GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I found this forum because my Vibe got crunched in the front. It was totalled with $3426 turn in or $2679 to keep. The bumper, both quarter panels, grill and hood are all damaged. No air bag went off.
Just wondered if many people try to bring these back. It has 169,000 miles. The worst part is the support for passenger side panel and radiator is bent and would have to be cut and welded back to replace. I can not do this quickly enough to justify trying and a local body shop told me it wasn't worth fixing. It was a great car and never had any trouble with it. It had developed a whine when decelerating from highway drive down to 45 mph. Likely a bearing.
I will hate to surrender and have started looking for another one. It was a 5 speed and I liked that for mountain driving.

Um, yeah. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=44098

Trick is to find someone who does body work on the side, or a one-man shop with low overhead. You can pick up most of the parts from local junk yards, but I've had to search for a few on carparts.com. It can sometimes take longer than a full price shop, so having a spare car to drive while it's in the shop is a must. But worth it to me. The $750 salvage value would make it a no brainer for me.

But you can also find them all over CL, that's where I found both the 08 and 05.

Samcrac on youtube gets wrecked cars all the time (and a bunch of others).

Frankly, unless you know someone with a body shop, cheap, or have a lot of spare room, I'd just get another Vibe.

It all depends on how much time and skill you have, vs money.

Sorry to hear that, livin.
Can you post a picture of the damaged side?

First off, welcome to GenVibe .... even though not on the best terms! Airbag deployment seems to be the tipping point as to whether or not to fix a wrecked vehicle. Yours is DEFINITELY worth fixing. If not by you then by someone else. What other $3000 car will still go another 150k miles or more with very little maintenance? Let us know your proximity (location) and maybe we can hook you up with a shop or two.