GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

This was important to me, and several other recent posts have mentioned it. Did you want/get ABS (anti-lock brakes) when you bought your Vibe?

Finding ABS, side airbags, and manual tranny together was pain in the southern region.IMO, ABS should be standard on all vehicles.

Didn't really care.. or want it.. expensive to fix.. expensive electronic.. and doesn't work as well as advertised.. and in the future if it breaks the dealer will rape you to fix it ..less hasle

Did not want it.

I wanted ABS but it was very hard/impossible to find one with ABS and a 5speed. So I chose to get a 5speed with out. Arg. I voted wrong. opps.

I definitely wanted it, but AWD was also a must so I never really had to think about it

ABS takes the fun out of winter....my mom's '06 Grand Prix is BORING ZzZZzZ in winter....with the ABS and traction control.

Wanted ABS and AWD. Got 'em.

at hertz thats all they sold and i dont mind it so i got it

I agree with the1stacekiller-just one more thing to break!

I went from a Malibu that had numerous ABS issues, so the fact that the dealer didn't have any ABS cars on the lot didn't phase me. The one more thing to break deal was in full effect. But later on, I wanted it back! I decided it was going to be a requirement when I was looking to replace the Vibe. I'm with GMJAP, make it standard OR at least make it so that you can actually find cars with the option if it is made optional.I've got 'em now, it was standard on my Accent so I'm happy. It was nice to not have to jump through any hoops just to get ABS. But in 4,000 miles I have yet to activate them. Guess that's a good thing. I'm looking forward to it this winter, if it doesn't get a workout then, I dunno.Merzbow, that's funny.. That's the point off ABS, traction control, etc - taking all the fun out of winter driving! Sliding around is fun but when you don't want to, that's a different story. LOL!

Quote, originally posted by GMJAP »IMO, ABS should be standard on all vehicles.I agree and similarly for side curtain airbags.

Quote, originally posted by Jeremy96gase »I wanted ABS but it was very hard/impossible to find one with ABS and a 5speed. Same for us. So we placed a factory order and waited.

Got it and wanted it...

I had no clue it wasnt standard.....sooooonow I find myself w/out ABS....which is not theend of the world. but still, its always in the back of my mind

same as isaaclud...i thought it was standard..

gmjap is right, finding ABS ... AND side airbags is a challange.funny thing was i didn't get stabilitrak, which was fine with me, but i forgot. about three times the wheels would spin on a rainy take off and i would go mman.... this traction control system sucks.finally realized, oh there isn't one.

I did not care if I had ABS and side-air bags. I called for insurance quote prior to purchasing. Then when I got one with both, the insurance was $300 cheaper per year to have them both. Therefore, they paid for themselves!

Don't really care either way. I got it if only because I have a GT, but as michaelgt said, I save on insurance WITH ABS, so having it is a bonus. I rarely hit it, though, which is why it hasn't mattered to me.

yea insurance companies give some nice discounts for all the safety features its awesome!

Thanks all, for your replies so far. My insurance company did not give me a discount for getting them. They told me side air bags didn't matter either. I would have liked to have the side air bags, but they were even harder to find, plus very expensive. I figure if ABS saves me one accident it more than pays for itself.

i work for a dealer and the airbag abs option was hard to get from pontiac. Dealers didnt get the chance to get the vibes equiped with them. Thanks Pontiac. Pontiac's biggest problem is telling customers one thing and offering another. I wanted a base vibe 5sp with power pac but couldent get it had to get roll up windows or automatic to get power. Not so cool pontiac.

I had it on my '03 AWD......the Princess 's Vibe is FWD Base Auto w/side Airbags and NO ABS....it's an '03 as well.ABS on the Vibe never scared me, Toyota has good ABS, and it doesn't break often.

