Alexa, Car and Driver usually has good reviews if that will help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Car and Driver Reviews

I have a Matrix. I really like it. 90K+ miles and no serious problems so far, knock on wood. What sold me on the Matrix is the variety of ways you can configure the back seats for cargo hauling, which is what I mostly do. I have an exercise bike in the back of there right now. It also gets great gas mileage. A used Matrix like that sounds like a good deal to me. The only thing I don't like about the Matrix is it doesn't come in very many colors and three of them are white, silver and grey. I hope I never have to buy a silver car again. Two thirds of the world owns silver cars and I have spent enough time roaming the parking lots of various establishments looking for MY silver Matrix to confirm this!

Thanks Lpink!

It looks like we found a Pontiac Vibe (made by Toyota, same as the Matrix but under the Pontiac name) that we will be buying. I think they are cool little vehicles and the storage/carrying options will be great for DH. Glad to hear you love yours and I hope the one we are looking at will hold up just as well. Oh, and it isn't Grey/Silver/White LOL! It's..... ORANGE! ROFL! I'm sure it will be easy to spot in a parking lot! LOLOLOL!

Alexa

Great idea to buy a Vibe I think Alexa. I didn't know the Vibe was an option or I would have said buy a Vibe. I would have bought one when I bought my Matrix except the Vibe was about 3K more. More bells and whistles of course, and it comes in great colors. I wish I could have gotten a blue or maroon Vibe. I had actually an image of an organge Vibe in my mind when you said you were buying a Matrix. I thought--no what they want is a groovy orange Vibe. Many, many evenings out in the vast parking lot at the college where I work I have thought, "Darn it why didn't I buy a bright organge Vibe back when I could have."

I drive a Vibe (2004) and I love it. It gets great gas mileage and is really cute, handles well, AND it's great for hauling stuff.

Do you want to know what I don't like? There are a few things but nothing major. I live in the Texas hill country with tiny roads, no shoulders and it's HOT.

My vibe has trouble when it's really windy. Makes me nervous about going over a cliff. Problem solved by slowing down.

The AC cools best when going 55 mph or more. The slower you go the less it cools. So, when I'm in the city and doing the stop and go thing I'm really hot. I took it back to the dealer twice and they said it's working like it is supposed to.

Lastly, it doesn't have as much umph as my last 4 cylinder did. However, I'm still passing some people on inclines. The ones that pass me are usually 6 or 8 cylinders. Mine is a standard. I think the automatics have a harder time.

Not trying to be a downer. Just letting you know. There is an orange one here in my small town and it is really cute! Mine is silver and I do often find myself walking up to the wrong car, lol. Back when we were shopping the Vibe was a lot cheaper than the Matrix. I had initially wanted a Matrix but we couldn't swing it. Pontiac, at the time, did have a sale going for the Vibes though. It was 14,400 after TTL - new.

Alexa, my ex drives a Vibe. A silver one, LOL.

It's got 200,000+ miles with no major repairs, he uses it to haul stock for the store and he likes it a lot.

Annie

Trsn does point out some of the downsides to the Matrix. The AC takes forever to get juiced up and this is only PA so I can only imagine what it would be like in Texas! It's noisy with the wind too. On my way home from MI last week I thought my muffler was falling off so I stopped at a rest stop but could find nothing amiss. It was just that the wind was catching my car at a certain angle and velocity to sound like metal scraping the road. Didn't last the whole trip though. And it' not a peppy car that's for sure, but it gets you there. And although it gets good gas mileage, it has a rather small gas tank. Well maybe it's standard size for a small car but it is a couple of gallons smaller than my last car and I really notice that. When they first started making the Matrix it came in some really groovy colors but soon after they discontinued the ones I liked. I guess they must have switched that option over to the Vibe. Even though theoretically the Vibe's could be the same price as the Matrix, most of the Vibe's I see come with so many extras that they are more expensive. I have a bare bones Matrix. I wish I could have found one I liked when I was shopping that had a moon roof. I almost bought one but he salesman at the dealership jerked me around so I walked out on the deal. I could have looked all around the state for one with a moonroof but I settled for the cheapo one and when I want to see the moon I get out of the car.

Thanks for all the input everyone! We are now the proud owners of an orange Vibe! LOL! THis one is fully loaded and DH is thrilled with it. He was ready to buy a different car that I thought was a POS, but I convinced him to buy this instead, and he agreed last night that "we" made the right choice.

THe one we got is fully loaded and has even more bells and whistles than we imagined. It even has a 110 outlet on the dash for the cell phone charger (or whatever). The moonroof is cool and the stereo kicks butt!

I'm really glad to hear the success stories with them and I will let him know about the concerns (wind, AC, etc).

Thanks again!

Alexa