Innovative and Versatile Vibe Takes Pontiac Excitement to a Whole New Level

DETROIT - The launch of the all-new Pontiac Vibe marks the start of a new era for Pontiac and for General Motors. Vibe redefines traditional Pontiac Excitement and resounds with relevance to a new audience. It also ushers in a new, fresh competitiveness for GM in the arena of affordable small cars.

Uniquely combined, Vibe defies traditional vehicle classification. It offers a spacious, versatile interior in the guise of a compact car, and the features of a sports car, sport wagon and SUV all at the same time. It rides tall, has available all-wheel drive, offers innovative storage systems and cargo-hauling capacity, and features strong performance, with a 180-hp engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission on GT models. The vehicle comes in Vibe, Vibe AWD and Vibe GT models.

“We are confident that Vibe will attract new, younger buyers to the Pontiac family, solidifying our position with this important target,” said Lynn Myers, Pontiac-GMC general manager. “Pontiac already has the youngest buyers at GM and among the youngest in the industry — a go-anywhere, sporty yet practical vehicle like Vibe can only enhance that.”

Natural fit for younger buyers
For GM and Pontiac, Vibe represents an opportunity to reach younger buyers who lead increasingly active and varied lifestyles. A vehicle like Vibe is a natural fit— a bold and purposeful athletic crossover that’s the right size for transporting friends and gear, but with a personal (and personalized) feel. Like all Pontiacs, it provides a surefooted, rewarding driving experience.

Vibe is a product of GM’s far-reaching alliances in the automotive marketplace. Produced at the GM and Toyota owned New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) facility in Fremont, Calif., which is recognized as a leader in quality and efficiency, Vibe’s debut in dealerships comes approximately a year after its introduction at the North American International Auto Show in January 2001. GM took the lead in designing and developing the Vibe vehicle requirements, working closely with Toyota’s design and engineering staff during its development, which occurred over a 25-month period from late 1999 to launch in early 2002.

Bold, purposeful athletic design
Vibe sports a purposeful, athletic design that’s smoothly sculpted and muscular, lending the vehicle a fresh, clean look. It features a unique, integrated roof rack that gives the car a sleek shape—creating a singular, distinctive, fastback roof line. Vibe also features traditional Pontiac styling cues, such as the twin-port grille and muscular stance.

“It’s unmistakably Pontiac,” said chief designer John Mack. “Right down to the cat-eye headlamps, recessed fog lamps and rear cornering lamps. We also gave it the traditional Pontiac wide stance, with short front overhangs and large wheels and tires to project an aggressive, ground-hugging stance while optimizing vehicle stability.”

A great deal of attention was paid to the little details that make a good car great, like an easy-opening rear liftgate and liftglass, and door handles that are easy to grip. Window gears have been designed to reduce the noise made when the windows are raised and lowered. Optimal ride height and ground clearance also drove early design development.

“It's a more upright feel,” Mack said, “which is good. You have a command view of the road. There are a lot of big vehicles out there and you don't feel so vulnerable in this seating position. Overall, it’s a successful crossover design combining the best elements of an SUV and car handling.”

There are eight exterior colors—the final names of which were chosen by consumers in an Internet-based “What Color Is Your Vibe?” contest, just one example of the innovative ways Pontiac will market Vibe toward a new audience. The eight exterior colors, as named by the voice of the customer, are: Abyss (black), Satellite (silver), Shadow (dark gray), Frosty (white), Lava (red), Salsa (dark red), Neptune (blue) and Envy (green).

Another key element of the exterior design is how well it provides for a flexible, spacious interior design by virtue of Vibe’s highly efficient body architecture.

Thoughtful, roomy and highly flexible interior
Vibe’s interior is thoughtfully done and accommodating. It’s been tailored to fit the lifestyles of young, active buyers by delivering an unprecedented level of convenience. Comfort is a key attribute, as is storage space. The rear seats fold flat at one touch to create a level load floor –- and 57.2 cubic feet of cargo volume. The front passenger seat folds flat into a worktable. The convenient, easy-to-use liftglass/liftgate system is designed for optimal accessibility.

The rear floor features a first: a unique, innovative cargo system that includes two parallel tracks running the length of the rear compartment. Eight adjustable sliding anchors help secure unwieldy cargo with ease.

Vibe includes a 115-volt standard power outlet with a wall-type plug-in in the front console. Also, the interior is loaded with Infotainment options, including a DVD-based navigation system with remote six-disc CD changer, a six-disc in-dash CD changer, 200-watt premium audio system and standard Radio Data System (RDS). The sporty seat fabrics are made of a flatly knitted, high-class, high-tech material and is available in two colors, slate (light gray) and graphite (dark gray).

Vibe is spacious and adaptive throughout, containing chrome tie-downs for securing loose cargo, a console tray, storage bins, and a welcome number of functional spaces, holders and compartments for carrying just about anything young drivers need. Vibe has easy entry and exit, supportive and fully adjustable seats, a commanding road view and intuitively placed controls.