Quote, originally posted by Fincloser »i work for a dealer and the airbag abs option was hard to get from pontiac. Dealers didnt get the chance to get the vibes equiped with them.So the dealers don't get a chance to order the cars equipped the way they want?There were so few 5-spd models available on dealer lots that we decided pretty quickly that we'd have to special order exactly what we wanted. The dealer was willing to order it without any binding contract or deposit from us so I'm surprised to hear that you couldn't specify exactly what options should be included. Seems like each dealer would have a better feel for what option combinations would sell best in their own area than having those decisions made more centrally.

Bought a GT and got ABS standard. Surprised to hear some insurance companies don't give a discount for having more safety features. Mine does and I really appreciate it.

Yep,I looked long and hard to find the Vibe w/ABS. It trully makes a difference, with my twin girls in the back, I felt that every little bit of control helps.

IMO, ABS should be standard on all vehicles.[/QUOTE]Amen!

I wanted it badly but I wanted 5speed more. Couldn't find one that had both so I had to go without ABS. At least it had power windows...

I got ABS and Front & Side Airbags on the Base w/ AT. My insurance company did not give any discount for the side airbags - all they cared about was front airbags & ABS. I don't know how much of a discount I got because of it, but I was quoted $122 a year more for the '06 Vibe than the '99 Saturn it replaced. The Saturn did not have ABS, but had dual front airbags.EDIT: The reason I got ABS & Side Airbags is because of the amount of time I'm on the road and all the nonsense I see. Safety for myself and my passenger(s) comes before anything else. I'm not like I was a few years ago when I purchased a new car and the salesman asked if I wanted the passenger airbag (driver side was standard). I looked at the price, then at my girlfriend, then the price, then my girlfriend, then at the salesman and said "nope".

I feel like it was fate when I bought my Vibe. I went to the dealership to test-drive a Vibe to get a feel for it before I start actually shopping for it. Before I went to the dealership I had been researching what I wanted for a few months, going to the Pontiac website and "building" the Vibe I wanted. So when I show up to the dealership to testdrive one.....there on the lot was they had the Vibe that I wanted. It had the options and color that I was looking for to the T. Yea, lol when the salesman asked me "What would it take" I couldnt refuse their offer when I told them what it would take....lol.

Wanted ABS and AWD and got it. Toyota ABS systems are almost trouble free and the insurance discount paid for the option expense

A day or two after I had purchased my Vibe, I was looking over the spec list for my car (from the window) and realized that I didn't have ABS. I spoke to my dealer who informed me that in 1993 ABS became standard, and in 2003, it stopped being so. Now I can't really find a Vibe without it, and my mother leased a Vibe (I bought) two months before I got mine and it was the exact same except for hers had the security package (side airbags, 17" rims, ignition security) and she had ABS. I raised hell at the dealership that it was NOT mentioned by my dealer who is supposed to know and delve EVERYTHING, and I got the hatch mat, the nets, 5 oil changes, and the bummer guard for free . Besides the initial purchase problem, I absolutely love my Vibe. After nearly 103,000 miles and still 14 months left to pay on it, I still love it and won't get rid of it anytime soon.[MisterHighway]

abs,awd,side srs... it's goodQuote, originally posted by MisterHighway »I spoke to my dealer who informed me that in 1993 ABS became standard, and in 2003, it stopped being so. [MisterHighway]thats not true... ABS was never manditory. In 1993 in Canada DRL became manditory on all new cars. I actually like DRL's when driving but not when parked.Anyway this is not our car but proves the point-Quote »Canadian Driver Used Car review"What was clearly missing from the Tercel's list of standard equipment in 1995 was an air bag of any kind. There was an optional air bag for the driver, which later became standard equipment, but none was available for the passenger at any price for the entire run of the Tercel. Anti-lock braking was never available, either, nor was traction control"

I completely agree. Especially in areas that get a lot of snow in the winter.

