My slime-green Vibe....

[Slimer]

Hey everyone.... noob here, just bought a 2003 Envy base vibe- the only used one I found for the right price. I'm enjoying it very much on the whole. My only criticisms:1. Engine could use an extra 20hp. Totally hypothetically, it'd be sweet to stick in Volkswagen's new direct-injection 2.0l 150hp engine, or their 140hp diesel. Or maybe the 1.8l 180hp turbo. Hell, as long as I'm dreaming, I'll drop in the 250hp VR6 from the Golf R32 and go out hunting for Porsches. Oh well. It gets on down the road, but some extra guts would be nice for highway driving. 2. Lessee...we gotcher DRL's, CD Player, power mirrors, etc....and no power windows and locks. What a pain. Why all the extraneous power stuff when the stuff I'd really benefit from has been left out? Also, as expected, the stereo has absolutely zip base response. 3. The color. I have sort of a love-hate thing going with the Envy green color. Depending on my mood, my opinion of it changes. It can be cheerful, pleasantly wierd, and iconoclastic, or bizarre, unattractive, and selfconsciousness inducing. Whatever my opinion of it, it's only seen elsewhere in the world on rare species of tree frog, at Chernobyl, up my nose when I've got a sinus infection, and in Ghostbusters movies. My buddy has named the car Slimer and I heartily agree. But other than that, I love it. Tight suspension, engine tries its best, good steering, roomy as hell, huge room inside, lots of cargo area. I'm moving out of a Jeep Cherokee and it's honestly about the same size, which is saying quite a bit. Should be an excellent road trip car, and a good SUV replacement. It carries climbing gear for four easily (yeah, yeah, my choice of sports is probably giving a Pontiac marketing flack paroxysms of job right now, as I fit the demographic in the most ideal possible way- 21, male, outdoor sports, etc.) My girlfriend thinks it's "Cute" which I suppose is a ringing endorsement. Planning on replacing the horn straightaway- it sounds like the horn button does nothing more than goose an elderly rooster under the hood. For humor's sake, I may drop in a huge freaking air horn for purposes of outright sonic warfare. I also suspect that some decent wheels and Nokian Hakkepellita all-seasons are going on it before next winter. Guess that's 'bout it. If you want, let me know what your thoughts are on the very rare and probably rightly so Envy color. Don't worry about sparing my feelings.

[joatmon]

According to http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=6023, your envy vibe is relatively rare, and a lot of people here are envious of that. I have a silver (satellite) vibe, and probably 80% of the other vibes I see are the same color, so an envy colored one would certainly be more individual.

[AKLGT]

welcome to genvibe and the envy is not too bad. wouldn't be my chose, but still is a unique car. is it monotone or 2 tone?as for lack of power, you can easily do a few things to the engine and exhaust to gain some power such as a cai and/or exhaust. if you've got plenty of money to spend, there's even the supercharger now available w/ some aftermarket chips for tuning. you can always add pwr windows and locks for inexpensive. check out the many forums and you'll find plenty on adding power and torque!

[kostby]

Welcome to the encyclopedia of Vibe! Enjoy!Since you mentioned lots of VW horsepower options, I'm sure you're aware of lots of extremely green VW New Beetles. I guess from the numbers, you have one of only about 700 Envy Vibes ever produced! There's an two-tone Envy Vibe garaged about 1/2 mile from me. It was the first Vibe I ever saw in the spring of 2002. I wasn't wild about the color then (still not), but the styling hooked me from day 1.

[Mavrik]

Welcome to GenVibe, I have seen only one Evny coloured Vibe in my life time, very rare. But since no one else said anything, POST PICS!!!!

[noginsk]

Quote, originally posted by Slimer »Planning on replacing the horn straightaway- it sounds like the horn button does nothing more than goose an elderly rooster under the hood. This just CRACKS me up!

[Slimer]

Gracias for the warm welcome. I'll post pics when I get the chance. In answer to questions, it's two-tone, which I actually think works pretty well...gray and green go together ok. The rarity factor is pretty cool, I definitely had never seen one in this color before. Guess I'm just special. It might have also had something to do with how I got it for $4000 off MSRP with only 14k miles on it

[kep427]

Hey Slimer.The horn description is as good as I've heard.I know I know I'm a bit ignorant on these things but I was wondering if you could tell me if changing out the horn is as simple as it seems. Do you just run down to Kragen, buy a new horn and switch them out or is there a bit more to it?I should add that I have one of those "KARR" alarms that our local Pontiac dealer sells (aftermarket).

[kep427]

Hey Slimer.The horn description is as good as I've heard.I know I know I'm a bit ignorant on these things but I was wondering if you could tell me if changing out the horn is as simple as it seems. Do you just run down to Kragen, buy a new horn and switch them out or is there a bit more to it?

[kep427]

I forgot to add that I have one of those aftermarket alarms (KARR) installed by my dealer

[Slimer]

Methinks it really is as simple as that. Shouldn't be too difficult- you can see the horn just behind the grill. Looks like you should be able to just unscrew it, disconnect the wires, and pop in a new one. But don't take that on face value, make sure.

[kep427]

okey dokey; thx

[ebslopp]

there is a thread on installing hella horns. do a search for horns and you will find it.

[kep427]

Thanks!

[Fformula88]

Your Vibe will be the "Envy" of the forum! Sorry, couldn't resist! Congrats on the new car. You have plenty of time now to start extracting some more power from the motor if you really decide you just have to go faster! The horn should be an easy thing to fix, and you shouldn't have too much trouble if you decide to retrofit the car with power windows and locks either. Good luck and enjoy!

[4X4CHICHI]

I put a big air horn on mine, it freaks people out. a friend of mine has an envy gt, he put 18" gunmetal color rims on it , it really makes the twotone stand out. oh, welcome to genvibe.

[Psychobroker]

LOL...Slimer...I love that Quote »Planning on replacing the horn straightaway- it sounds like the horn button does nothing more than goose an elderly rooster under the hood. hahaha! Personally, I think it sounds like the roadrunner's "meep!-meep!"

[redlava]

Welcome to Genvibe. I almost bought a Envy Vibe when I was out visiting my sister in Omaha. The color is so ugly it is cool. Decided not to because I was still making payments on my lease for my truck. I keep kicking myself for not doing it, but then I wouldn't have ended up with my little ShadowCat.As far as the horn swapping goes, not a huge ordeal. Somewhere on this website there are directions with pictures on how to swap them with Hella Supertones. Those directions were a Godsend. Defenately look for those on here, they made it easy.

[Stang2Vibe]

I've only ever seen two Envy Vibe's in person. One was an AWD one that was on the dealer's lot when I bought mine, the other one I saw going the other way on the road on Easter coming home from my mom's. There was a girl driving it and she had the Nittany Lion paw print stickers on the back hatch, so either she goes to Penn State or is a fan. It was a monotone base Vibe.