GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I know - always the new guy asking tons of questions...Sorry about that but I've learned over the years that forums like these are extremely valuable.

A bit about me - I'm born and raised and now stuck in NJ. Love all different cars. My ultimate is a mustang GT...but that's not in the plans right now...

I am in the market for a new to me used car for our (i know it sounds pretentious but it's really not - a ton cheaper for daycare with multiple kids) au pair to use to drive our kids around and herself to school. Found some real crap out there. Then started focusing in on toyota corollas. Most were either crapped out and expensive or ultra expensive rides with 150k miles on them. Then one day I found a matrix. I was ok with it. Was going to look at it and dude called me and said it was sold. So I go on a matrix hunt. Found one in a shady used car lot. It was beat. But the fine salesperson said they just got this pontiac vibe in stock and it is the same exact car. My ears kind of perked up and I took a look at it. Sure enough - same thing. The price on this one was out of line and it was a little rough, but I figured let me now take aim for a Vibe.

Which is where this leads me now. I found one on another shady used car lot - a 2004 base. Not much too it, power windows, sunroof. That's about it. It has 88k miles on it, 2 owners, no service records and one accident. Asking $6800. So I do my research and this is no where close to where KBB or edmunds says it would be (I always get screwed trading in cars when they say these sources are always high...). But I go take a look anyway. The thing is nice. No leaks, starts right up, no weird noises. S-belt needs replaced in a few thousand miles and 2 tires are in order for the back. Drives good. I'm thinking to myself, this is not crap...Finally. I ask the guy what's the lowest they'll go for a cash deal this week. He comes down to $5800. I'm still thinking this is high, so I bring a mechanic friend to take a look at. He's trying to find stuff wrong with it. Really struggling. Comes up with a few minor things...So I ask they guy again what's the lowest. He's stuck at $5800.

Think this is a fair price for the mileage and a car in good condition? I refuse to pay dealer retail from a shady lot. And this has been sitting there for a long time (I think the location and the price has a lot to do with it). KBB value of very good from private party is $4600. A fair purchase price from a dealer on KBB is $5800. I offered him $5000 today to take it off his lot. I honestly think $5800 is too high for an 11 year old car that has been sitting on his lot for almost 200 days.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Actually that seems in the ball park to me. My recent experience with KBB is that for whatever reason the used cars you see on the lot are seldom that low. It is hard to check lot prices on a 2004 Vibe as there are so few. You might do a national search on Carmax.com to see what they are asking for that vintage Vibe and Matrix. BUT - you might also want to see what the monthly payment would be on a new Honda Fit. They hold their value well nd you would have no maintenance cost other the LOF and Tire rotations for the first 36 months, and probably not for the first 60 months. Dealers are lucky to make $500 on a new car, but they aim for $2,000 on a used car. New cars depreciate the moment you drive them off the lot, but, guess what,so do used cars.

welcome to genvibe

check out cars.com and autotrader.com as well as craigslist, even if you don't find one you want you want it might give you more data to judge if a price is resonable

Vibes have some minor issues, but if you stay away from 03 (and maybe 04) 5 speeds, you should get a lot of miles out of it.

thanks for the repsonses. I found another 04 that I took a look at today. It's going I'm the $4600 range. this one had 110k miles but still checked out mechanically. The only thing I could feel was a tire out of balance (slight shimmy at 62 but goes away above that). The other negative was one small dent under the rear tail light that wasn't taken care of and was starting to rust.

This is now the 3rd vibe I've looked at. Do they all have a little play in the emergency brake? the brake still holds but they all seemed loose to me.

[quote="vibeinNJ"]thanks for the repsonses. I found another 04 that I took a look at today. It's going I'm the $4600 range. this one had 110k miles but still checked out mechanically. The only thing I could feel was a tire out of balance (slight shimmy at 62 but goes away above that). The other negative was one small dent under the rear tail light that wasn't taken care of and was starting to rust.

This is now the 3rd vibe I've looked at. Do they all have a little play in the emergency brake? the brake still holds but they all seemed loose to me.[/quote

Oh well, probably pass on this one. If they did not take care of the dent that is now starting to rust, what else may have been neglected?

It checked out mechanically, it has cosmetic blemishes. The price appears reasonable. How long do you want to look?

Another site to check is http://www.cargurus.com.

You can see a lot of listings AND they give you an assessment on how good of a deal it is with colored, directional arrows, e.g., dark green up arrow = great deal, bright red down arrow = overpriced.

vibeinNJ wrote:thanks for the repsonses. I found another 04 that I took a look at today. It's going I'm the $4600 range. this one had 110k miles but still checked out mechanically. The only thing I could feel was a tire out of balance (slight shimmy at 62 but goes away above that). The other negative was one small dent under the rear tail light that wasn't taken care of and was starting to rust.

This is now the 3rd vibe I've looked at. Do they all have a little play in the emergency brake? the brake still holds but they all seemed loose to me.

That's a good price. $4600 seems much fairer, and 110k is almost nothing for these cars.

The play in the e-brake is because it needs to be adjusted, which is a simple but very annoying process.

I am going to guess the dent is rusting because you live near the ocean and have the magical salty air stuff!