I think he was meaning in GM's line a standard feature, not some government mandate... Down here, starting about '93 or so I guess it was, GM had ABS standard equipment pretty much across the board... Or at least Chevy did, everything from the Cavalier on up to the Caprice had it. I think there may have been excecptions with the Geo models and such, but for the most part just about everything I recall them building had ABS.Then, it started dropping to back to the options list by the early 90's. ABS on a base Vibe was impossible to find when I was looking, so they might as well not have offered it at all like on that cheapo Tercel. . Of course I didn't want ABS then but later found that I did. I did want side air bags, but of course, they weren't anywhere to be found either. From 2003 to the present, it's still impossible in this area to find a Vibe with ABS and side air bags. Optional safety features suck.

I wonder if this can be broken into a regional issue. I wanted ABS, but this is because I live in Phoenix, AZ where the likelyhood of running into snow is like a snowball's chance in...If I lived in Michigan or Ohio or Colorado or Canada, or any other place where snow was probable then I wouldn't want it. And if I had to have it, I'd want it on it's own fuse so I could either put it on a switch and switch it off for the winter or pull the fuse for the winter.For all you Californians, ABS is great in dry traction, but terrible and bad in icy/snow conditions. I've seen SAE driving studies that show a locked tire is desirable in snow conditions to dig down to pavement....

I always thought ABS was standard on all models. Why wouldnt you want ABS?

Quote, originally posted by engineertwin2 »For all you Californians, ABS is great in dry traction, but terrible and bad in icy/snow conditions. I've seen SAE driving studies that show a locked tire is desirable in snow conditions to dig down to pavement....if all i wanted to do was stop in a straight line this is true. Or if someone like me can drive all the time. sometimes, especially on ice, its about getting to steer around a car then it is to stop before it. most times you cant stop before it anyway so to have the ABS pump and just worry about steering around the car or making the corner wide rather then the not at all. Way better for soccer mom sally freaking out and slamming into the side of the other car.funny question... why do you need them any other time of year??? I cant remember the last time I have ABS come on in the middle of summer. I know its there if i need it but mainly I have ABS FOR the winter.

Quote, originally posted by CAN-AWD-VIBE »funny question... why do you need them any other time of year??? I cant remember the last time I have ABS come on in the middle of summer. I know its there if i need it but mainly I have ABS FOR the winter.My understanding is that stopping distance is decreased (better breaking) if you do not skid in dry conditions thanks to the rolling friction coefficient being higher than the sliding friction coefficient. In icy/snowy conditions, the rolling friction coefficient is near that of sliding friction coefficient, however the sliding friction coefficient results in more energy dissipated (in the form of heat). This combined with forward pitch of braking creates a temperature/pressure combination that can "plow" or "dig" into the snow and ice. Most icy roads are covered in just tenths of a millimeter in ice. If the temperature/pressure are high enough, the ice will melt away quickly and provide road traction. Also to note, the sliding coefficient of friction between tires and tarmac/asphalt is higher than the rolling or sliding coefficient of friction between tires and ice...

so what you're saying is the angle of the dangle is directionally proportional to the heat of the beat? the snow packed down iced over roads i'm talking about are covered in ice that will definitely not melt so you can get traction before you drill the car in front of you. My ice just doesn't melt that fast. So instead of sliding into that car, my ABS brakes pump away and allow me to simply turn the wheel and that car steers that way into an area (hopefully) that is safe. this is definitely a regional thing but i think that most people with snowy climate would prefer a car with abs over one with out and i also would guess that almost none of us pulls the fuse all winter.I guess I am saying that if it extends my braking distance a little on ice but provides me with control, then that is a trade of i am more then happy to make.

Yep. Plus, if you need to swerve while stomping on the brakes, you'll still have control of the car instead of sliding straight on dry or wet road. Since we dont get a lot of snow in PA (YAY! I dont like snow. Heck, dont like temp. below 50F. LOL), ABS is nice to have all the time.

The two things I wanted were AT and ABS. The used one I bought just happened to have both, and also side air bags and anti-theft installed. I'm very pleased with it.

