Within a few days of selling it, I flew to the Dallas-Forth Worth area and bought a 2003 Pontiac Vibe with (then) 143k miles. It is a GM-built Toyota Matrix, basically. It passed Washington emissions testing fine and it's now my daily driver.
It gets a good 30+ hwy MPG and is GREAT for road trips/sleeping in. It's an early "CUV", more commonly known as a "crossover". It's equipped with a 1.8L Corolla engine and a 4 speed automatic transmission. They also made AWD versions in both A/T and M/T but I got a regular FWD. The GM "Vibe" came equipped with a factory roof rack, unlike the Toyota's Matrix which looks more like a compact hatchback than an SUV, which is how GM styled the Vibe more.
I had the transmission serviced within 250 miles of purchasing it simply for routine maintenance since I had no idea if it had ever been done. It has already given me over 3,000 miles of trouble free driving since I took the long route home by way of New Mexico, Arizona and California; as to avoid Colorado and Utah in the dead of winter.
I will keep this blog up since it's a wealth of info for Xplorer 228 owners, as well as an archive of my past travels. I am still debating if I will continue posting photos of trips here on this blog, or if I will create a new one and simply link it from here. Either way, this blog will remain online.
Here are a couple of photos.. one of the car and one from Tombstone, AZ on December 12, 2015. I decided to stop by there for a third time since I was passing through so close again through Benson and I really dig old west places like that.
