GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

So yeah, I'll start a new thread on the new mazda3. Got it tinted today, 45% all around and 75% windshield. No more dark tint for me lol




Been driving this car for a few days now and here's my impression/comparison to the vibe.

One thing annoyed me on my vibe was I could never really get a comfortable or perfect seating position. If I go one click up it'll just a bit too close to the pedals and if it's one click back it's a tad too far. I'm just glad I can get the comfortable seating position now with the power seats. When in my vibe, I could never get comfortable when resting my left elbow on the door arm rest, it's kind of in an awkward position that's too far forward to comfortably rest my elbow so I never rest my arms there. Again, I can comfortably rest both my elbows in the 3.

The 3 rides really smoothly, compared to the vibe. It's still stiff but the suspension soaks up bumps a lot better. Has a very european feel to it lol My vibe rode really stiff and when going over uneven roads or bumps it's really harsh, especially in the back seat. People riding in the back often complains it's too bumpy there. Aside from the smoother ride, it's a lot quieter too and even quieter than the 2010-11 mazda3 rental I had a few years back. I remember when I test drove this car I was very impressed how quiet it was and after getting back into the vibe it felt like a hollow tin can. I'm super happy mazda put more sound deadening stuff to this car. Speaking of quiet, the engine and exhaust is really quiet and I have to turn down the radio to hear the exhaust note. On my vibe I have a k&n drop in filter and love how the engine and exhaust sounds. Vibe stock exhaust sounds more throatier.

Power wise, it's not a significant jump but merging onto the freeway seems quicker. Probably due to the low end torque coming in earlier. Also, the car is so quiet sometimes I find myself going 80+ and not knowing lol

Forward visibility is really good in this car. The side mirrors are on the door which I find very helpful as it cuts down the blind spot. My vibe I had window visors which made it very difficult to see past the A pillar so there are times when I make left turns I had to move forward and back to make sure it's clear. The 3 has blind spot monitoring which is helpful too since in the vibe I have almost hit another car while merging because I could not see it in my blind spot. Also beeps at you when you're reversing and there's a car or person coming, it actually works as I found out today.

I had retrofitted tsx projectors in my vibe and it's a stellar performer. The 3 came with bixenon headlights so I don't think I'll do anything in that department anymore, maybe just swap out the lens for a clear lens to give it a sharper cutoff. Another thing this 3 has are adaptive headlights that turns as you turn. It's pretty neat and kind of trippy when I first saw it and it does help light up the sides more. One thing I had to get used to is the push button start. It's very neat but I find myself reaching for the ignition area when I turn off the car. I'm sure I'll get used to it. The keyless entry system on this car is pretty cool too. No need to take key out of pocket and I can lock/unlock/turn on car and I also turned on the feature to lock car as I walk away. Oh and the auto headlight has the option to turn off, unlike the vibe where you can't turn off the headlights at night (I disabled drl feature to remove the auto lights on the vibe).

Overall it's a nice fun little car that fits me comfortably. It was nice to not have car payments but I was getting really tired of the harsh ride so it was time to upgrade. I got the 7 year/100k extended warranty for this car so I'll hopefully keep it for a long time.

Thank you for the write up.

Does your Mazda3 have the screen on top of the dash? If so how do you like it, and does it retract in to the dash?

SeattleJeremy wrote:Thank you for the write up.

Does your Mazda3 have the screen on top of the dash? If so how do you like it, and does it retract in to the dash?

Oh yeah, forgot to write about that. Yes it does have the touch screen on top of the dash and it's not retractable. I didn't like it when I first saw it but after the test drive I think it all makes sense. I mean it's right at your line of sight so you can use the command dial thing to control everything without looking down. I read that mazda placed the screen up top so they can slim down the dash. It would be nice if the screen retracts tho but wasn't a deal breaker for me.

