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Toyota Matrix vs. Pontiac Vibe - Compare Notes
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Comments
Temporarily, I plugged in a portable cassette player into the 110V outlet, but I am getting a lot of tape hiss. Plugged into an outlet at home, the hiss disappears. Is there a problem using a cassette player with the plug, or do you think the a problem is with the outlet in my car?
Mike
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
You may also want to check out this Badge/emblem removal discussion. Good luck. ;-)
Revka
Hatchbacks & Wagons Host
Edumunds lists the Vibe has having 8.1 inches and the Matrix (any model) as 5.9 inches.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Revka
Hatchbacks & Wagons Host
To those concerned - You may want to try speaking to someone in our Public Relations department. Good luck.
Revka
Hatchbacks & Wagons Host
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Ken
Last week while away skiing north of Ottawa I awoke to discover my Vibe wouldn't start! Not even a click. Now it was cold overnight (-30C or so) but give me a break. A new car, a new battery, and not even a groan? Fortunately the owner of the B&B where I was staying had booster cables saving me valuable time waiting for Roadside Assistance to come from God knows where.
I'm wondering if the California- built Vibe has the same battery as the Ontario- built Matrix.
Anybody know?
Thanks for your input.
Ken
When the Nova goes to the junk yard in a year or two, I'll probably put the Nova battery into the Vibe during the winter.
I am just waiting for it to give me the first excuse to dump it and go and get a much better battery for it.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If you are looking for a reason to replace your battery, how about "I woke up this morning". Don't wait for a reason, just do it.
same for visteon = ford.
Many people, to this day, "know" that Pepsi owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC. They, too, are wrong. YUM does. And YUM is not Pepsico, just as Visteon is not Ford and Delphi is not GM. These spin-offs have separate boards, employees and shareholders. They are NOT the same companies as their one time parents.
Ford's overall styling is nicer than both Matrix/Vibe, the only shortcomings are: hard dashboard plastic; too soft seatings, especially in the rear; no rear headrests (how it could get good safety scores?); folded seats are not even with trunk floor; trunk floor is trimmed with synt velour instead of hard plastic like Matrix (love this feature along with steel rails and hooks); no side pockets in the trunk or other compartments. I would say, that Ford drives a little bit on the comfort side, but not too cushy. I liked Ford ride better.
NUMMI twins would be great, if not for weak base engine; ugly dashboard with Pontiac-style round-and-red instruments and afwul faux aluminum trim (hate it since my first Walkman with metallized finish); clunky shifter. I noticed really bad paint job (or just bad or rusty metal underneath) on one of the cars on the lot. It was on the lower portion of the right front door. This was so noticeable that I wonder how quality control did let it go.
Matrix offers (do I have to say insists on having?) plastic skirt for XRS and you cannot have XRS without this boy-racer stuff (but you can unscrew it off, it is just bolt-on pieces). Vibe has plastic cladding which is also ugly. Hmm, Voltz is sold without the cladding and is built in Fremont, so maybe one can order Vibe without cladding.
Also, I hate when I have to have CD/radio provided by car manufacturer. I have my own unit and would have to throw out stock one anyway. The best what Toyota/GM and also Ford (but theirs unit at least plays MP3s) can do is to provide "audio pre-setup", just wiring for head unit and speakers, so one could buy speakers and head unit whichever he/she likes.
ABS is not standard in XXI century car -- this is just a shame! By the way, charging for black side window frames (not standard on base model, which has body-colored window frame and thus looks pretty bad) -- is a shame too.
So, my verdict: I like Ford's styling and drivetrain and do not like hard plastic and less versatile trunk. Also, its recall history is not the biggest selling point. Matrix/Vibe would be good with 2.0 engine and dashboard from Corolla (also search on the internet for euro-spec Corolla hatchback, it is basically a Matrix twin and it has dashboard in olde Toyota style).
WRX Wagon is damn good, but with invoice at about 24K it gets in another price range.
