GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Bought my first car about a year ago from a family member for around $1000 Canadian (roughly $800 American at time of posting). Had around 139k km on it when I bought it

4 Speed auto, runs great and drives great. No power locks or windows, but I do have power mirrors. Pretty much everything is in really good condition, but there are a couple downfalls

There's no abs, but that's not something easily fixable, and I can live with that. There is sometimes a harsh vibration from the front passenger wheel area, likely due to the brakes being pretty old, and the car having sat for a few years before I bought it. The steering wheel does vibrate quite a bit while driving, especially at speeds over 65 kph

The front passenger side and rear driver side door locks on the inside are missing the little red sticker thing that indicates it's unlocked

The radio has burnt out. It still plays, but the display is dead

Yeah. Other than that, don't really have any complaints about it. Plenty of space, good car to start driving with

Welcome to the party. Feel free to post some pictures and update your profile with your location. We have lots of Canadian members.

ABS- yeah, that's definitely personal preference. My 07 does not have ABS, the rest of our do. Under normal braking, you won't notice a difference.


Shaking/Vibration- I would make sure the tires are balanced, worn evenly (car is aligned), and not weather checked. If they're worn unevenly and/or unbalanced, you'll defintitely feel it at higher speeds. The shaking when braking could just mean you need new rotors/pads and maybe calipers. If the car sat for a prolonged period, they probably have some build up on them that needs attention.

Stickers on locks- you could simply take some red duct tape to temporarily, or even some red fingernail polish.

There are various videos on how to fix the lights in the radio. Usually runs like $15 if you can solder. Otherwise, a new head unit can be picked up cheap that has good creature features (bluetooth, aux, etc)

It's good to hear your complaints are just a few minor nuisances and nothing major!

Welcome!

the car having sat for a few years

I assume you have replaced the oil, transmission fluid and brake fluid already. If you have done that and take care of zbuyer's suggestions your are good to go.
Enjoy your Vibe!

Quick update on my Vibe

I was out checking all the lights and such before the drivers test I had scheduled for the next day upon recommendation from my instructor (all are good) and I went to start the car up
And guess what? She didn't start
She instead made a rapid clicking from the starter, which led me to believe that the starter might have gone bad

We ended up taking her to a reputable mechanic's shop, where they had a look at it
The battery was only giving 43% of the current it should've given, starter was fine
They replaced the battery and cleaned the terminals since those were slightly corroded, replaced the front rotors since those were rusty from sitting for almost a year, adjusted the rear shoes since those were a little off, and changed the oil. All said, it came to about 800 bucks canadian
But yeah, I ended up rescheduling that drivers test, which has now been cancelled due to what's going on in the world.
The shaking that I had mentioned previously has gone away, as has the steering wheel vibration
But I have realized another issue that I didn't bring up
The stickers that tell you what pressure to inflate the tires to; the one in the glove box and the one on the driver doorjam, well, I have those stickers, but it doesn't have a number for pressure, just "[blank] PSI (kPa)"
I've been going with around 32 psi in front and 30 rear, which has done well so far. I just would really like to know what those pressures actually are, so if anyone can help out, I'd appreciate it, thanks!

First file I'm actually able to attach on this website of my vibe

Good intentions and an "A" for effort. Wait till nicer weather and get a good shot outdoors with NO interference so we can see the car up close and clear! Thanks for getting involved here. We all want to help each other out

Finally been able to get outside and get some pictures of a size that isn't too big for this forum, it has a 4 gig limit or something idk why, but here

Also it was taken with my point-and-shoot nikon s31 at a 2 MP size, so excuse the poor quality if that's how it is, but at least it's better than my somehow worse-than-2010 phone camera on my 2018ish LG

Looks pretty good. Usually the red ones by this point in their life are pretty faded and look bad.

zbyers wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:11 am Looks pretty good. Usually the red ones by this point in their life are pretty faded and look bad.

This one's been taken care of. There are some water marks on the doors below the trim thingy, which I am planning to take care of at some point, as well as some swirl marks on there, but honestly I've never had to wash her, because whenever it snowed, it basically rinsed her for free