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Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:25 am
by whateverman42
Hi all, first off I want to say how nice it is that this community exists, it helped me make a decision to seek a Vibe in my used car search. But I had done my research on many other sites as well, and getting the Toyota quality (I'm definitely a Toyota guy, not GM) with the Pontiac depreciation was hard to pass up. This website just pushed me over the top to look hard for Vibes.

I had a small budget, under $4,000 CAD. Only one Vibe was available in my area in that price range from a private seller. A 2008 base automatic, sport package, sort of a teal colour. It has 110,000 miles on it (it's an American car so it's not in km). If it was in bad shape I was prepared to consider the Toyota Echo, Subaru Forester, or Honda Fit. So I went to see the car and was very impressed with the build quality. Just getting in, sitting down, shutting the door, and starting the engine impressed me greatly with the build quality (I came from a Chrysler so I don't think it would have taken much to impress me anyways). And wow, the engine has such zip, just lightly pressing the gas pedal the car springs forward. Anyways the previous owner took great care of it and I feel I got a great deal, it's easily the best car I've ever owned. I'm going to do my best to maintain it and see if it can live to 300,000 miles.

I have a couple minor annoyances though. One, has anyone else noticed when you use the sun visor it knocks the rearview mirror out of position? It seems crazy they designed it that way, very unsafe. And second, frequently when I go to use the radio dials I hit the shifter by accident, and sometimes I push the O/D off button by mistake. But maybe I got used to my last car so I just need to train my radio-shifter reflexes to be not so, um, sweeping :p

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 9:03 am
by runningslow
Welcome. Let's see some pics! I'm guessing by an 08 that is a sort of teal color that you have a Stealth (name of color).

I too came to the Vibe for the Toyota reliability with GM depreciation. We had a 1ZZ Corolla with over 200K miles on it for my wife when it was decided that I needed a new car. We had considered a Matrix in the past and knew the Vibe was basically the same, so it didn't take much to sway me.

The review mirror can be positioned out of the way of the visors with a little trial and error, since it articulates at both the glass and mirror side. You can swing the whole assembly to the side at the glass and then you can adjust the angle mirror head as needed. There's not alot of room for error. If you can't get it quite right, you could always shift it slightly to the passenger side so that at least the driver's visor won't interfere (may not do much good if you frequently ride with a passenger).

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 11:01 am
by ehoff121
Welcome to genvibe!

It says a lot when the only issues you have on a 9-year old vehicle are with the visor and the O/D button!

Being from America, you won't be hitting the 299,999 odometer limit as fast as the metric version- bonus!

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:27 pm
by Caretaker
And I'm sad to tell you that you will NEVER hit 300,000 miles with your car. Why? Because the odometer breaks and stays at 299,999. :lol:

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2017 1:59 pm
by whateverman42
Caretaker wrote:And I'm sad to tell you that you will NEVER hit 300,000 miles with your car. Why? Because the odometer breaks and stays at 299,999. :lol:
Haha I remember seeing that in a few threads on here, I forgot when I was writing my post. If I still have it in a decade I guess I'd use the trip odometer to keep track. That would be a good problem to have! It reminds me, my father in law has an 03 Vibe and he told me it was at 350 km, I'll have to ask him how he knows.
ehoff121 wrote:Welcome to genvibe!

It says a lot when the only issues you have on a 9-year old vehicle are with the visor and the O/D button!
Thanks, and I agree, I have no real problems with it, such a solid car.
runningslow wrote:The review mirror can be positioned out of the way of the visors with a little trial and error, since it articulates at both the glass and mirror side. You can swing the whole assembly to the side at the glass and then you can adjust the angle mirror head as needed. There's not alot of room for error. If you can't get it quite right, you could always shift it slightly to the passenger side so that at least the driver's visor won't interfere (may not do much good if you frequently ride with a passenger).
Thank you for the advice, I'll see if it helps any. And here's a pic of my Stealth:

Image

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 6:15 am
by tpollauf
Welcome to GenVibe! You definitely got a good deal there and with very little if nothing at all wrong :D Visit often and get involved here ;)

Re: Greetings from a new member of the Vibe community

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:31 pm
by vibenvy
Welcome to GenVibe! Very nice looking two-tone Stealth ;)!