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When the Pontiac Vibe came out in 2000 or so, it had a pretty cool advertisement campaign. What would happen is a person sits or does their own thing and the Vibe drives up, with some bass pumping, and the person starts to jive to the beat. The Vibe drives away and the person looks on, impressed, intrigued and sexed up inspired.

The new advertisement campaign of Pontiac has nothing like this. Instead, it’s got all these “exciting” situations, such as the G6 driving through a flaming tunnel, a Torrent ripping up a snowy [??] terrain, a G5 Pursuit driving in a rollercoaster-kind of route…but what of the Vibe? Nothing for the Vibe. Rather, it just slides into place in the Pontiac line-up commercials.

When it first came out, we were actually thinking about getting the Vibe, since it kind of looked interesting, but since it was an American car (*cough*Pontiac is owned by GM), it was kind of taboo! But now, looking at the FuelEconomy.gov page…as well as looking at the official Pontiac Vibe pageand with some strange blood-lust for my musical counter-part…I’ve a strong desire for the Vibe. I mean…it really doesn’t look that bad! It’s the direct competitor of the Toyota Matrix, if you never knew.

What’s kind of strange is how the fuel economy for both cars are basically the same, despite the Vibe being American! If you head to the Vibe’s Option page and click the Specification tab, you can see that the fuel economy for the automatic flavour is the same as that of the Matrix. Of course, fuel economy really depends on what kind of driving you normally do, and suggested/measured values always vary from real-life driving. I tried checking the prices for both…with some extra options chosen, but the Toyota site sucks so much that I can’t really get a nice-looking table of information. However, here is the information from the Vibe:

2008 Pontiac Vibe $19,210
1SA Package $0

Models & Packages
Exterior: Frosty (White) $0
Interior: Slate w/Cloth Seat Trim $0
Seats: Front Reclining Buckets Incl.
Wheels: 17″ Cast Aluminum Alloy $1,215

Selected Options
Engine: 1.8L I-4 DOHC VVT-i Incl.
Radio: AM/FM Stereo w/CD Incl.
Transmission: 4-Speed Automatic w/OD $1,225
Tires: P215/50R17 90S Touring Incl.
4-Wheel Anti-Lock Braking System $765
Engine Block Heater $65
Front License Plate Mount BC/MB/NB/NL/NT/NS/NU/ON $0
Two Tone Appearance Package $0

Option Total $3,270
Destination $1,160
Total $23,640

Standard Equipment
Safety and Security
Airbags, frontal – driver and front passenger
Airbag occupancy sensor
Side impact bars
Height adjustable safety belts – front
Seatbelt pretensioners – front
Headlights – halogen
Exterior light control – fully automatic
Daytime running lights
Door locks – manual
Rear child safety door locks
Ignition disable

Warranty
Bumper to bumper – GM TOTAL Warranty 36 months/60,000 km‡
Powertrain limited – 60 months/160,000 km‡
Corrosion perforation – 72 months/160,000 km‡
Roadside assistance – 60 months/160,000 km‡
Courtesy transportation – 60 month/160,000km‡

Mechanical
Engine – 1.8L I-4
Engine – valvetrain – DOHC
Recommended fuel – regular unleaded
Battery – regular
Brakes – front disc/rear drum
Drive type – front-wheel
Exhaust – stainless steel
Steering – rack & pinion
Suspension tuning – regular
Front suspension – strut
Front anti-roll bar
Front shocks – gas-pressurized
Front springs – coil
Rear suspension – torsion beam beam
Rear anti-roll bar
Rear shocks – gas-pressurized
Rear springs – coil
Transmission – 5-spd man w/OD
Axle ratio – 3.94

Exterior
Antenna – integrated roof
Body material – fully galvanized steel
Paint – clearcoat monotone
Bodyside mouldings – body-coloured
Grille trim – black w/chrome surround
Fog/driving lights – front
Door count – 4 doors
Rear cargo door – liftgate
Tinted windows – light
Rear windshield type – flip-up
Mirrors – dual power remote
Roof rails
Front bumper – body-coloured
Rear bumper – body-coloured
Tires – front – P205/55HR16.0 BSW AS
Wheels – 16″ steel
Spare tire and wheel – compact, steel
Windshield wipers – front – variable intermittent
Windshield wipers – rear – fixed interval

Interior
Air conditioning, front – manual
Air filter
Underseat ducts
Cargo concealed storage
Cargo floor trim – plastic
Cargo tie downs
Clock – in-radio
Cup holders – front and rear
Console insert – metal-look
Dashboard insert – metal-look
Door panel insert – metal-look
Gear shift knob trim – plastic/rubber
12V DC power outlet – 1
Door bins – dual
Driver foot rest
Floor console – partial
Floor mats – carpeted front & rear
Floor trim – carpet
Front windows – manual
Rear windows – manual
Glove box
Headliner – cloth
Instrumentation – analog
Tachometer
Trip odometer
Water temp gauge
Low fuel warning
Low tire pressure warning
Exterior temperature
Lighting – dome light – fade
Lighting – cargo light
Rear window defogger
Mirrors – rear view mirror – day-night
Mirrors – visor vanity mirrors – driver and passenger
Remote fuel flap release – mechanical
Tilt-Wheel adjustable steering column
Steering wheel material – plastic/vinyl

Seats
Front seat type – bucket
Seating capacity – 5 passengers
Front driver seat direction controls – 6-way
Front passenger seat direction controls – 4-way
Fold flat front passenger seat
Front armrests – centre
Front head restraints – adjustable
Rear seats – 60-40 split-bench
Rear head restraints – 2 – adjustable
Seat trim – cloth
Door trim – cloth

Entertainment
Radio – AM/FM/Satellite-capable, seek-scan
CD player – in-dash mounted single
Radio theft deterrent – THEFTLOCK
Radio data system
Speakers – 4
Equalizer – automatic

So yeah, we’ll get some test-drives in, work some pricing out…and maybe in around a year we’ll see if we’ve got a Vibe or a Matrix (or maybe an old Lexus!)