I've got ~260K miles on my Vibe now. I bought it at 167 (or 176 idk) and at least one of the front struts had been replaced by the dealership.. I don't have the paperwork handy at the moment.. but we'll assume they did both sides. I have no idea if the rears have ever been done.
The only work done to the front end in recent memory has been drivers side sway bar linkage, and few months later, drivers side inner tie rod.
My mechanic has inspected in fairly recent past and said everything appeared tight, etc. No problems. I assume I don't have any shock/struts leaking but I still feel like I want to improve the ride quality of the car.
I'm well aware this thing rides hard and is an economy car, but I'm still wondering if there can still be some degradation in ride quality even if nothing is really "failing" / leaking. I've seen some people say replacing bushings can help restore some ride quality, but then if we're getting into that territory it seems like with the labor involved you might as well replace the shocks and struts anyway ??
Some people have said monroe made no difference for them, others have said they were slightly softer than stock suspension... so I'm not really sure what to think there.
The car doesn't have bounce problems that I can tell, although it does seem easier to push the back down than the front. Maybe that's by design, I don't really know (would make sense for the fronts to be a little stiffer with the weight up there). Sometimes I feel like the left front compresses more but I can't be 100% sure. I only really notice it when at funny grades/angles or really really hard bumps. And it could just be the fact I am on that side of the car..
I've also seen people comment you really feel the fronts in the drivers seat more than the rears. I've ridden in other vibes which seemed a little better also but then I was also in the passenger seat those times..
Also, does anyone know if MacPhearson is just "a name" now ? I can't really find any info but he can get a full set from one shop with a limited lifetime warranty, or we can go his usual nappa route, which is only a 3 year warranty but I'm pretty sure those are rebadged monroes
Mechanic has kind of approached it from the standpoint of "is it leaking? are they bad? why bother, but I'll do it if you want peace of mind". I'm wondering if I shouldn't just start with the front end first and do a complete steering/suspension rebuild if I can allocate the funds (unfortunately need to go through nappa because I don't have time to work on a car and I need it warrantied by mechanic)
I plan to drive this car into the ground / until the transmission dies (hopefully not soon. I had it flushed when I bought it but I'm paranoid of having it done again) so I don't mind spending the money to keep the car in nice shape, even though the value was completely wrecked by a deer years back.. but anyway. It's the only car I got and I just wanna take care of it. I need it for work and drive a not insignificant amount of miles each year.