Hi, new member here.
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:31 am
My wife and I bought an '03 last Monday, off a Craigslist ad. Silver paint, cladding, alloy wheels, roof rack, moonroof, single CD, auto. 87,000 miles, $5,000.The car has one issue: it starts to shake at about 75 mph. I expect this is an unbalanced wheel or an alignment problem, but any comments are welcome.I was happy to learn from this board that the engine has a timing chain.It's funny, we are now a nearly all-Pontiac family. Almost exactly one year ago I bought an '04 GTO, auto, black, red interior, $14,000. The GTO is a great great car, and everyone should have one. I specifically went out looking for one of these. This was long before anyone could have guessed that Pontiac would soon cease to exist.As for the Vibe, I have always thought, for an economy car, that a tall car with a hatch is the way to go. So what I was shopping for was the Matrix, Vibe and Mazda 3 hatch. The Vibes are much cheaper than the other two, so here I am.I am glad to see, in another thread, that the Vibe may live on past the demise of Pontiac. The GTO was a three year only model run, which ended with the '06, and they are made in Oz, like the G8 but unlike the G8 they're built on an obsolescent Holden Monaro platform. So the GTO was a dinosaur already. But it's good to hope that the Vibe might survive.My other cars are Fords: a '70 Mercury Cougar, 351 Cleveland, auto, slightly resto-modded, and a '65 Mustang fastback, 302 H.O. roller cam engine, T5 5-spd, lots and lots of other mods. As with the Ponchos, I did not plan to be a Fordnatic; these cars just sorta fell in my lap.Edit: No pics of the Vibe yet; sorry! Here are some pics of my other cars: Unfortunately the Cougar must go; that was the deal with the wife, to get the Vibe. My family and I have an 11 year history with this car *sniff* so it's really about as close to an ultimate sacrifice as you can get with a car.