Pontiac Vibe is a compact 5-seater SUV, a joint creation of General Motors and Toyota. The debut took place at the Detroit Motor Show 2002. The model received an unusually stylish and fashionable name for the brand Pontiac - Vibe (short for “vibration”).
Sports, athletic features of this car brought to perfection. The dynamic look is emphasized by serial alloy wheels of 16-inch wheels (17-inch and 18-inch wheels are possible on request). What is especially important, the designers managed to preserve the family features of the Pontiac family: the brand grille, the stylistic design of the headlights and other trifles. When developing the design, the creators paid special attention to the tail section. License plates, for example, decided to enter not in the rear bumper, but in the tailgate. In the interior trim used polished aluminum.
The instrument panel is made in the traditional Pontiac style with “recessed” instrument scales and red illuminated scales (at night). The use of chrome in the interior trim and devices creates a style of "modern retro", as the designers themselves called Pontiac. The interior of the Vibe GT, in contrast to the standard model, is complemented by trimmed steering wheel and transmissions of artificial leather. (Interestingly, Pontiac Vibe does not offer such luxury as using natural leather in the cabin even as an option.) The gearshift lever, whether manual or automatic, is far ahead - almost in the dashboard - in order to create additional space for feet.
The internal space of this model, engineers Pontiac made very flexible and transformable. The back of the front passenger seat turns into a small table or place to accommodate additional baggage. It can be folded with one movement of the lever. The rear seats fold forward and "go" to the floor without having to first fold soft cushions, which is very convenient. If you fold all the seats, except the driver's, then in the Vibe, you can safely place a load of up to 2.5 meters. In addition, in the car there are many hangers, hooks and shelves.
Roof rack included as standard. Bearing body Vibe, the transverse arrangement of the power unit, independent suspension of all wheels, front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive indicate good driving characteristics, designed mainly on asphalt roads. Under the hood of the standard Vibe, the 1.8-liter 4-cylinder DOHC was installed with a power of 130 hp. The GT sports version offers a 1.8 l / 180 hp engine. with variable ignition system VVT-i and 6-speed manual transmission.
Standard equipment for the GT are disc brakes on all four wheels and ABS. It is noteworthy that the 130-horsepower version can optionally be equipped with all-wheel drive, but the more powerful Vibe GT is exclusively front-wheel drive. There are two front and (on request) two side airbags, a Monsoon stereo system with a 6-disc CD changer built into the dashboard, a DVD navigation system, etc.
The basic equipment also includes air conditioning, but an electric drive for windows already comes at an additional cost. Collect a car at a joint (Toyota Motor and GM) enterprise NUMMI in California in parallel with the single-platform model Corolla H. Stylish, youth-looking, practical, excellent equipment, impressive performance - all this allows Vibe to be a worthy competitor in its class. Today, General Motors is working to create the 2009 Pontiac Vibe model year.