The car also has that heads up display thing that when you turn on the car a clear plastic screen pops up to display the speed and navi directions. Again, all in the line of sight so you don't have to look away from the road. It all works very nicely together. When you turn off the ignition it folds back down, the guy at the tint place was taking a picture or video of it lol

Very nice!!!

How's the cargo area? How much does that steeply raked hatch interfere with boxes and such?

Cargo area isn't as good as the vibe. I have this photo booth that I can carry in my vibe and barely fits but due to the rear slope of the 3 I doubt it'll fit. The cargo area is a bit narrower so it's a bit smaller overall.

Very nice looking 3 Kin! I was surprised to see it was white. I was expecting it to be black like the Vibe ! Are you keeping the Vibe or no?

vibenvy wrote:Very nice looking 3 Kin! I was surprised to see it was white. I was expecting it to be black like the Vibe ! Are you keeping the Vibe or no?

Thanks! I was actually going to get silver since white costs extra but the dealer gave me a great price for it so why not I didn't want a black car anymore, too hot, very hot on hot days lol Originally I was planning on keeping the vibe but don't want to pay insurance for two cars so I just traded it in. My vibe was just a tad over 55k miles on it when I traded it in, not bad for 5 years of ownership

You should have put your headlights up for sale on here! I'm sure you wouldn't have had any issues getting rid of them !

Of course I'm partial to silver, but I am really digging the white! Black vehicles look great when they're all nice and clean, but are a major PITA to keep looking good for any length of time.

Yeah I could have made some $$$ selling it, but I would need to find someone to trade stock headlights with, too much hassle lol Funny how when I had the vibe I would hardly see vibes driving around. Now I see vibes more and more, today I saw 3 vibes. That's never happened before! lol

Could have saved yourself $25000 buying some 17" rims (subsequently with taller tires) for your Vibe...

Nice 3 though. 2.5L and ladymatic?

thebarber wrote:Could have saved yourself $25000 buying some 17" rims (subsequently with taller tires) for your Vibe...

Nice 3 though. 2.5L and ladymatic?

Yea it's an automatic haha so was my vibe Also don't think smaller rims will make the ride much better tho, the 3 also has 18" rims and the ride is significantly smoother overall. Maybe longer wheelbase helps.

lowincash wrote:Yea it's an automatic haha so was my vibe Also don't think smaller rims will make the ride much better tho, the 3 also has 18" rims and the ride is significantly smoother overall. Maybe longer wheelbase helps.

Maybe Toyota just wants us all to suffer! Although, I honestly really enjoy the rough ride, because it makes me feel more like the car is alive and vigorous.

I loved driving the 2014 M3, such a lovely little car. Very hard to get used to how much view there is, though.

215-40-18 on the vibe, 215-45-18 on the 3...that's almost 1/2" of sidewall

lannvouivre wrote:

lowincash wrote:Yea it's an automatic haha so was my vibe Also don't think smaller rims will make the ride much better tho, the 3 also has 18" rims and the ride is significantly smoother overall. Maybe longer wheelbase helps.

Maybe Toyota just wants us all to suffer! Although, I honestly really enjoy the rough ride, because it makes me feel more like the car is alive and vigorous.

I loved driving the 2014 M3, such a lovely little car. Very hard to get used to how much view there is, though.

Actually when I first got the vibe I loved preferred the stiff ride and didn't mind it much. Over the years, I guess I got a bit more older, and prefer a smoother ride. I actually looked into getting a buick at one point lol Glad I didn't tho

thebarber wrote:215-40-18 on the vibe, 215-45-18 on the 3...that's almost 1/2" of sidewall

I was using 225-45-18 on my vibe, made it smoother than the crappy stock tires for sure but still a jarring ride.

thebarber wrote:215-40-18 on the vibe, 215-45-18 on the 3...that's almost 1/2" of sidewall

The factory tire size on the 2009-2010 Vibe GT is 215/45/18 .

Gorgeous looking car.

Iad 235-40-18 on my vibe and found the ride crappy. Currently on 225-45-17 and its much much nicer

It's been about two and a half months since I've had the 3, thought I give a little update.

