2009 Pontiac Vibe GT 2.4L gas from North America

Summary:

A very reliable, extremely practical, affordable car

Faults:

Nothing gone wrong during my ownership. My '04 Vibe was flawless.

General Comments:

Had an '04 Vibe, which somebody was kind enough to broadside and ruin. Bought this '09 Vibe GT, because after not having a Vibe for 2 years, I really missed the economy and practicality the Vibe offers.

Overall, it's a nice car... and an acceptable substitute for a minivan, actually. The rear seats fold flat, and the front passenger seat in 2.4L equipped Vibes also folds flat, giving you the ability to haul 8 foot long items like lumber and ladders.

The seats in the GT model are fairly comfortable.

Driver controls are logically laid out, though the dashboard illumination control is unusual (you rotate the button you normally press to cycle through the odometer/trip computer readout), and the clutch sticks up a little further than it probably should.

Fit and finish of the car is good overall, though it's no luxury car. There's plenty of hard plastic in the cabin, but none of it screams "cheap".

Performance for the Vibe GT is pretty good, but fuel economy for the 2.4L could be better... 21 city, 28 highway. I see about 23.5 in mostly city driving.

While the nearly identical Toyota Matrix continues to be built, it's sad that the Vibe is no longer in production. Built in the US with the majority of parts sourced from the US, reliable Toyota engineering, but better GM pricing and the larger GM dealership network, gave the Vibe the best of both worlds. Definitely good value, and worth considering on the used car market.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 7th March, 2011

24th Aug 2011, 13:19

It's been 6 months since I wrote the initial review, so here's a followup.

The expanse of painted matte silver in the cabin got on my nerves, so I installed a woodgrain dash kit to make things look nicer. I've also come to the decision that the car has all the personality and excitement of white bread. It's competent, reliable and practical, but the car has absolutely no personality, and I derive no real joy driving it. This shouldn't be the case with anything sporting a manual transmission and called a "GT". YMMV.

2009 Pontiac Vibe 1.8L from North America

Summary:

Great car by Toyota, Pontiac should learn to build them like this

General Comments:

Great car. Bought it because it was built by Toyota. Had a Sunbird that was very good, a Montana which was a disaster, and swore I wouldn't buy another Pontiac after the Montana experience. But the Toyota factor was what sold us on the Vibe.

Great car, great mileage, reasonable space. Comfortable and feels well built. Lacking power, but I bought it for the gas mileage, so that's what you get. Thinking of buying another... if we can find someone to buy the Montana, which we can't.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 18th September, 2009

19th Sep 2009, 08:44

Pontiac is no longer learning anything since GM pulled the plug.