You have no idea. I could talk about nothing but cars for days at a time.
Today we took the Vibe on a spontaneous jaunt. At first we were just going to drive up to the top of U.S. Hill, but my wife asked, “Will it be sunny?” and I had to admit that up there on the switchbacks in the folds of the mountain, it probably wouldn’t be. We certainly didn’t want to go into town or anywhere that would take us through it, which only left the road to Santa Fe. Normally that wouldn’t get me all excited, even though it’s a fairly spectacular ride down to the Rio Grande. But we were stressed and tired of gray skies. It had actually been overcast all morning with a damp, sharp wind. “Eastern Shore weather,” she remarked, and she was right.
“SOUTH!” I shouted. “Let’s go south!” At that time of day (mid-afternoon) I knew there would be sunlight in the canyon. Besides, south is where you go for sun. South is where it’s warmer.
We’d hardly had the car out on the highway at all. It did just fine, though. I thought things were a trifle twitchy in the steering department (too eager to go right or left), but that sounds like it needs an alignment adjustment, which wouldn’t surprise me a bit. The steering is quick, if not overtly crisp. Choice of tires on a front wheel drive car is critical for tailoring the kind of steering response you want, and I’ll bet something other than the Goodyear Eagle all-season variety it comes with would put a doorstop on the outer range of motion.
The ride is very comfortable, better than I expected: nicely damped, but with a decent amout of travel in the suspension. The car loves curves and holds its own on the straights. I expect more improvement once we have the alignment tweaked, too. The big treat of the afternoon, however, was discovering how much usable horsepower there was on tap with the manual transmission. Climbing long grades wasn’t embarrassing at all, and I had great fun downshifting to make it work.
In the end, we went to Dixon and then all the way back to Taos on Rt. 518 (the High Road). We ended up on U.S. Hill after all, then, and true enough, it wasn’t sunny. There was also deep snow at the top of the pass, and the woods were embedded in winter.
I think the car is rather unusual somehow. Maybe it’s the horsepower-to-weight ratio and the gearing that give it such a different feel,or maybe that’s just because I’m used to driving an ’89 Dodge, for heaven’s sake. One disgruntled reviewer whose impressions I read this evening called the Vibe a “buzzbox,” which has a certain validity to it, but it’s certainly a playful machine that seems to want more thrashing. While being easy to maneuver, the whole package feels solid and sturdy. And the view from inside this thing is nothing less than panoramic.
Well, we shall see. Interesting car, and interesting times.
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