"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
10/10/2015 at 21:40 • Filed to: Vibe
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"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
10/10/2015 at 21:40 • Filed to: Vibe | 1
| 7 |
Not really a review of the car, per se, as we’ve only had it for four days, so instead we’ll go with a story and some first impressions.
Sometime in June, I decided to go to an oppo meet at the Exotics @ Redmond car show, where four plebeians showed up, one of them being Spaceball-Two. As the weeks rolled on, I frequently posted about car shopping a new vehicle for my wife, and eventually Spaceball-two recommended a dealership for me to check out. They did have a Matrix in stock, but by the time I got out there it was sold. I wasn’t smart enough to call ahead. D’oh. I chewed the fat with a salesman for a while, and at the end he offered to take down my info in the chance something we we’re shopping should be traded in to him.
About a week later, I’m on a long backroad after a long Friday, trying to make it home so I can reward my futility with an ice cold beverage containing alcohol perhaps. The phone rings. I don’t answer because I’m really tired and I want to focus on driving. Also it’s illegal I guess. But someone leaves a long voicemail. Oh crap, another customer calling me at the 11th hour, I thought. Fuck that shit. Well, my curiosity got the better of me because so I pull over and have a listen:
“Hey Dr. Zoidberg, this is ManWhoSellsCars. I got a hot one for ya: a customer just bought a 4Runner from me and traded in their 2008 Pontiac Vibe. One owner, 69 thousand miles, automatic. Give me a call if you’re interested.”
I bought it the next day.
The body is almost perfect. Might get the bumper repainted next year, but that’s it. The plastic sport skirt didn’t have a single scuff. The seats were challenged by the previous owner’s three children, but they held true. The stock radio wasn’t faded to oblivion like the 2003s-2006s I looked at. The air conditioning doesn’t just work okay; you can turn the damn car into a rolling freezer if you desire. Every electric lock, window, control, mirror, light, everything works! To find a car with this low of miles, and it being the last model year of this generation, one owner, was a small miracle.
I thought I could have saved maybe two grand by looking for one in decent condition with say 110-125k miles, but I already tried that angle and couldn’t find a valid enough price break nor one that was actually cared for. In fact we looked at quite a few that were trashed, and still absurdly priced. In fact the worst one we saw had only 100k miles. There were some really nice ones on CL that were well-loved but had close to 200k on the odometer... I may be a Toyota fan, but I was not about to drop my wife’s 220k-mile Sable for a 200k-mile anything . We had the means to get a great car with low wear and that’s exactly what I did. Other than my Tercel experiment, we both are, and each come from families of, long-term car owners. 69k miles though. Oops! I hope the previous owners didn’t miss the — oh wait, there’s nothing major to service yet.
So anyway, so far my wife absolutely loves it, and on the test drive she was just beaming. “Do you like it?” I asked. “This is it!” she replied. I have to say I enjoy driving it as well, and now I kind of want to test drive a first-gen Vibe GT with the correct 3-pedal configuration. More about how it drives, feels, etc. in a future post to come. I refuse to review a vehicle that I haven’t even changed the oil in yet!
wafflesnfalafel
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/10/2015 at 22:10 |
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nice - congrats, (we test drove a Matrix a number of years ago, always thought it was a solid little car.)
Spaceball-Two
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/10/2015 at 22:25 |
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I was super bummed about the Matrix situation but so happy this worked out instead. Can’t wait to see it!
TheHondaBro
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/10/2015 at 22:26 |
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All hail Spaceball!
gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/11/2015 at 00:11 |
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Manual: No
Wagon: Yes
Diesel; No
One out of three ain’t bad.
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Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
10/11/2015 at 00:17 |
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This is my wife’s car. It was never going to be a manual.
Svart Smart, traded in his Smart
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/11/2015 at 10:37 |
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Well done, sir. I always liked those first-gen, post-facelift Vibes.
PetarVN, GLI Guy, now with stupid power
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
10/12/2015 at 01:24 |
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eyy! nice to see that you found a good vibe!
I’m sending good vibes your way for the good purchase! (i’ll see myself out)
And yeah, spaceball’s great!
We should do an exotics meet-up at some point again (I wasn't at the one you we're at, but there was another one with dukie, spaceball and dusty, and we also went to dirt fish rally school)