New Years trip for the Vibe!

[damronjr]

Well, the wife, kid, me and the Vibe (Yes, the VIBE!), made it to and from Tijuana, Mexico for New Years (barely, might I add!). Initially we were supposed to take the Ram, but since it is a regular cab, and all of the stuff we needed to take to stay the night (you heard it right, my Vibe spent the night in MX!), we had to take the Vibe to carry everything. It took us nearly 2 hours to get there due to all the traffic heading down there. We almost got hit at least 15 times just on the way there! People down there just do not know how to drive nor do they care! 1 lane was used as 3, traffic lights were nightmares, and it just sucked in general. Her grandmother lives on a hill (near the top!) and the road in front of her house is dirt and large rocks! Since it has been raining in the area for the last few days, that dirt and rocks was all mud and large grooves in the road from the runoff down the road. We got there fine and made it up the hill to her house no problem, but then we decided it would be best to lock up the Vibe in the make-shift garage, which seemed like a great idea at first, but turned out to be a real nightmare for me and the Vibe. First I had to go from a dead stop up a muddy hill to turn around and get into the garage. Made that okay, but getting into the garage wasn't quit as simple. Had to go down the hill and then try to turn into the garage going through the channel in the middle of the street (not shallow either, cars were scraping bottom all the way down the hill if thy didn't line up correctly!) and uphill in to the garage! Needless to say, I thought I had pretty well destroyed the Vibe by the time we finally got it into the garage. I was literaly smoking the front tires on the rocks and mud trying to get out of ruts and getting stuck numerous times. For a while there I thought my Vibe was going to become a monument in the middle of the road in TJ, MX! From there I thought I was safe and everything would be fine, but then the next day (this morning) we had to get it out of the garage. Unfortunately the gates (garage door!) didn't open as wide as I thought and I couldn't make the turn out without going in to the rut in the street which would have pretty well bottomed the car out and I would have been stuck for good. So then came the task of getting the car back into the garage and try to work a way out. 1/2 my tire tread and lots of nasty smelling rubber later, we finally (with the help of some boards and a couple of strong guys pushing) got the car back into the garage and backed out just perfectly to stay out of the rut and out onto the paved roads. Needless to say, the Vibe looks like it just came back from a Rally race and fortunately it doesn't APPEAR to have any actual damage. I haven't seen the undercarriage yet, but the tires, wheels, exhaust tip, front and rear bumpers, and rocker panels look good. Oh well, I knew better and suffered for it. Fortunately we made it back in 1 piece! Lesson learned for next year! Happy New Year everyone!

[rAERRK]

1st of all, paragraphs PLEASE2nd, what is TJ,MX?

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by rAERRK »2nd, what is TJ,MX?I believe Tiajuana Mexico.

[Sputnik]

Quote, originally posted by rAERRK »1st of all, paragraphs PLEASE2nd, what is TJ,MX?It is in paragraphs.

[Kari]

And TJ, MX is Tijuana, Mexico, I believe...

[nismo]

Hey man, sorry to hear it was such a pain to get there. But good thing you made it back in one piece.Inder

[jmf2]

Ya, you gotta love those well maintained mexican roads your poor vibe!I almost bought a house once south of san diego, near the mcdonalds that got all shot up years ago. You could see the hills of TJ from the housing tract. who would have guessed i'd end up living 90 miles from the canadian border!

[rAERRK]

Much better

[damronjr]

Much betterGee thanks

[AzFusionGT]

Years ago I lived in San Diego - we were never brave enough to take our car into TJ, but kudos to you for being brave. Now that I'm in Phoenix, I still won't take my car into Mexico, but leave it in Nogales, AZ. Glad it worked out well for you.

[damronjr]

Here's the few pics I got of it afterwards before I cleaned her up.I don't feel so bad after seeing some of he northern states' Vibes! Glad I don't have snow, ice, salt, or mud down here to deal with!

[Sputnik]

Quote, originally posted by damronjr »I don't feel so bad after seeing some of he northern states' Vibes! Glad I don't have snow, ice, salt, or mud down here to deal with!Yeah I was going to say "thats not too bad!" You should see my filthy Vibe. I have to take it for an oil change soon so usually when I bring it in dirty, they ask me if its okay for them to wash it - free of charge, of course. Go ahead, I say!