Chevrolet Malibu 2008

I was so excited to get this car. Looked great, had incredible power, and was a good deal. Shortly after getting it though, the shortcomings became obvious. Although the engine is smooth and powerful, the chassis and suspension are no match for the engine's output. It was hard to keep the car in line because of the torque steer (common in high powered front drivers), but this car was worse than others I've driven. Also, the steering was heavy at low speeds, to the point where my arms started to get cramps. The rear visibility is horrible, and the trunk is very small for a midsize car. The auto climate control has trouble keeping the right temperature. I got really scared when I noticed the car downshifted with a bad jolt, and the steering felt like it was binding. The car only had 80,000km on it, but I was afraid it might have been abused previously, or was not built well. So, I traded it at a bit of a loss, and got a TrailBlazer, which had more kms, but has been flawless.

Dear reader,

I hope you'll get a bit more informative decision after reading this article.

The marketing guys from GM were doing a great job as the image that you see on all the websites promoting the Chev Malibu 2008-2009 is not quite the same as in reality.

My first impression was a car solid built which looks nice but is not properly detailed.

All the nit controls by the wheel are helping you keeping your hands on the wheel.
I'll mention some of them as media control with mute button as well as the manual gear control (nice feature with the manual shifter unfortunately is not yet working properly)
Turn by turn navigation system is OK as well ( lack of graphic though makes it unattractive).
Finishing to be done as you can hear squiking everywhere especially when you have the music on and speakers covers vibrates even with volume at a half of the scale.
I had a 2005 model V6 3.2l before and I had a better acceleration and power output from the engine versus this one with V6 3.6l. On the same token this new one takes about 30% more in gas than the other one. Even the sound system was better on the Malibu 2005 V6 3.2l model.
The automatic shifter is delaying the shifting which can result in slowdowns when you want to take off. I found as well the manual shifting very annoying when driving in the city, is like braking the car apart not mentioning that you can be involved in an accident easily if you do not keep at least 3-5 meters distance from the front cars as it acts like is jumping when shifting from the 1st gear in the 2ns one. This behavior wares the tires and brakes faster.

BE AWARE AND CHECK ALL THE WINDSHIELDS as they can be damaged. This defect is hardly visible during the day, a huge impact is during the night when everything is blurry (glare) because of the bad windshields problem.
Shiny moldings are looking like rusted, fading or stained in less then two months.
Visibility blocked by the big side beams front and back.
Heated mirrors are not working properly as they are not defrosting only when the car is not moving. I drove 30 minutes to work and they are still not defrosted. If I started 10 minutes before takeoff it will melt the ice only in the middle top of the side mirrors.
The trunk issue !!! - The most painful thing at this car is the trunk handling. There is no outside handler, only one inside. When you close the trunk you have to pull down the inside handler and then pull out fast your hand as you can get hurt by the trunk when is closing or you if you are toll enough you need to push the external side of the trunk down when you will scratch the car in no time. The last option is not that painful though but you'll have scratches all over the trunk.
Hassle all the way when you need to change a part that it has a defect and if you hassle enough you get some of the parts replaced by them and some of them replace at your own cost even under warranty.
If the car deteriorates the exterior aspect they are blaming the acid rains so you have to take it with your insurance. And your insurance is blaming the environment and finally is getting to your packet if you wan to remedy problem.

Is not a bad car but has to be work on it better and with quality components.
Chose a trusted dealer by checking on http://bbb.com

Vasilescu Ionel

vasilescu_Ione@yahoo.com

Pour les personnes qui recherche un voiture hybride à prix raisonnable, je conseille fortement la Malibu. La conduite est très silencieuse et confortable, en plus d'être économique.
À noter que la batterie est garantie 8 ans.