Hey GRM, I've been on the hunt now for a replacement for my first generation Forester for a little while now. Not that it's a bad car, it's a great car, an absolute beast in snow, it handles far better than it should (WRX springs and rear sway bar), all of the controls are in the perfect place, and it does it's job without any sort of hesitation or gruff.
But, this particular example spent some winters where there is salt, and it's pretty rusty in spots that are beyond my drive to repair, and every time I work on it I buy stock in PB Blaster before hand. The sway bar install that should have taken 30 minutes was an absolute nightmare. In short, my desire to put any more money into it (fix the air conditioning for one) is incredibly low. Couple this with the fact that while the Forester being built on the Impreza chassis makes modifying the suspension really easy and the car handle quite well, it also makes the backseat and rear door entry incredibly small. Getting my 10 month old back there is just a huge pain in the ass based on the actual geometry of the back seat entry. In short, I got frustrated with the car, and I wanted something a little unique that I didn't see ten of on my daily commute (the PNW is Subaruland).
I saw a post here on GRM about the Matrix/Vibe platform a ways back. I remember driving a Celica GTS with the 2ZZ a long time ago, and I got to thinking; four doors, large rear entry, flip glass (a surprisingly useful thing), fold flat seats, cupholders (early Subaru's have garbage cup holders), strong brakes, six speed, and a motor that isn't just a utilitarian lump. It also satisfies my love for Toyota, as I already own an 85 AW11.
So it was on the short list of cars that just made sense. Is it perfect? No, not really. But it's a good middle ground for all of the above reasons.
I looked at a few other options in the meantime, as the GT/XRS variants were either very expensive or just weren't for sale and the base models weren't interesting enought to me. I flip flopped on what might make sense, almost putting an E39 touring project in my driveway. My slow action on that car was likely driven by my subconscious brain knowing that it was a dumb idea (and still, no cupholders!).
And then it happened, a 2003 Vibe GT, in my opinion the better looking of the two siblings. Grey body cladding, blue exterior. 158k miles, black interior that looked in halfway decent condition, with the original all weather mats, an hour from home, an asking price of 750$ with ad text that made me really question if it was a scam.
Long story short, I was able to mobilize the team for a pickup this past Sunday. Met the owner on his farm, took it for a short drive, and then somehow drove this 750 dollar car back home, on the interstate, using cruise control, listening to music, without any incident (almost). The last sub 1000 car I bought I had to pick up on a flatbed. Sure, the Vibe wouldn't stay in sixth, but I knew that going in. At that point I felt like I was ahead of the game.
I also knew going into it that the seller thought it needed a clutch. I babied it on the drive home, because breaking down when your support team includes a 10 month old isn't the best idea, but once I got within a few miles of home, basically on cloud nine, I knew I couldn't last without wringing the 2ZZ out at least once. Exit the interstate, point the nose down a familiar stretch of road, short shift into 2nd, and made that engine sing. Right on time, it hits the switchover at 6500 (or wherever), and it noticeably punches the car forward, and it just goes, and goes, and goes. If I didn't have all this space around me, I'd tell you that I was back in my 20V MR2 from when I was younger.
Man, that's a good mill, but wait, what's that in my rearview? Oh, okay a little smoke, I know that some 2ZZ's have a habit of eating oil, I'll keep an eye on it.
Then I can't get into another gear, oh boy. I'm close to home, but not that close to home. I make it back through a dance of shutting the car off at lights, or crawling in second and California rolling some stop signs. Well E36 M3. I'll wait a day to tell my very patient wife about that part.
The best I can figure, is that I either melted, or blew apart the already slipping clutch. I've never quite had this problem before, and since I was going into this thinking I was going to install a clutch already, I'll just get in there and see how bad it looks. I've bled the hydraulic system already, and I'm getting good slave cylinder actuation, but the car is locked in gear with the engine running and will not roll forward or back with the clutch pedal down and the engine off. This is a new one to me, so if anyone has some thoughts, I'm all ears just for the sake of conversation.
Lots of little things to fix and clean up on this one, but unless something is broken, no modifications beyond repair. Just a neat little swoopy mailbox on wheels that I can count on to carry my life around. So this build thread is more about fixing all the tiny things that you might expect to be wrong on a sub 1000$ Vibe GT and making it a nice place that for the family that also happens to have 11.5:1 compression
But first, I should probably make it drive. Stage Zero, here we go.
Money shots (garbage photos because it's been pouring here in the PNW, and you know, it's broken, so I can't get it outside very easily):
Thanks for reading if you've made it this far!