Pontiac gives 2K cash on Vibe, but I would not consider Vibe until they strip off the cladding. Ford gives 2.5K now in San Diego area and this look like better deal, especially with better drivetrain.
I can wait another year or so, maybe Toyota will add bigger engine or AWD with manual. Stuff they offer now is not for me.
Nah, I do not like this kind of business model and mythical "generation Y" packaging. Look at the Aerio, maiden name Liana. Who decided to dress her in all that plastic crap? Possible answer: Either 70-year olds thinking that they should "go deep youth" or their 8-yr old grand-grand kids. Same thing with Mazda Protege5. Zoom-zoom...
You get used to the plastic gray cladding - you start to notice others with it - mostly on SUV's.
And the plastic is better against dings and minor scrapes...
Personally, I prefer the plastic gray vs the paint - like the old days when bumpers were gray or metal, not that nice paint - which gets scrapped real easy in city bumper car parking techniques...
Anyway, I would like to have a [broader] choice, which I do not have with Vibe.
Base engine does not have enough low-end torque and does not provide a lot of high-rev power. This can work for calm and relaxed driving, but do not even think about brisk accelerations or fast lane changes. Floor it on 4th and 3K rpm and get nothing. It is not only boring, it is unsafe. You might not manage to avoid a dangerous situation by making a fast lane change, so you have to think about the road conditions several turns ahead, which is good thing by itself, but may not help in that one very single bad moment.
Yamaha powerplant feels livelier and provides a turbo-like boost after 6K rpm. But even hot shots sometimes need to relax. Too bad that emergency acceleration is even harder to perform on XRS than on XR. I will try to explain my point: XRS has 6-speed gearbox with closer gear ratios, so if you are cruising on 6th and need to jump really fast, it is not enough to shift of 5th, you need at least 4th. But the motion from 6th to 4th is not an easy and natural push like the one from 4th to 3rd or even from 5th to 4th on 5-speed gearbox, so you either miss the gear or lose the time trying to find the proper gate. Frustrating. And with this high-tech engine compact Matrix has just slightly better fuel economy than my V6 Camry. So, what’s the point? Maybe a Camry wagon would be just the “thing”? Oops, no wagons in current Camry lineup.
Pedals are close to each other, clutch and brake are too close for my taste. I wonder how people from Midwest drive Matrix with stick, wearing winter boots. I had 9-1/2 shoes on during the drive test and I would prefer more room for my left foot.
The steering wheel feedback is adequate but worse than on Protege5 which I drove yesterday. On Protege the steering wheel feels almost like computer joystick... err, "joy wheel". If you ever played computer car games with this device, you would understand what I am talking about. You can turn it 1/10 of an inch from neutral position and you feel immediate feedback. Release it and the wheel will return to neutral almost as if it had spring in it. What is really great, that a car moves along with a steering wheel immediately. Zoom-zoom, computer feeling. With Matrix the feel is smeared, you do not have this great straight line feedback as with Protege. I am not saying that it is bad, it is just not as good as it could be. The steering wheel feels filled with heaviness, not with responsiveness and sensitivity.
The seats are pretty good. Road & Track found some differences between Matrix and Vibe seats and judged Vibe’s as superior. Don’t know about that. Anyway, I liked the seats, they are firm and relatively supportive. The rear seats are much better that on Focus and there is a lot of space in the rear, even for passengers’ feet under the front seats thanks to high driver seating. Alas, there was some electronic equipment under the driver’s seat which would not be quite welcomed by a passenger on the rear seat. I do not know what this equipment is, the dealer told me it is for the seat, but it had wires coming from it.
So, in my opinion rear passenger space and the trunk are possibly the best selling point for the Matrix. It has hands down the best way to organize the luggage compartment: no need to fold rear seat cushions, no need to take off rear headrests, no efforts trying to find seatbelt buckles after you returned seats back to the normal position (one of Protégé quirks).
