GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi Everyone!I'm Anna and the new owner of a newtome 2010 base 1.8L Vibe(Dark Gray, A/T, FWD, 21k).I'm coming from the world of Subaru ownership. I traded in a silver 2005 m/t Subaru legacy(we still have a 2010 impreza). Part of my inspiration was-lower gas mileage and a lower monthly payment. I was, admittedly, not the most educated about Vibes prior to buying. But, so far, I'm enjoying it and liking what I read.I live in Maine and we've had several rough weather days since "Hitch"(yep, I name my cars) joined the family. So far, with careful driving, it's handled pretty well. The major differences that I have experienced thus far are pretty logical-Frankly, Hitch doesn't power out of snowy spots easily. But, it only snows...oh...7 months of the year here we'll make it through.I have noticed that the shock absorbency is pretty different. Things are much more bumpy than I am used to. But, I just turn up the excellent stereo and pretend it's not happening I look forward to connecting with people on the site and learning more about my Vibe. Oh, if anyone would like to get rid of a cargo mat or shade please let me know. I'd rather buy second hand.-Anna

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Welcome to the club. Sure you have it worse than here in michigan but the vibe hasn't been too bad for me in winters. Better winter rubber would help me a lot tho. Hope the new ride treats you well

Nice Vibe.I'm a huge fan of the darker colors these things come in.

welcome to our little corner of the internet

Welcome to GenVibe!

Welcome to GenVibe! I hope you meant part of your inspiration was having higher gas mileage and lower payment.

LOL good catch that is indeed what I meant!

Welcome

welcome, welcome. prepare to mod...!

Hi !

Hi Anna and welcome.May I suggest that getting rid of the crap OE tires would be the first step to a better ride and certainly better winter traction? Do you still have the Bad~Year RS-A's on the car?JUNK!! I couldn't move 2" in any direction when I had them on my Mazda3 in 1/2" of snow.They ride pretty hard too which may be the ride you are describing. I find it hard to believe that your Vibe rides worse than the Subie before it and I believe you will find it to be mostly in the tires. Our '06 has a nice ride and does pretty well for itself.BTW: I like your screen name.....

Are my goodyear eagle GT tires alright you think? Or should I get rid of em and get something better? I live in michigan as well and its handled alright in the snow so far and welcome to GenVibe btw, my cars name is Vibe, Victor Vibe (think james bond saying it)

Welcome to GenVibe! FWIW: your old Legacy was probably built by a friend of mine who works at the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana, 30 minutes from where I live.

Welcome to GenVibe Anna! Quote, originally posted by BLargal »Are my goodyear eagle GT tires alright you think? Or should I get rid of em and get something better? I live in michigan as well and its handled alright in the snow so farI personally think the Eagles handle fine, although I haven't driven with them in snow because I got Toyota Camry steel wheels that I use in the winter to save the factory 18s from getting wrecked by salt, sand, etc.

Welcome!!

Welcome to GenVibe!!!

Hey, another person form Portland...wait a minute...dang wrong one Welcome to the family!

giggity-giggity!(i was gonna say welcome to GenVibe, but I wanted to be weirdo)

welcome fellow '10 owner!the first performance mod i'd suggest to anyone is to get rid of the stock goodyear RSA's (can't wait to get rid of mine, but can't justify the expense with under 20,000 miles on them. expect to get 30-40,000 out of them if you treat them well). anything will be an improvement, although there are a ton of threads re: tires on here to choose from.

I'm glad I'm NOT the only one that has had bad experience3s w/Bad~Year tires.After 4 sets, all that had problems, I don't think I will be buying ANYTHING that has GoodYear on it.BUT, I am not exaggerating about my experience w/the RS-A's... and I could even go one with more.

Quote, originally posted by orwhatuwill » Things are much more bumpy than I am used to. But, I just turn up the excellent stereo and pretend it's not happening Welcome Anna. Good thing you're not driving the GT in those same conditions like a lot of us would have to With 2" less rim/ more rubber, your Base Vibe should be pretty smooth compared to us GT owners when we're driving on our 18's You're going to love this site. Visit often and get involved. Post CLEANER pics when you get a chance soon

Hi Anna. Welcome! Too bad you don't live in Texas, 'cause there is a geology term called 'anatexis' (partial melting of a rock).

Welcome I believe my stock RSA's have 46,000+ mi. on them - definetely not by choice though.

Hello! Good to see another new member!

Hmm good thing I have my brother whom of which works at discount tire I shall ask him what are the best all year tires to put on my car and see about prices

My RS-A's got 37000kms by the time they were at the wear bars.... My studded Winterforce have 23000kms on them and will probably outlast the damned RS-A's...

I didn't know much about RS-A's at the time so decided to give them a chance. What I discovered was:1) Very good dry traction2) A little scary in the rain which got MUCH worse as they wore.3) Very bad in the snow.4) Hard ride.5) Noisy, getting noisier as they wore.6) 19,600 miles and worn out. (With regular 5k rotations, they were almost slicks by then.)7) GoodYear CS is very well trained to tell you EXACTLY what GoodYear WANTS you to think and believe.8) GoodYear Gemini stores are nothing but an extension of GY CS, only worse. Put it this way, at the end of my visit there, the one GoodYear CS insisted upon, I was so annoyed that they had wasted my time, AND wanted to sell me ANOTHER set of RS-A's ("Cause that's all we have in that size") and at twice that I could've bought them for anywhere else ($293 ea. vs. $160,) plus the cost of mounting, balancing and whatever other charges they wanted to make, that I told the guy to get my f*cking car off their f*cking lift and hoped that I never saw any of them in a dark alley.After 4 sets of GY tires on three different cars over ten years, all that had some sort of problem, including 2 blow-outs on my wife's Saturn, and tread separation on my old Colt Vista, I will not ever spend my hard earned money on another set of GoodYears in my life.Thus ends my affiliation of any kind w/GoodYear.As a sub-note here, the Vibe had two pretty worn RS-A's and two practically new Viva II's (GoodYears made exclusively for Wal-Mart) on it when we bought the car. I looked for new tires IMMEDIATELY upon taking possession. We are very happy with the Continental ExtremeContact DWS that replace them... so much so that a few months later I replaced the Kumho's on the Mazda (third set of tires) with them too.

Welcome to the site... I hardly get a chance to jump in these days. Nice Vibe. Be careful with those RS-As. Everyone has already clued you in on the less than stellar nature of that tire. You drive in Portland and I consider that the tropical sector of Maine. Road crews do a pretty good job on the streets in town. But I would definitely run 4 dedicated snow tires in Winter, even in Portland. Your Vibe probably won't be quite as good as your Subaru in snow, but a good set of snow tires will allow you to be way more confident in snowy conditions. All season tires are really just an agressive summer tire. Rubber compounds and tread patterns in modern snow tires add quantum step up in control and safety when you're navigating slick hilly roads. It's March, in another month or so we'll be out on our bicycles. Spring's a little less than 17 days away!