2003 Pontiac Vibe - Cars Worth Noting - GM's new Vibe has 1.8L 130 hp engine - Brief Article - Product Announcement

Automotive Industries, Sept, 2002 by John Peter

It's no secret that GM makes good trucks, but why does everything that they make have to be a truck?

OK, so the Vibe is part Toyota, well, Toyota has become quite the truck manufacturer themselves. I know that Pontiac was targeting the hot hatch crowd with the Vibe, but from my perspective the Vibe is more like a small Rav4 than a hot hatch. The seating position is more upright than laid back, and the H-point seems much higher than, say a Ford Focus or Mazda Protege 5. The handling is also more mini SUV than sports car, and the styling.. .well, the styling could go either way. I've seen them dressed up pretty nice, but to me, the cladding says SUV, not boy racer. I overheard a colleague say that this is what the Aztek should have looked like.

The 1.8L 130 hp engine loves to rev, and though I only had the automatic transmission to test, it still moved along well. Front and back seats were firm and supportive, and there's plenty of head room. The cargo area offered more than ample space to handle my bass amp and guitar, though I had to make sure that it was held firmly in place. Anything that's not tied down has a tendency to slide around on the plastic load floor. Pontiac could remedy this by offering a removable floor mat as an option.

SUV or hot hatch, the Vibe does turn the right heads. In the light of all that Pontiac hasn't done right lately, the Vibe may be a sign of good things to come.