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Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:38 pm
by vibeaddict
Our first Vibe was a 2004 Vibe AWD. Drove it for 2 years and traded it in on a Toyota (horrors!). My wife hasn't let me forget. She rubber necks every Vibe we see on the road. Ann even hussled a vet tech at our veterinarian to sell her Vibe without success.
To make a long story short, we finally made the jump back into the "club" and brought home a gorgeous 2003 Vibe two days ago. Our new Vibe has excellent DNA. The car was built for the original owner by her father at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA! She kept it looking great and had a tearful goodbye as we headed down the hill with our "newish" Vibe. Happy wife, happy life. We now fight over the keys when go on a cruise around town. LOVE IT!
Glad to be home.
Greg and Ann,
Lompoc, CA
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:55 pm
by tpollauf
Nice heart warming story "sniff sniff". Glad to hear you finally got another Vibe and it appears to be in excellent shape! Keep this one forever!
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 8:10 pm
by (Double D)
Welcome back.
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 1:08 pm
by vibenvy
Welcome back to GenVibe! Glad to hear you and your wife picked up another Vibe. They are certainly great little vehicles. That's neat that the "new" one was built for the original owner by her dad who worked at NUMMI. Like tpollauf said, it appears to be in great shape. Take good care of it and it will most certainly return the favor for many years to come

!
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:23 pm
by zyzyix
Hi. Welcome back

Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:02 pm
by ColonelPanic
Looks great, congrats! Great story too.

Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:06 pm
by vibeaddict
thanks gang. I just spent the afternoon detailing our Vibe. I learned some interesting tricks. First, I used Stoner Trim Shine on the plastic exterior trim and it looks great. I had a can left over from our 2004 Vibe. I was going to repaint the plastic but no need now. Disappointed with the Turtle Wax plastic restorer. Didn't work on ours, it was toooo far gone. Stoner did the trick. Brought the faded plastic back to life and I'm thinking it will last for quite awhile.
Next, I used a light abrasive polish to bring the glossy plastic side mirror and the plastic ends of the roof rack back to like new.
All in all, it looks as good as our 2004 did the day we brought it home. Next up, new Pontiac floormats, cargo mat, rear bumper scuff guard, and I'm going to make a template for a dash mat and get one cut and trimmed out next week. Life is good with our "new" Vibe.
Greg
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:15 pm
by vibenvy
vibeaddict wrote:thanks gang. I just spent the afternoon detailing our Vibe. I learned some interesting tricks. First, I used Stoner Trim Shine on the plastic exterior trim and it looks great. I had a can left over from our 2004 Vibe. I was going to repaint the plastic but no need now. Disappointed with the Turtle Wax plastic restorer. Didn't work on ours, it was toooo far gone. Stoner did the trick. Brought the faded plastic back to life and I'm thinking it will last for quite awhile.
Next, I used a light abrasive polish to bring the glossy plastic side mirror and the plastic ends of the roof rack back to like new.
All in all, it looks as good as our 2004 did the day we brought it home. Next up, new Pontiac floormats, cargo mat, rear bumper scuff guard, and I'm going to make a template for a dash mat and get one cut and trimmed out next week. Life is good with our "new" Vibe.
Greg
The Vibe looks great! There's nothing like cruising around in a freshly detailed Vibe

! Unfortunately, it's kind of pointless to detail the exteriors of our Vibes currently because of the crappy Chicagoland winter weather. I envy your California weather immensely right now

!
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:03 pm
by ramenboy...
Hey welcome back!
Love the color

Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:21 pm
by vibolista
Wow! Vibe looks like it's new. Great find. There's something about that color combination I really like for some reason.
Is it auto, manual? Hope the interior is as perfect as the exterior. Nice job detailing. That climate sure must make it pretty easy. Our Vibe is about to get covered in snow again. Might want to look that "snow" word up in the dictionary or do a Google search on it. Wonderful stuff to ski on, but really makes a huge mess on the roads and cars. We get lots of practice cleaning and detailing.
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:43 pm
by vibeaddict
vibolista wrote:Wow! Vibe looks like it's new. Great find. There's something about that color combination I really like for some reason.
Is it auto, manual?
Manual. Need 5 on the floor for towing behind our rv otherwise it would have been an automatic. I must confess that driving a manual Vibe is ALOT more fun! My 2004 Vibe got replaced by a 2004 Highlander which now finds itself parked in the driveway while our "new" 2003 Vibe gets the garage! That's justice!!!!!
Greg
Re: Vibe owner (again). Feels so good!
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:17 am
by vibolista
It deserves the garage! The person that owned it must have kept it in her garage since it's really so well preserved... especially for an '03. Your "new" Vibe was loved, for sure. Did she actually drive and put any miles on the car? I actually test drove the first '03 that showed up our local dealer, and I don't think it looked as good!!!
Definitely agree with you about manual transmission on a Vibe, they are way more fun to drive that way.