New owner of 03 Vibe

[BenWA]

Howdydoo.

Two weeks ago, I flew to Dallas-Fort Worth from Seattle, WA to check out an 03 Vibe. Sounds nuts, but I have family not far from DFW so I figured if the car was junk, I'd hop on a greyhound and make a trip out of it anyway. Well the car checked out and is in great shape, for a 13 year old car with 143k miles (then). It's already given me over 3,000 trouble free miles.

Well.. aside from a horn issue which I think is now resolved by sandpapering the blade connector on the horn itself. It would work temporarily when the connector was unplugged and plugged back in. It had visible corrosion on the blade. I finally got around to addressing that this morning, but I'll have to actually get out and drive it some first to confirm it's fixed. The wire harness connector may also need treatment.

It has some odd rust on the passenger side strut tower visible from the engine bay, but it seems to be a result of a bad weld from the factory that is exposed to rain running in from the hood, even when parked. (If not especially so). I raised the hood to fix the horn this morning and could see the trail of water leading to the rust so I know that's what's causing it. I will get some Duplicolor Rust Fix and treat the tiny area, then put a towel to keep the leaking in water from getting at it until it dries. Later on I'll get some touch up paint and clear coat for that as well as other places that need it, like rock chips and some missing paint on the front bumper.

Somehow it ended up with 2 different sized tires on each side of the car. Yeah, not front and back.. the sides. 205/55/16 on the passenger side and 215/60/16 on the driver's side. Maybe the larger were on the back when purchased and then got rotated by a shop who didn't know it had different sized tires? Beats me!

I had the transmission serviced (fluid/filter) about 250 miles after I bought it, for routine preventative maintenance since I had no idea if or when it ever had it. The engine oil dropped a little on the dipstick, about 1/10 of an inch over 3,000 miles so I suspect it's a minor leak. It passed emissions testing here just fine.

But yeah, it's in overall great shape and runs and drives like a champ. It has power windows/locks, cruise, CD player.

[vibenvy]

Welcome to GenVibe! It sounds like you got yourself a pretty nice little Vibe! Thanks for posting a picture right away ! I'm not typically a fan of red vehicles, but I do like Salsa.

[BenWA]

Oh, and I forgot to mention the price paid... $3600. It cost $488 or something like that for "use tax" and plates, registration, etc.. but considering private party sellers want $4500+ for one in this condition and miles around here, it was worth the long trip. That's $4500 before tax/reg. Dealers want $7000+.

Although I guess I overpaid for the transmission service. I paid an independent transmission shop $170 (w/tax) back in TX, but it's a trusty shop that I've used before. Today when I did an online scheduled appointment with a local Chevy dealer here in Tacoma for the airbag recalls, it showed suggested services you could pick from, including transmission service for only $139. Go figure... a dealer is less.

The color is considered "medium red": http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... ode=WA721H

[trb]

Welcome and congrats on the new Vibe! I do like red cars and yours is a nice looking Salsa! One thing to note on the Vibes is they did have different "hip" paint color names, so your color is known as Salsa, even though it is a medium red. This is the color list for 2003:

Exterior Colors
Abyss [Black]
Envy [Green]
Frosty [White]
Lava [Bright Red]
Neptune [Dk.Blue]
Salsa [Med Red]
Satellite [Silver]
Shadow [Gray]

Was that price for the transmission service for a drain, filter and fill, or flush? I've done just the drain & fill (4+ quarts of fluid) and it cost me about $30 for the Toyota T-IV fluid on my son's car. Add a filter kit (which is really a screen, not a real filter) and that's another $20 or so. It was actually easier than an oil change since I didn't bother with the filter this time.

I bet that $139 price was for generic GM fluid or something, and if you have them use the correct Toyota T-IV or the GM rebranded equivalent (at double the price of the Toyota!) it would be more like what you paid, if not more.

Good luck with your new Vibe and certainly come here with any questions!

[BenWA]

I don't know what fluid they used. It might say on the receipt? It was a drain, pan drop/clean, filter and refill. Not a "power flush" as I've heard a transmission shop refer to it as. That's not a good idea on something high mileage, as I understand it. A gravity drain, filter and pan cleaning is what you do at most.

They messed up and ordered the wrong filter at first (probably the one for AWD) so I had to wait an extra half hour or so for the parts shop to deliver the right one. It could be they used Toyota brand fluid in the Vibe but I don't know for sure. It's been almost 3,000 miles already since the service and it's not giving any problems, so whatever they used was compatible.

I used the same shop in 09 for an 03 Taurus wagon with almost 150k miles (somebody drive the heck out of it!). It was about $120 for the Taurus transmission service back then.

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe That was one trip definitely worth your while. Nice price, very nice Vibe in the best color and you were able to put it to the test with the long trip home. Visit here often!