The Malibu. Chevy’s long-running evocation of California sunshine and coastal elitist prestige to sell a mainstream sedan to Norman and Irma in the hardworking heartlands. That’s not meant to be dismissive. Norm and Irma deserve practical affordable transportation. I like midsize sedans. Good value. Solid driving dynamics. Fling one down a winding road, compare its price to the average new vehicle, and tell me we don’t live in a peculiar little golden age. I had an Altima. I had a Camry. Tested several Fusions and Accords and Passats. Liked them all, in their own ways. But I’ve never driven a Malibu before. I recently got my chance, and I outright jumped at it. Why?
Because of Kyler.
And who is Kyler?
Kyler is Every Teen USA. Kyler spends a lot of time on his hair. More time, apparently, than reviewing the driver’s handbook because for reasons known only to himself he decided to change lanes into our 4Runner and send it to the body shop for a few weeks. Kyler’s either good at lying or genuinely believed his car was in an entirely different location than it was. Kyler, in either case, cost us our deductible. Don’t ask; sometimes our men in blue have other priorities than determining if a little twerp is delusional about a fender bender, and since no witnesses stopped to provide an account…
Well, this one’s for you, Kyler.
The Malibu assigned to me at the friendly rental counter is a mid-level 1LT, model year 2023, with 24,000 miles on the odometer. This generation of ‘Bu was hot-n-fresh when it debuted in 2016, looking sleek and modern and wearing this body shape better than the Fusion and Chrysler 200 before it. It was well reviewed, but after seven years of stagnation and decontenting Malibu sales are half what they were and Chevrolet will not be reissuing the model. November 2024 was the end of production. That age is going to become important here, because despite my affection for this class of automobile, in the form we see here this model deserved to be cancelled. GM gave up on it years ago.
Let’s take the magazine/autoblog approach here and give a pro/con/verdict before getting detailed:
The Goods:
- Nearly perfect ride/handling balance (for what it is)
- Surprisingly quiet at speed
- Responsive torque-rich powertrain
- Styling
The Bads:
- Abysmal interior quality shrieks its cheapness at you
- Low horsepower
- Coarse, harsh engine
- It’s not just forgettable; it’s mildly antagonistic
The Hot Take:
Cheap and feels it. Rather than updating a fundamentally good chassis, GM cedes the field (again) to Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai. If there’s a small suitcase of cash on the hood, go for it. If not, buy a name brand and get a better product.
I kinda like the dash design. Too bad about the material quality.
I was on this car’s side until I sat in it. The Malibu is a good looking sedan, and I liked the GMC Terrain I rented last year. It’s also loaded with enough equipment to make any reasonable person happy. Heated seats, power driver seat, dual zone climate, lighted and extendable visors and a smaller but very user-friendly touchscreen with a physical array of climate buttons below. What more do you people need, anyway?
Unfortunately, that equipment is lost amidst the type of slipshod interior that doesn’t belong in a midsize sedan and hasn’t for about a decade. This is an egregiously cheap feeling place. I’ll give the seat fabrics a pass because most automotive upholstery is similar, but the coarseness of the fabric on the doors and dash? The poor panel fitment with visible gaps and exposed molding edges? The rickety center armrest? The insubstantial feel of nearly every button and stalk? It’s terrible at first impression and just gets worse the more you interact with it. Why is the steering wheel rim ovoid in cross-section rather than round, placing a hard edge against my palm and making it a lamentable implement to hold? Why is the ignition button canted 30 degrees toward the driver’s door, making every press of it a glancing blow?
This little plastic peak looks like a soft-serve cone and was perhaps formed the same way by the injection-molding process that made the door panel. Here it sits, in a high-visibility location forward of the window switches. QA/QC missed it. No worries, they’ve only been making them for 8 model years, they’ll work the kinks out eventually.
