GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I needed to transport a cedar chest to my daughter, and was not liking the amount a rental vehicle would cost to get it done. So I wondered if it might fit into the back of my 2008 Vibe, which I bought back in March. The answer was yes, so the next step was to get my mechanic's thoughts on the idea of 1,500-plus miles in four days in a car with 187,000 miles on it. He likes my car, or at least the fact that it has a "Toyota heart," so I had him check everything out. He found nothing, changed the oil and gave it his blessing.
Well, the car ran like a champion. It was comfortable to drive for long stretches, though the ride was a little choppier than I'm used to (for sure, the patchy pavement didn't help). I'm pretty sure I got 30-plus mpg cruising at 70 and 2,800 rpm (is that about right?). On some surfaces, particularly concrete, the road noise was really loud, but that could also be partly due to the tires (Douglas from Walmart, that came on the car). I could not have been more pleased.
1,500 miles of bugs

I drove mine just under 3000 miles after I bought it, to get home. Well, I side trekked to visit friends and family, which added a good 450 more miles. Plus I went the long route by way of California, since it was December and I tried to avoid as many snowy mountains as I could. I hit some snow in the mountains just inside of Oregon but it wasn't too bad. Speeds were way down but the roads were clear with no accidents. No chains needed, either. I stopped in Redding, CA and bought a set just in case, though! Cheap'ish no return ones from O'Reilly Auto.

These Vibes love long trips. Mine heads to Florida every other winter or so and back. All in just five days ! Mid 30's mpg for the bigger 2.4L engine! Usually end up putting on 2500 miles for that week and the satellite radio is priceless while driving all this distance

My Vibe and I took our longest ever road trip to Nashville for the 2016 GenVibe meet back in June. I was very pleased with the numbers we were able to achieve...

Total miles: 1137.6
Total gallons: 31.521
Avg. MPG: 36.090
Highest all time MPG: 40.311 - 100% highway at 60 MPH

My MPG is way down due to the roof box. Last two tanks came up 24.4mpg (thats with a good bit of highway mixed in). It'll be even lower, maybe 22 when I get a hitch and rear cargo box on it, plus loaded up with my camping gear and all. But it's still way better than the 9mph hwy mpg motorhome I had before! And still better than a van, truck and most SUVs.

A small van like an Aerostar or Astro (without a roof box) would be more roomy, but the MPG would be much lower too.

If I had more faith in a old Prius battery bank, I would have probably bought a Prius instead of a Vibe. Probably would have been better budget twice. Heck, I spotted one earlier on CL down in Texas for $750 because of the bad battery bank, the seller says. But I don't trust the hybrids really. They can be so expensive to keep going, battery wise. Unless you're lucky enough to have it in limp mode, they can totally leave you stranded I think. The Hondas are different/better, as I recall. They have a separate engine starting battery, unlike the Prius, which uses the hybrid bank to start the engine.

A small van like an Aerostar or Astro (without a roof box) would be more roomy, but the MPG would be much lower too.

Not really. The Aerostar with the the Vulcan engine would rival the mpg you are getting. Even my 4L powered Aerostar gave about 24 mpg on long runs.

The Prius have been doing much better than I ever expected from such a complicated drive train. But I share your worries. Really, I am mostly worried about not being able to work on them myself. Maybe I am just unwilling to go on a new learning curve.

vibrologist wrote:

A small van like an Aerostar or Astro (without a roof box) would be more roomy, but the MPG would be much lower too.

Not really. The Aerostar with the the Vulcan engine would rival the mpg you are getting. Even my 4L powered Aerostar gave about 24 mpg on long runs.

The Prius have been doing much better than I ever expected from such a complicated drive train. But I share your worries. Really, I am mostly worried about not being able to work on them myself. Maybe I am just unwilling to go on a new learning curve.

What year Aerostars? The MPG ratings I saw were upper teens.

I'm pretty good at electrical, I could probably repair a Prius battery bank myself if I had proper working space, but I don't. So it would be a horrible mess to have a totally dead car, waiting for a refurbished battery bank to arrive.

Oh, I was going by Fuelly. Although, most people show 15mpg. That's possibly due to mostly city, and maybe they are lead foots. There's no telling. I see that some, according to the EPA fuel economy site, some are rated as high as 22mpg with the 3.0 L, 6 cyl, Automatic 4-spd.

I might end up with mid-high 20s hwy on my Vibe though, really. I do so much mixed city/hwy, that the last two 24.4s might be low due to the city driving mixed in.

......and then there are all variants lumped together including AWD and the bigger engines and extended bodies. I had a '94 XLT, extended body.

Stay with the Vibe, though.

vibrologist wrote:......and then there are all variants lumped together including AWD and the bigger engines and extended bodies. I had a '94 XLT, extended body.

Stay with the Vibe, though.

Right, Fuelly does lump them all together.

Yeah, it's in too good condition to get rid of for an older van. If it gets totaled while I'm out traveling, then I'd probably consider an Aerostar... if another good Vibe couldn't be found quickly and easily for a price I could afford.

I've put roughly 100K miles on my Vibe since I bought it 3 years ago. The car loves to road trip. The longest individual trip was around 3000 miles.