I brought it home for $6600. Previous owner said that he did not change the AT fluid or filter, but that the original had said he did. In any fashion, I took a look and while it wasn't clean fluid, it wasn't DARK or metallic . I plan on dropping the pan as soon as it warms up (its freakin' cold here in michigan) and changing out the fluid and filter. Other than some paint chipping on the hood - its in great shape and i love the styling of the GT. Did these come with such dark window tinting from the factory, or is this aftermarket? Looks nice either way.

Also - already thinking about next winter - would plastidip be a good solution for protecting the alloy wheels from salt and winter junk?

Well, congrats officially! It does look to be a nice car, especially for the price. Heck, there are 05-08 models with similar miles selling for that price.
None of the Vibes had dark tint factory, so that is for sure aftermarket. As for winter wheels, most on here get some steel wheels and dedicated snow tires to preserve the alloy wheels and also give an additional measure of safety.

Again, good luck with it!

[csxt8058]

Welcome aboard!! Nice to see you giving the Vibe a new home and already thinking of ways to take care of it.

JR

[vibrologist]

Congratulations, Matt!

already thinking about next winter - would plastidip be a good solution for protecting the alloy wheels from salt and winter junk

Your best solution would be dedicated winter wheels with snow tires. You have all summer to find a good deal on Craigslist. I found mine in the month of June. It would be a good idea to go -1 size. That way you have more sidewall height which is helpful when the roads are really rough.

[tpollauf]

Congrats Matt! You did better than I thought as far as the price goes! Great find ..... now take care of it (I know you will). Tint looks good and like others said, it did NOT come that way from the factory. Get it clean and ready for our summer meet this June. Glad you found us here

[Salsa Guy]

Welcome and congrats on the purchase. An AT Fluid change over is simple and will require about 10-12 quarts of fluid. Doing a drain and refill will only change out about 1/2 of the fluid.

[vibenvy]

Glad to hear you ended up getting the Vibe! As others have said, the windows were not tinted at all from the factory, so the tint is definitely aftermarket. Be sure to use glass cleaner that does not contain amonia (it will turn the tint purple). I use Stoner's Invisible Glass. It's available at Walmart, etc. for under $4.00. It comes in a can of foam or a bottle of liquid (I prefer the liquid myself). Also, be sure to use a clean microfiber towel so the tint doesn't get scratched. On a bit of a side note, I wash all my microfiber towels (seperate from any other kind of towel) in the washing machine using only hot water and vinegar. I let them air dry. Using any type of detergent will cause you to get streaks when using microfiber towels on windows. Vinegar will get them nice and clean without leaving any residue on them that will than transfer to your clean windows, etc. .

As others also said, I would recommend just getting a seperate dedicated set of winter wheels and tires. We use 16" steel wheels (with OEM wheel covers) and 205/55/16 all season tires during the winter months (Chicagoland here) on both our 2009 GTs. The ride isn't quite as harsh and having smaller wheels and tires is better for cutting through the snow, slush, ice, etc. FYI, 16" wheels are the absolute smallest wheel that will fit over the huge front brakes on the 2009-2010 Vibe GT.

EDIT: I forgot to add that just as tpollauf said above, seeing that you're in Michigan, you should definitely consider coming down to Pontiac, Illinois for our GenVibe meet the weekend of June 19th-21st. We'd love to have you and your Vibe join us!

[mynameismatt]

Hey guys, just checking in!
I did a few things to my vibe since purchase - worked on some nasty paint chips on the hood and front fender. I used Dr. Colorchip and I think I got some decent results from it. Not perfect - but most people will never notice that there was chipping - so it served it's purpose.
I also added a Yakima Roof rack using Q towers, 48" crossbars, and 2x Rockymounts Pitchfork bike carriers. Yakima recommends 58" crossbars, but I'm not a huge fan of having 6" of bars overhanging on both sides of the car. The 48" bars fit with fractions of an inch to spare, but they work! Plus I had a set of 48" bars in possession so it seemed like a no brainer.This will be my mountain bike commuter so I had to get it all setup before the trails open up!
Thanks for all the tips and helpful advice! A few things I'd like to consider - maybe work on - The monsoon stock sub is somewhat pitiful. Not sure if I'm willing to invest money, but I'm considering doing something with it (any tips)?

Also, love the cargo space in the rear, but man EVERYTHING slides around. Thinking about researching some sort of rubber mat back there?

Here she is enjoying the spring rain!

[Rayven01]

Thinking about researching some sort of rubber mat back there?

The GM Vibe logo rubber cargo mat is well worth the price for just that purpose. You can order it from several of the online GM parts sites.

[vibenvy]

Also, love the cargo space in the rear, but man EVERYTHING slides around. Thinking about researching some sort of rubber mat back there?

The GM Vibe logo rubber cargo mat is well worth the price for just that purpose. You can order it from several of the online GM parts sites.

Agreed! We actually have two of the GM premium all weather cargo mats in each of our Vibes so when we put the rear seats down, the backs of the rear seats are covered by the second mat. When the rear seats are up, the two mats are stacked nicely on top of each other covering the cargo area. Check out my Garage thread for pictures. The part number for the GM premium all weather cargo mat is: #19170827. I highly recommend GMPartsCenter.net. They have great prices, free shipping (though they do charge an $8.95 handling fee) and great customer service.

[vibrologist]

The moon and tunes stock sub is not as bad as you think right now. I added sound insulation throughout my Vibe. I also took the sub housing apart, inserted a layer of quilt batting and put it back together. After that I had to dial the base down on the equalizer.

I leaned heavily on derf's project here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=40421

Just about any rug remnant will help if you pin it down. Nerdydaddyo came up with this:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=44221#p504010

[1gnvibe]

Looks good with the yakima rack on it. I've never been warm on the 2nd gen look, but yours has me reconsidering my position as a 1gn fanboy.