Pontiac Vibe (round 2)

[clarkfan1979]

In some car groups, the Pontiac Vibe is considered to be the best value for a used car because it has a Toyota engine. Pontiac and Toyota entered a partnership and made the same car out of the same factory in California. Toyota sold the matrix and Pontiac sold the vibe. The Matrix is still a good value, but the Vibe costs 30% less because of the name.

In round 1, I bought a 2003 Pontiac Vibe in 2014 for $2,500. It had 165,000 miles. It was my daily commuter for 1 year, but it turned into a seasonal vacation car for the next 3 years because we moved from Florida to Hawaii and didn't want to pay to have it shipped. It died in 2019 with 225,000 miles. I was hoping for 250K miles, but the car would set idle without being run for 4 months at a time. The car did burn oil, but the cost was very minimal. I would have to add 1 quart of oil every 600 miles. My average MPG over the life of the car was 32.5 mpg. We drove about 90% highway.

In round 2, I bought a 2007 Pontiac Vibe in Jan 2020 for $2,850. It has 160,000 miles. Kelley Blue Book is $3,100, but there is a small dent on the passenger side quarter panel. When you open the passenger door, the door rubs on the quarter panel. I will bend the metal so it doesn't rub or replace the quarter panel. My first tank (90% highway) was 35 mpg. I think it is only rated for 31 mpg highway.

In my best judgement, I'm planning on the car lasting 6 years and 90,000 miles. We will see.

[SunnyDays]

Good luck!  I have a Matrix, bought new in 2003 and it now has 151,000 Kim’s on it.  It’s needed only basic maintenance so far and is in great shape.  Since I retired, I drive it a lot less, so hope to get another 5 years out of it at minimum.  So sad they’ve been discontinued because by the time I need another one, there won’t be any decent used ones left.

[chemistk]

Nice find!

In general, the NUMMI partnership produced a few very good cars. The late '80s Chevy Nova (not at all related to the muscle car) and the '90s Geo/Chevy Prism were each secretly a Toyota Corolla, constructed at the joint plant. I mean, the bodies were heavily influenced by GM and so they fell apart easily, but the engines/transmissions were solid. My dad had one of each growing up and each was only scrapped because of body issues.

The NUMMI story is interesting; the assembly plant before the Toyota partnership was the worst in the country, it shut down and all the employees learned the Toyota production system including all the Lean manufacturing concepts. After it reopened, the workforce (85% of whom were rehired from before the plant closed) ended up with nearly the same product quality as Toyota plants in Japan.

It's a shame it was shut down, but the site is home to the Tesla Model S, so generally anything made there after the late '80s is probably going to be a decent car.

[Just Joe]

So with the dwindling supply of Pontiac Vibes, what else would be recommended as Vibe alternatives?

[zoochadookdook]

Honda fit, yaris, matrix, etc etc. Vibes I looked at 08/09/10 and every single one had some major oil burning issue going on (I guess the engine of those years was the corrolla engine with that issue)

[mm1970]

Good to read.  I have an 06 Matrix, that my husband wants to replace (but it's my daily driver).  Almost at 150k miles, I think it's got a few more years at least.