Since then I've added OEM window visors, changed out the crappy stock Dunlop to Michelin Primacy MXM4, LED interior/reverse/license plate, dry flow drop in air filter and changed out the tiny stock exhaust tips for something a bit better looking

I guess I've been driving a bit hard lately after putting in the air filter, I only got 25mpg on my last tank. Loved hearing the throatier sound and better throttle response. The worst was 22mpg when I used the "Sport" mode a lot. Sport mode made it feel like I have a v6 under the hood, it was a bit addicting. Car just takes off. The 6sp auto transmission is one of the best I've driven. When driving hard it holds gear longer and really felt like a manual car. I've yet to hit 30mpg tho. Best I got so far was 29.5mpg but I do a lot of short trips and sit in traffic mostly. I'm sure I can get high 30's on long trips. So far it's about 4-6 mpgs better than the vibe doing the same commute. On the vibe best I got was 28'ish mpg on long road trips.







Since swapping out the tires, I ran over a nail twice lol BTW, these tires are super quiet! When I first got them I was kinda disappointed because they were a bit hard and was noisy like the stock tires. After driving 500+ miles, they've become very smooth and super quiet. I should have tried these tires when I had the vibe to see if it would help with road noise. But yeah, I'm sold on these tires, will get the same ones again probably lol

Oh yeah the 5000k reverse lights look more yellow than the 4500k license plate bulb, weird. I like the color tho, so I'll probably be switching to the 5000k bulbs from vled for my interior later on. I'm also going to get a larger spoiler once it becomes available from mazda. Will probably do some minor suspension mods, just add strut and sway bars and maybe lower it too, but don't really want to hurt the ride quality.

Funny thing, when I had the vibe, I hardly see any 2nd gen driving by. Now that I don't have the vibe, I see them around quite regularly, mostly non GT trims tho.

Anyways, hope everybody had an awesome Christmas and a happy new year

How are the blind spots in that car? I love the style of the up swept body line, but the windows are getting seriously small toward the back.

Kincaid wrote:How are the blind spots in that car? I love the style of the up swept body line, but the windows are getting seriously small toward the back.

Blind spot is not too bad I think. Then again I'm used to having blind spots on my vibe. This car has blind spot monitoring which helps a lot. Also has a backup camera with cross traffic alert which helps a ton too. I mostly reverse without turning to look back and the system will beep if there's a person or car coming my way, even before I see it on the screen. So yeah, haven't had any issues with blind spot so far

lowincash wrote:So yeah, I'll start a new thread on the new mazda3.

Sweet looking ride! I really like the 3 Hatchback. I looked at one back in 2007 before I bought my Vibe. Nice car! Now, imagine how good it would look if those wheels were chrome. I'm a bit partial to white cars with chrome wheels.

To me chrome wheels look good on:

1) White (and maybe other very light colored cars)

2) Old school hot rods, cruisers, sleds, etc.

PlatinumVibe08 wrote:

lowincash wrote:So yeah, I'll start a new thread on the new mazda3.
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Sweet looking ride! I really like the 3 Hatchback. I looked at one back in 2007 before I bought my Vibe. Nice car! Now, imagine how good it would look if those wheels were chrome. I'm a bit partial to white cars with chrome wheels.

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Thanks! I actually looked at getting the first gen mazda3 before getting the vibe too lol Took me a few years but finally got one I'm not a big fan of chrome, I'm actually going to cover up the chrome on the lower window trim later on haha But yeah I agree, chrome wheels look nice on white cars for sure!

Quick update. Got the OEM spoiler installed, the rear end looks more complete now







Stock spoiler was tiny, this one just goes on top of the original one but still have to drill holes into the original spoiler.

