The Pontiac Vibe is designed based on the four door hatchback body style, along with the front engine layout and provided either the four wheel drive or the front wheel drive - all in a convenient package.
The Pontiac Vibe was first launched in the model year 2002 by the NUMMI group, a joint venture between the automobile giants Toyota and General Motors. The car falls under the category of compact class type. The model is also called as Toyota Matrix and Toyota Voltz. The vehicle has the assembly plant at Fremont, California in United States. The model is related to the Toyota Auris, Toyota Celica and Toyota Corolla.
The Pontiac Vibe model is similar to the Toyota Voltz except in the drive. The first model vehicle was shown at the American International Auto Show in January, 2000 and the production model was introduced after two years, in 2002 as a model vehicle for 2003. It is mechanically similar to Toyota matrix while design is based on the E-platform of Toyota Corolla.
First Generation (2003-2008)
The first generation Vibe was introduced in 2003 and the company has continued the production of model up to 2008. The model was designed by John Mack. The vehicle is designed on the 4-door hatchback model body style. It was offered in two separate engines like-1.8 liter 1ZZ-FE I4 that produce 132 horse power of energy and the other 1.8 liter 2ZZ-GE I4 that produce 164 horse power. The variant came with three different transmissions such as the 5-speed manual transmission, 4-speed automatic transmission and the 6-speed manual transmission.
The first generation Vibe came with the length, width and height of 4351 mm, 1775 mm and 1539 mm respectively. During the period the Vibe model was available in economical base trim with all wheel drive and mid trim. The engines to the model are 1.8 liter straight-4 16 valve engine built by Toyota that produces 94 kilo watts of power.
There have been changes between the different model year vehicles. The ratings of the power in the first three years were higher, the GT model with 134 kilo watts, the base model produced at 97 kilo watts and the all wheel drive model produced 94 kilo watts. Due to the low sales and federal standards for emissions, the all wheel drive or GT models production stopped in the model year 2007.
Second generation Vibe (2009-2010)
The second generation Vibe model is designed based on the five door hatchback body style and is offered in two engines like- 1.8 liter 2ZR-FE I4 that produce 132 horse power of energy and the 2.4 liter 2AZ-FE I4 that produce 158 horse power. The model is offered in three different transmissions like the 4-speed automatic, 5-speed manual and the 5-speed automatic transmission. The second generation Vibe model is designed by Ron Aselton. The vehicle is available with the length, width and height of 4371 mm, 1763 mm and 1593 mm respectively.
The car in this generation is available with the features like the anti lock brakes and the traction control system managed by the computer. The rear disc brakes are provided as standard feature on all the versions of Vibe.