It was reported today that General Motors and Toyota sold about the same amount of vehicles last year (9.37 million).
I feel like I contributed to sales in both camps, as I bought an '07 Pontiac Vibe this past fall.
The Vibe is a Toyota Corolla station wagon made to look like an SUV. Toyota's version is the Matrix.
The Vibe is made at the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, California. (That might be the only car plant in Calif. and west of the Rockies.) The Matrix is made in Cambridge, Ontario.
The NUMMI plant is a joint venture between Toyota and GM since 1984. Corollas roll off the same assembly line. The plant also makes Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks.
The main reasons for my buying the Vibe was its large, flexible interior space (see picture at the Pontiac website) and good gas mileage. (I'm getting about 35 mpg, due to mostly highway driving.) I also appreciated the fact that the drivetrain was of Toyota design and assembly, so hopefully the reliability would be high.
It's about time for me to change the oil, although current low mid-Atlantic temperatures preclude that, this week. (Since I have to do it outdoors, I'll wait till it gets a little warmer.)
What bugs me is that the owner's manual doesn't describe how to change the oil. There aren't any pictures of the oil pan drain plug.
I hope it's not hard to find.
(I don't think Pontiac expects the owner to change the oil himself. Why is that?!)
Posted by raacluse at January 23, 2008 11:45 PM