New 03 Vibe GT ?

[shibaman]

My local dealer has a new 03 Frosty monotone GT with 17" wheels,6 cd changer, bumper protector, mats, cargo net. NO power windows or locks or moonroof. List price a little over 21,000. GM buy power offered it to me for 17,900. Would you buy a car like this with no power pack that has been sitting some where for 2 years? My car has the moons and tunes, auto plus all the $ I have put into mods to make it into a fun car to drive. I would like a GT but I wonder if this is a bad way to do it? My loan would jump from 5000. to around 12000. Big difference! The other choise would be to try to sell my car private party and try to find a good used Vibe or Matrix XRS. What do you think?

[goodvibe]

It depends on how important the powerpack is to you and how lomg you plan to keep it. If your answers are not and very long respectively than see if you can get a killer deal on his tied up inventory. That vehicle represents funds and space that can be used fpr a car he can actually sell. He should almost give it away. That said, I personally wouldn't buy a car without p. windows locks or cruise and it will be hard to resell.

[goodvibe]

I've got to agree about the SC unless you want to lose the auto.

[shibaman]

If you go with the supercharger is it better to go with the big $ Pontiac or buy a TRD for 1500. and a unichip. The other thing to think about if I buy that new Vibe I have to start over on the suspension mods, intake and exhaust. I figure about 1400 with labor on springs and front sway bar. I think that it would have to be a hell of a deal to make me swap cars.

[AKLGT]

i would stay w/ what you have and get either the s/c or a turbo.

[shibaman]

I took my car to have the coolant changed and the advisor said that I have the long life(100k) coolant and recomended waiting. He suggested that I have the fuel inj. service done at 30 k mi. I test drove that 03 GT frosty. Nice car, but not worth the $ for me to change. I was able to hit lift a couple of times in 2nd gear and it was ok. I guess that I expected more of a Kick in the pants. Maybe with an intake and exhaust it would have more kick. The clutch and shifter was very easy to drive No stalling or hesitating. The car had 74 mi. of test driving on it. I would never buy this car after being on the lot for 2 yrs driven like I did today. I figure that I would have to spend about 1500. to bring it up to specs. to what I have now(mods). It would look real sharp dropped down like my car. If I could find a 03 Vibe GT or Matrix XRS already modded I would consider it. A new car is not a good deal money wise for me. Some times driving a different car makes you really apreciate what you already have.

[MadBill]

Quote, originally posted by shibaman »I took my car to have the coolant changed and the advisor said that I have the long life(100k) coolant and recomended waiting.. There are threads on this. Vibes have Toyota non long life coolant, but it's red instead of green, so it looks a lot like GM orange long life.

[shibaman]

I am sure that he could be confused on this. He didn't really know the car very well. The car only has 24000 mi. on it so I have plenty of time to decide what to do. Bill, what do you think of their fuel inj service? good or gimmick? 120$

[MadBill]

Not quite a gimmick, in that there could be a partially clogged injector, but then there could be one at 10,000 or even 100 miles.I'd say there's no need for such service unless you've had a load of contaminated fuel, as evidenced by symptoms like bucking, rough idle, poor mileage, CEL, etc. Millions of cars have gone to their graves after hundreds of thousands of miles without ever needing injector service. >Controvery AlertThat said however, there is a certain satisfaction in thinking one has done all one could for the health of their baby, such as totally unnecessary 3,000 mile oil and filter changes (see thread re oil analysis results from my Vibe after 20,000 mi. on a fill of Castrol Sytec), and to such an end a little pampering like this is no big sin.

[shibaman]

Thanks Bill. My oldest new car with injection was a 79 Scirocco, then a used 77 Porsche 911S. Over the years I had many other cars and have never had to clean the fuels system. Maybe I was lucky not to get a tank of bad gas? I change my oil myself around 6K mi. I don't trust the quicky change places. Don't really save much $ but it is done right.

[MadBill]

That's the problem with regularly scheduled injector or fuel filter service; you could get a load of bad gas the next day. I cut apart the filter on my Pontiac Firefly (Geo Metro clone) at 350,000 km. after I changed it and found only a tiny pinch of rust dust (the original fuel tank had rusted out years before) I figure that by changing the oil myself, I can use synthetic for about the same total cost.