“We wanted to create a cockpit that is distinctly Pontiac,” Mack said, “the amber/orange lighting on the rounded gauges, and the chroming around the gauge cluster, for example. There was an emphasis on using high-end, upscale materials on the inside with tactile surfaces that are smooth to the touch, to lend an uplevel feel to what is essentially an entry-level vehicle.”

Advanced safety features
The Pontiac Vibe builds on GM’s reputation for safety and security with its world-class structural design and other notable safety achievements. Vibe provides a full array of crash avoidance and crash protection benefits normally associated with larger, higher-priced vehicles. It offers dual front air bags of a two-stage design, and optional seat-mounted side air bags.

All-wheel drive is available, and an antilock brake system (ABS) is standard on AWD and GT models and available on the base vehicle. According to Vehicle Line Executive Jerry Gillespie, Vibe’s flexibility is aided by its interior spaciousness. “The Vibe is built upon a highly efficient body architecture, which offers cavernous interior and cargo space comparable to larger SUVs.” It features a large safety cage and crumple zones, with the frame and body panels constructed of high-strength steel designed to absorb energy in a crash and resist passenger-compartment intrusion.

Comfortable lap and shoulder belts with pretensioners and force limiters are provided for the front seats, along with warning lamps that illuminate when seatbelts are not properly fastened. Front seat positions have adjustable upper anchors to permit routing the shoulder belt to suit a wide range of physiques and inboard-belt-to-seat attachments so that the anchor point moves fore-and-aft in synch with seat-position adjustments, for outstanding versatility in positioning the belt. Uniform child restraint anchors are provided in the rear seat.

Other safety features and options, beyond the aforementioned AWD and ABS, are available, including: GPS navigation, remote keyless entry, anti-theft system, child safety door locks, power window lockout switch, daytime running lights and delay-entry lighting.

Above all, fun to drive
Vibe will make its mark on the segment not only by offering unprecedented versatility but also by unleashing surprisingly high performance. The performance model, Vibe GT, has a 1.8-liter 180-hp four-cylinder engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission — a powerful combination of 100 hp/liter of specific power output. The engine uses variable valve timing and lift (VVTL-i). The GT engine powers the Vibe from 0-60 mph in the low eight-second range. The power boost comes from a combination of tweaks, including modified heads and the VVTL-i system that increases the intake/exhaust lift when engine speed is high to improve output and fuel efficiency.

The 1.8-liter, DOHC all-aluminum four-cylinder makes 180 hp at 7600 rpm and 130 lb-ft of torque at 6800 rpm. It has a high-rigidity aluminum block, short stroke (bore & stroke 82.0 x 85.0 mm), large diameter valves and a high compression ratio (11.5).

Vibe’s base model powerplant is a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine with variable valve timing (VVT-i) that makes 130 hp at 6000 rpm and 125 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm. The inline four is a front-mounted, transverse, pent roof design with dual overhead cams. It will be classified for 50-state emissions, earning ULEV (ultra-low emitting vehicle) status, meeting both EPA and CARB ULEV standards. A five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmission are offered with the base engine, but the all-wheel-drive version is only available with the automatic transmission.

Vibe’s suspension is constructed for the optimal blend of crisp handling and a smooth ride. The front suspension is designed with a leading-arm MacPherson strut type with a high caster angle. The rear suspensions of the base and GT vehicles have a twist beam. It ensures ample wheel stroke, improving riding comfort and quietness and providing outstanding handling and driving stability.

All-wheel-drive models come with an independent rear suspension of a compact double-wishbone set-up, featuring optimized placement of the arms. This suspension improves ride comfort and provides outstanding handling and stability to complement the sure-footedness of the all-wheel-drive system.

The brakes are a vented front disc/rear drum combination except on the GT model, where they are four-wheel discs with solid rotors at the rear. Vibe models offer three types of wheels – 16-inch steel, 16-inch alloy and 17-inch alloy. Tires sourced from Goodyear and continental include a 16-inch P205/55R/16 all-season tire and an optional Dunlop 17-inch P215/50ZR/17 summer tire.

Young buyers seem to want a vehicle that combines value, safety, good looks, functionality and quality. They want vehicles that both project their personality and support their lifestyle choices.

“Customers have repeatedly told GM focus groups about vehicle attributes they like,” said Craig Bierley, Pontiac Vibe brand manager. “They want the commanding view, higher seating position, and ample space for people and cargo from SUVs. And they also want the security and all-wheel-drive features of trucks, the performance characteristics of small, sporty cars, and on top of all that, the ability to personalize a vehicle. They really want it all. And that’s what we’re giving them with Vibe. This vehicle offers all of that and more, in one sporty versatile, efficient and appealing package.”