Introduction: The Chevrolet Malibu is one of GM's older names the first Malibu was introduced in 1964 until GM canceled it in 1983. The Malibu name was later revived after the demise of the Corsica/Beretta in 1997. I'm not sure why GM had to retire the Corsica name since I've never heard of this one being a horrible car like its predecessor the Citation was. Anyways GM brought back the Malibu and unfortunately for GM it was a pretty weak effort to combat the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, I remember seeing the return of the Malibu...and the car was pretty dull and the interior was very disappointingly cheap...like you'd expect from the Cavalier. Turns out that it ended up doing only well as a fleet car which is a failure unless the car was designed for fleet sales only ie. Ford Crown Victoria, Toyota Crown Comfort, etc. Finally someone at GM seemed to realize the Malibu had absolutely nothing to convince you to switch from Honda or Toyota and decided the whole car needed...a reasonably budget the result is the newly designed 2008 Malibu.
When I was given the opportunity to drive this GM car...I knew that GM had to do much more than a mild improvement to even think of challenging the other mid-sized sedans. Up until I drove the Malibu, all the GM sedans I've driven were pretty disappointing and generic. With all the US media hype over this car I had to look at this car more critically to see whether GM finally understood what its been doing wrong for nearly 30 years.
Performance: Well I've only driven the LS model which is the base model and has the not nearly as strong 2.4L 4-cylinder. Its nothing like the first Ford Fusion which had a horribly matched engine but this is not a very powerful car with an engine like this. It only produces 169 hp and 162 lb.ft of torque which is not all that great for acceleration making from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.6 seconds. The engine is refined enough to be quiet enough unlike a Dodge product so in some sense its not all that bad.
My Score: 6/10 - The engine isn't all that powerful, the V6 in terms of power is much better.
Handling: One of the annoying things about American cars has always been the fact they are made purely for the highway, the old Taurus was like this and as a result the handling was often terrible. The new Malibu fortunately avoids this problem, the handling on the Malibu while not being that great is not terrible as one would expect. The big problem here for the car however is its weight, at 3500 lbs its heavy and you start to feel this once you make the corner. Unlike what Toyota has done, the steering for the Malibu isn't vague it actually does feel connected which is a massive improvement over other older GM products.
My Score: 7/10 - Decent handling, good steering feel but the car is noticeably heavy
Interior: This used to be GM's anchilles heel...in the 1990s you jump into a GM car and can see the awful sea of grey, dull plastic. It was so uninspired and very cheap at the same time that you hoped it was a rental or one of the cheapest cars you've bought. The VP of GM by the name of Bob Lutz noticed this and was willing to basically say the GM interiors back then...were crap. The new Malibu made it a goal that the interior had to look like someone actually spent time and money styling it instead of before just throwing cheap parts from a Cavalier and hope the buyer was too dumb to notice. Mission accomplished, there are some noticeable neat looking styling items like the gear shifter with its neat lights, the much much nicer dashboard(a fake digital by the way) and a general inviting atmosphere of the interior. I liked the implementation of this interior. Its not the most beautiful interior because of the plastic but these days, nearly all the interiors of cars are plastic. As for the build quality its made in the USA and so far...I haven't seen a major defect, only a minor misalignment which Toyota these days has.
My Score: 9/10 - Very very good effort, if it didn't have to use plastic it would have been perfect.
Styling: The exterior styling of the Malibu is not something I particularly liked. The good news is its not nearly as dull as the last two generations. The front has a nice headlight set up...but I think it was sort of ruined by how large the grille became, kind of like seeing a person with a massive nose. The rear just didn't really match with the front, they're definitely unique but don't quite have pronouncement that makes certain unique styling good.
My Score: 6/10 - They tried something different, I just don't think it worked out as well
Value for Money: This is really where GM has to fight its hardest, the midsized sedan segment is getting much harder to take on. Accord and Camry are extremely well established and haven't made the major screw ups compared to Ford and its ill fated midsized Taurus. GM has never been considered a major player here and thus needs to prove its better than the establishment. I'm not quite sure it does, the Malibu is several times better than before but I'm not sure it has done enough to prove GM will no longer resort to the old bad days of accountant designed rubbish. If your a American patriot, then yeah this is your best choice and unlike before you'd actually support a good product unlike the Chrysler Sebring.
My Score: 6/10 - In a very competitive market, there isn't anything truly outstanding to make it the new standard for midsized cars. I gave the Mazda 6 a great score because it did quite a few things other midsized cars wouldn't do at those that did, the price was much lower for a still high quality product.
Overall: 34/50 - A pretty fair score, its definitely far from being bad like the last Malibu but its still not quite that brilliant either.
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