Very nice NEW ride you have there I guess for a small compact 4-door hatchback, this is probably the closest replacement for our Vibe's! Sounds like a fully loaded ride. What was the MSRP? If Vibe's were still made how much more do you think this would have costs vs the Vibe? Seeing where you live I don't blame you with going to a lighter color. Enjoy the ride & keep visiting us here

tpollauf wrote:Very nice NEW ride you have there I guess for a small compact 4-door hatchback, this is probably the closest replacement for our Vibe's! Sounds like a fully loaded ride. What was the MSRP? If Vibe's were still made how much more do you think this would have costs vs the Vibe? Seeing where you live I don't blame you with going to a lighter color. Enjoy the ride & keep visiting us here

Thanks I definitely visit here often, people are so chill here

MSRP for this car is $27,490 and I managed to get it down to $26,050. It's the grand touring trim so it's pretty much fully loaded, minus the tech package. I did add the extended warranty since I plan to keep it a long time and with tax and everything it came out to just a bit over $30k. Back then when I was looking at cars, it was between the vibe gt and the 09 mazda 3, chose the vibe because I liked the look better Really hard to say how much the vibe will cost now but I'm guessing it'll be around the same as before and if they have new technology or safety features it'll probably cost a bit more. A fully loaded Vibe GT was cheaper than a fully loaded mazda3 back then so I would assume the same now.

Hey gang, hope everyone's doing well here. Thought I post a quick update on my ride. Here's how it stands as of today.



Tint was too light so darkened it a bit lol I had the rear lower valance wrapped in glossy black vinyl as well as lightly smoking the rear reflectors. Also got the mazda gunmetal rims put on the other day. Hoping to lower the car in the near future

I'm starting to see more and more of the new 3's so have to do something to stand out a bit from the rest. There's already 2 other white hatches at the gym that I go to. It was nice while I was the only one, like I was with the vibe

That white makes a stunner out of this car. I like Mazda ever since I had an '86 323 hatch. A few years ago i bought '98 Protege 5 speed. i justified the purchase with the need for my boys to learn stick shift. Both hated it and both learned it. When I bought a Vibe with automatic one of them asked me why.

Are you on a Mazda forum too?

Hey, you wrote this in an earlier post:

Actually when I first got the vibe I loved preferred the stiff ride and didn't mind it much. Over the years, I guess I got a bit more older, and prefer a smoother ride. I actually looked into getting a buick at one point lol Glad I didn't tho

and I hear you loud and clear!

vibrologist wrote:That white makes a stunner out of this car. I like Mazda ever since I had an '86 323 hatch. A few years ago i bought '98 Protege 5 speed. i justified the purchase with the need for my boys to learn stick shift. Both hated it and both learned it. When I bought a Vibe with automatic one of them asked me why.

Are you on a Mazda forum too?

Hey, you wrote this in an earlier post:

Actually when I first got the vibe I loved preferred the stiff ride and didn't mind it much. Over the years, I guess I got a bit more older, and prefer a smoother ride. I actually looked into getting a buick at one point lol Glad I didn't tho

and I hear you loud and clear!

Yeah I'm on a few other mazda 3 forums. Most active on the mazda3revolution, the others aren't as active.

Also, gas mileage is pretty good on this car. The car is just over 10,000 miles and usually getting around 27-28mpg while driving kinda aggressive. This past couple of tanks, I've been driving more conservatively and following the speed limit, I'm averaging 33-35 mpg. Short trips kills mpg, and my area are has lots of steep hills so that kills mpg too

Looking good Kin !

lowincash wrote:Quick update. Got the OEM spoiler installed, the rear end looks more complete now







Stock spoiler was tiny, this one just goes on top of the original one but still have to drill holes into the original spoiler.

That certainly looks cool and keeps the good taste of the car's design. Congrats!
I have that same model and color and have been thinking about the spoiler as well.
My question is, as you know, hatchbacks are a magnet for dirt at their rear end, has the spoiler made any difference on that matyer? Does it get more or less dirt at the back or no difference at all?
Here are some pics of the accesories I've had installed (sorry for the dirt it's a very rainy day)...