GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hello fellow vibe lovers:I just traded my 03 base (Satellite) for an 05 fully loaded Abyss. This is my first black car. I know I know I am going to kick myself in the (removed) for it, but it is so pretty! Anyway, I noticed while looking at it in the sun, it has almost a 3-d effect to it. Like you can see through it alomst. Looks like springs but deep in the paint. It has the tiny flecks of mettalic (blues and silver) but this 3-d effect is a trip! I thought maybe it was a defect in the paint, but it looks intential. Does anyone know what I am talking about? I have only had the car a couple of hours. I am thinking a "bra" would help provent the bug stains that will come from living in Florida with a black vehicle.I love the leather and the Satellite radio.Did anyone have an 03 before an 05? If so, anything majorly differnt I should know about the vehicle?So glad to be hereThanks!

with the horror stories and the track record with the NUMMI paint department it very well could be a paint defect.....and you will want something to protect the hood b/c if you look at it funny the paint will chip right off!By the way WELCOME TO OUR VIBEDOM!!!

My '03 Abyss has HORRID paint. It has all the silver and blue metal in it, but it is coming off the car! Raindrops leave 'rockchips', this paint is so thin....so thin in fact, I have a case open with GM to repaint my entire car.

Quote, originally posted by Addiegirl76 »Did anyone have an 03 before an 05? If so, anything majorly differnt I should know about the vehicle?The '05 is missing the roof carrier luggage racks, a section of the center console, and the 12 volt accessory socket in the console that your '03 had. Some members who had upgraded to a newer Vibe had these items transfered to the newer Vibe.

OH boy, now I am freaking out. Like I said this is my first black car. I wonder if this is a paint defect, would the dealership admit to it? Does anyone have the black and like it? I am so afraid I have made a mistake.

Mine is thin paint. Paint tolerance is a min. of 4.5 mil. Mine has 3.x on the front of the hood, 4.6 on the rear of the hood, and 2.1 on the roof. I might ask the dealer to gauge the paint. Other than that, I really dig the black, and will love it if GM will fix mine.

I noticed the cosole was smaller when I placed my elbow there to rest. I am starting th think the 3-D effect hase something to do with a refelction in the clear coat....maybe. A guy i know came and looked at it and said it was not a defect in the paint. A closer look however did reveal what a lousy job they did waxing it, the managed to get some of the wax under one of the pin stripes so it is peeling. OY! I will have them take the stripes off. I am not a big fan of them anyway.Recomendations on cleaner for the leather? This is the first time i have had leather and I am not sure how to take care of it. Do I need to treat it now? So glad I am here to ask questions.Thanks again

Welcome ! And good choice. I got an 05 Abyss as well. Mine is base but oh well I like the metallic in the paint, looks nice in the sun. i got the sales guy to throw in some touch up paint as I figured I would need it after reading the posts here. Hopefully mine won't be as bad as some of the stories here.

I have the 2005 Abyss AWD. I think the paint has metallic flakes in it.

Lexol makes a good cleaner and protector for leather. It is better than Amor All being it is designed for leather. Of course there is always saddle soap.

I've never noticed it

Quote, originally posted by BOZACK »Lexol makes a good cleaner and protector for leather. It is better than Amor All being it is designed for leather. Of course there is always saddle soap. Lexol is best, I just couldn't remember the name of it.....Bozack beat me to it.

I have a 05 Abyss and it does have the metallic look you are talking about. What I don't like is the paint just does not hold up. It scratches very easily. There are small scraches everywhere the car gets touched. Gas fill door, door handles, rear lift, hood etc. I also have a 2000 black Olds Alero that has none of these scratches. If it gets much worse I will be trying to get GM to paint the car.

The blues and silvers that you see in the Abyss paint IS intentional. Abyss is the only color of the Vibe that had the pillars color-matched and not black, I believe the mirrors were color matched as well (but I'm not sure). It was like this through all model years. My parents have an 03 Abyss and I was jealous of their car cause the pillars were color-matched and mine (03 Frosty two-tone) was not, but I have an 05 Moonstone monotone now and I'm much happier with it.

Quote, originally posted by Toasted7 »The blues and silvers that you see in the Abyss paint IS intentional. That's what I was thinking, the color doesn't look black to me... It's black metallic. Now if there are defects in the paint otherwise, that's a different story I guess.

It's actually NOT GM paint. It's a Toyota Colour.GM has only had mettalic black on 3 cars; that I know of; Corvettes, Cadillacs, and the Firebird/Camaro in the late 70's/early 80's.

I retract my previous statement.I was washing the car yesterday and after seeing this thread I looked at the paint, and it does have some metallic sparkle to it.

Quote, originally posted by tnpartsguy »It's actually NOT GM paint. It's a Toyota Colour.GM has only had mettalic black on 3 cars; that I know of; Corvettes, Cadillacs, and the Firebird/Camaro in the late 70's/early 80's.The touch up paint I got says GM on it. Metallic Black is the color. I don't think it says Abyss anywhere on it.

lol....your car says GM too, but you know it's over 75% Toyota!

Quote, originally posted by djpositivek »The touch up paint I got says GM on it. Metallic Black is the color. I don't think it says Abyss anywhere on it.As the color Neptune is "Dark Blue Metallic" or something to that effect. GM does NOT refer to any of the Vibe's colors as "Abyss, Neptune, Salsa, Lava" etc. Those are just catchy names they use to substitute the actual GM color names. Any touchup paint you get from GM will have the actual GM name on the bottle. You can't go into a dealer asking for Neptune touchup paint or ANY of these flashy color names, believe me, they won't know what the hell you're talking about. I've tried it.Partsguy, another metallic black GM: The C/K pickups of 88-89 also had a black metallic. Dad bought a new '89 back in the day, Sable Black Metallic was the color. It was pretty, but didn't last long - around '90 they went to a non-metallic black.

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Partsguy, another metallic black GM: The C/K pickups of 88-89 also had a black metallic. Dad bought a new '89 back in the day, Sable Black Metallic was the color. It was pretty, but didn't last long - around '90 they went to a non-metallic black. Wasn't that when they switched to a different paint base - because of EPA regulations to get away from petrolium based paints? I remember a lot of vehicles losing their paint in huge flakes during that time.

Yes indeed, that truck was one of 'em. His wasn't bad, but he still had it repainted on GM's tab. So many GM cars that had the paint peeling off in big friggin' sheets straight down to the primer. And we think our Vibes have crappy paint. Really folks, god it could be a hell of a lot worse...