Comparing to Matrix, Protégé is a nightmare. To prepare the trunk for a TV set or a bike one needs to pull seat cushions, fold them, take off headrests, and finally fold the seatback. Now one needs to find where to store the headrests and the old-fashioned two-piece trunk cover. Also, the side notion: because of the lower height and the lower seating position Protégé5 was the only compact car which required from me two motions to leave a car: first, I turned left and put my feet on the ground, and second, I pulled myself from a car (imagine yourself stepping from a bathtub). Matrix is more user-friendly.
I am not going to whine again about weird dashboard, must-have underbody skirts on XRS and omission of green from the paint color scheme. It is just a matter of taste. But looking at 40-yr olds on the dealership, who liked Matrix versatility and were turned off by its funky interior makes me feel that I am not alone.
I will probably add later some more about my experience with Protege5. In short: great for driving, complicated for hauling.
So we don't go off topic here, feel free to elaborate more about the Protege5... in our Toyota Matrix vs. Mazda Protege5 and/or Vibe/Matrix v. PT Cruiser v. ZX5 v. Protege5 v. Elantra GT v. Aerio SX discussions. Happy posting!
Revka
Hatchbacks & Wagons Host
So. Anyone out there have a dealer installed factory authorized supercharger on a base Matrix/Vibe engine? Many of us would love to hear of your impressions. Would you do it again? What did it cost?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
torque, horsepower, the whole deal.
Does anyone know why?
The ad was from Toyota.
perhaps all that Pontiac cladding reduces cargo room??!!
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
What's wrong with a teenager? A housewife? A farmer? An author? An attorney? A skateboarder?
johnclineii, who found the business executive comment rubbed him the wrong way (and who is probably close to the demographic you seek, but would be very unlikely to talk to someone with such narrow goals)
As for the 6 speed shifter, i like it. its no honda or mazda buttery smooth, but it has great precise short throws. Skip shifting is the rule more often than not.
The space is phenomenol- it is quite versatile. I have a dog and the hatch is great, and back seats have great head and leg room. I love the shifter position, but the emergency brake is a pain with the standard, especially if you have drinks in cup holders.
I have abs and moons and tunes, both i would reccomend.
As for styling, its subjective. I liked the gray cladding more than the monotone, or matrix. I feel it looks less racer-boyish. The matrix ofter reminds me of the suzuki aerio (an ugly car). I do like the nose of the matrix better, but otherwise give styling nod to pontiac.
the interior i like. I find the gauges easy to use, and appealing. Great tall seating position, a bit odd for a performance car. But it does NOT effect the cornering. The car cuts up the road. Sports suspension is a bit rough at times, but better that than body roll.
Comparison wise I have a dog, a wife, and soon a baby. This car met all my needs, with the promise of toyota reliability (NUMMI has been outstanding traditionally). Mileage adequate about 27-28. I do hate to shell out $$ for premium.
Lastly the incentives made me act. I got o down o% 5 yr financing. I have a gm card and had 2800 in addition taken off price. I have been waiting for 7 yrs for a gm vehicle i liked to enough to use the gm dollars and vibe hit the spot.
PS for those of you looking to shell out 80 bucks for matt in back. I went to home depot, bought a small rug with rubbery back side, then cut out with an exacto knife dimensions of trunk. This looks better, fits snugger, saves $$, and my dog can now sit in back w/o slipping.
You may also be interested in our Pontiac Vibe discussion, where you can meet other Vibe owners/enthusiasts. Happy motoring!
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks & Wagons Boards
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Thanks in advance!
I'm concerned about leaving packages, luggage, etc. in the back uncovered. If no cover is available, what do you do? Tint the rear windows? Use a blanket? Don't leave anything of value in the back?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Mailman
By the way, I saw the new 2004 instrument panel and it looks great! The numbers are a light blue and the other markings are orange/red. I like this much better than the 2003 panel.