I wanted ABS and side airbags; as I recall, there was only one Vibe on the entire dealer lot (this is out of roughly 20 or so total) that had both, so the other options (AT, moon n' tune, alloys, abyss, etc.) were just taken because the safety features restricted my choice of Vibes to that particular one. There were perhaps 5 Vibes with ABS on the lot; the availability on the Matrixes was no better.

My Vibe will have ABS on it, but i personally only like it in the summer... ABS has it's place, but its not in the snow, you see the thing about ABS that makes it MORE dangerous is the fact that when a wheel locks, there HAS TO BE some sort of "outside" force to get that wheel going again.... ABS is not a "smart" system, although systems on the "high dollar" cars are getting smarter all the time, the general populous gets a VERY "dumb" system... The system only detects that a wheel has stopped spinning, and in short order pushes you up off the pedal until that wheel can begin to move again... Now if it is a front wheel, the power of the engine MAY help you do that, it may not, but, if it a rear wheel (non-AWD) all you have is friction on the ground to start that wheel(s) spinning again. At this point most of ABS's benefits fall on it's face... ESPECIALLY in SNOW... as there is very LITTLE friction between the tire and the road. So you have a system that is LOWERING your brake "line pressure" in effort to get a stopped wheel moving against a surface that has very little friction, so the system pushes you further and further off from the pedal trying to get that wheel(s) going.... all the while YOU'RE NOT STOPPING. In an AWD car it's a little different as you can USE your AWD to help you stop QUICKER by using the power going to each corner to help get/keep the wheel(s) spinning... I've lived in both Mi and in Buffalo Ny and with both a front drive VW and a AWD Subaru and i can tell you AWD does MUCH more for you than simply give you more traction in the snow, the benefits are great IF you know how to use them.... I could most likely scare the PANTS off of many on this board in my Subaru in the snow, all the while keeping my car in complete control... So my advise that i DO follow EVERY winter is, pull the ABS fuse and run without it in the winter, but definitely use it in the summer....

I bought mine way back in late 2002 and I couldn't find a base with auto, ABS, and side airbags on the lot. I ended up ordering it, which at that time didn't really matter as I was getting GM pricing and I got the same price whether the car was on the lot or not.The salesguy tried to convince me that ABS wasn't a safety feature.

Finding ABS, side airbags, and manual tranny together was pain in the southern region.It was so difficult I gave up looking and ordered the car. ABS, side airbags, and Stabilitrak. ABS and Stabilitrak may help avoid an accident that takes your life or changes it forever. The air bags may reduce the chances of that happening if the accident is unavoidable. Like getting T-boned by a Hummer.

i found the ABS no problem..i didnt care if i had it..with the winters we get sometimes..im glad i got the ABS

Yes, I absolutely wanted ABS (it's wet almost all the time here in the Northwest.) Anyway, here's an anecdote about why I'm glad I got them. It was the first big rain on the fall, and for whatever reason people always forget to slow down. A freeway interchange is a sharp right, blind, downhill curve. I'm in between two pickups making the curve when all of a sudden a cop appears at the bottom of the hill (out of his car, waving his hands to get people to stop.) A car before us had gone too fast, spun out and was in the left lane pointed the wrong way. Long story short, as the truck in front and I close in on the poor cop, the truck slams his brakes and starts spinning before crashing into the other guardrail. (Luckily he didn't skid right into the cop.) I jam the brakes, don't skid, and steer right between the cop and the truck in front. The truck behind me? As I peeked in the rear-view, he was also sliding all over. So, in a nutshell, situations like that are why I wanted ABS. (And as an aside, four wheel disc brakes.) I have a Vibe GT, btw.

I thought ABS was great, drove my grand Am 6 yrs with ABS and traction control. Then I drive the vibe and notice it has much more stopping power & don't realize until a year later i don't have ABS.But at the same time I moved from snowy/rainy Cleveland to No rain ever Vegas.

lol yeaim the type of person who dose off a bit when drivin loli have had my bracks lock up on me nd i hate it when that happens i use to drive my dads 2000 regal alot back in the day witch of couse had abs nd traction control but feels like ur tryin to stop a truck