GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

On one of the Matrix forums, someone claimed that GM eliminated the safety beams in the Vibe's doors to cut costs at some point in the past - the person didn't say in which model year this supposedly occured. Indeed, 2006 Matrix literature mentions door beams as a safety feature. 2006 Vibe literature does not make any reference to door beams. Does anyone know whether the 2006 Vibe has safety door beams?

Quote, originally posted by dalemccl »On one of the Matrix forums, someone claimed that GM eliminated the safety beams in the Vibe's doors to cut costs at some point in the past - the person didn't say in which model year this supposedly occured. Indeed, 2006 Matrix literature mentions door beams as a safety feature. 2006 Vibe literature does not make any reference to door beams. Does anyone know whether the 2006 Vibe has safety door beams?I know for a fact that the 2005 doors of the Vibe/Matrix have no design changes from 2003/2004 models. Considering the NHTSA side-impact ratings for the Vibe haven't changed between 2005, 2006, and 2007, there is no evidence of beams being removed or other structural changes.I suspect this is a product of the rumor mill as the side impact ratings dropped from the 2004 to 2005 model years (for both the Vibe & Matrix). I checked into this with both the NHTSA and Toyota when I was researching my Vibe - all agreed that no changes were made to the structure of the vehicle, and that the drop in star ratings were due to different accelerations measured in the different tests, which they said could be due to the rig impacting the car at a slightly different point in each test, and slight changes in the placement of the accelerometers and dummies.

Thanks, GMJAP. Glad to hear they must still be there.

They've been mandatory in all cars since model year 1998... So, any new car without them can't legally be registered in the US as it doesn't meet federal motor vehicle safety standards. So, new cars sold here without them don't exist.