Why do the gauge needles take a full 11 seconds to complete their trendy sweep on engine startup? Let’s say you’re talking to your friends or kids or fifth concubine or whoever when getting in the car and you press the starter button but don’t hear the tiny engine fire. You’d glance at the tach to check before putting it in gear, yes? Not here, because the needles are still doing their ballet for you, but the dancers are fat and out of shape and can’t do the moves quickly enough. So you’re waiting, and waiting, and the tach needle is still lumbering back toward idle rpm. Even if the engine is running, the needle drifts all the way to 0, pauses for long enough you think the motor didn’t actually start, then it jumps up to idle speed.
More sloppy flashing right on top of the driver’s door.
Once I start driving the Malibu, a few things jump out at me. It has a great ride and handling balance for a family sedan. The steering is responsive and accurate, the front end responds nimbly, and overall body motions are well controlled. There’s roll but it’s not sloppy, and it still rides comfortably and quietly. There’s a really good chassis under all that plastic. And a good steering rack until you slow down to residential speeds where it gets really overboosted and artificial. Road noise is reasonable and the car is aerodynamic so it is quiet for the class at interstate speed.
From the bad old days of GM midsize interiors. A 1997 Regal. Look at that sharp exposed flashing. Nostalgic? Relive it in a new Malibu.
The engine makes itself known next. The 1.5-liter direct-injected turbocharged four cylinder is from the same engine family as the unit in our GMC Terrain rental, but here makes only 160 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. It has less mass to move in the Malibu and therefore feels about the same. Torquey at low engine speeds, breathless up high. In the Malibu it’s paired to a CVT.
This powertrain has refinement issues. The classic CVT-induced drone is apparent nearly all of the time, even in gentle casual driving. The engine is not overtly loud here, but the coarseness of the sound makes it stand out right away. It has a distinctly Briggs and Stratton note to it, and though it makes enough torque to whisk the car ahead somewhat quietly once up to speed, getting there requires enough load on the engine to bring out the lawnmower thrash, even at low engine speeds. I’m reminded of entry level subcompacts from 15 years ago. This is a $29,000 car, so I shouldn’t be.
The powertrain was obviously not calibrated to perform well revving out under sudden, heavy and prolonged throttle applications. In the Malibu, consider 4500 rpm the redline. Seriously. It’s a loud, nasty, booming thing anywhere and everywhere above that and a high frequency vibration begins resonating within the unibody as if a belt sander were being run down the frame. The transmission knows this and really resists sending the engine there, preferring to lock into the midrange.
The Malibu’s little turbo and CVT need a different approach and if you take it, they perform nicely. Almost admirably. Roll into the throttle, and try not to exceed about ⅔ pedal travel. The transmission will promptly slide ratios into the meat of the torque band (3,000 to 4,000 rpm from the feel of it), and the turbo responds with minimal lag. There, the car gathers speed smoothly and far more eagerly than the 160 horsepower suggests it should. A deep pedal compression with the transmission holding steady at 3500 rpm really makes this car scoot. Little is gained by forcing the engine higher because it doesn’t produce much more power up there. Unless that tractor trailer is bearing down in the mirror and you simply must call upon Scotty to give it all she’s got, remain deliberate and conservative with the throttle. Ride the torque wave rather than trying to paddle ahead of it. It’s a pretty good powertrain if you do: responsive and grunty. Learn to drive it.
The awkward position and angle of the ignition button made me suspect it was a midcycle add-on. But no, it was there from day one.
The Malibu functions well enough as a 4-person family sedan. The trunk is big and holds a spare tire. The cheap cabin is at least roomy. The front seats have more squashy foaminess than I prefer, but my wife thought they were comfortable. The back seat is spacious on paper, with good legroom and headroom, but in practice, it’s an uncomfortable place for an adult. Toe room under the seats is tight, negating the legroom. Headroom was achieved through a low hip point, resulting in raised knees and poor thigh support. Our Camry had a firm, high, supportive bench and a lot of space to put your feet under the front seats.
The Malibu’s driving position is the far bigger problem for me. The brake pedal is too close to the driver, and if I move the seat back to accommodate it, the gas pedal and steering wheel are farther than is comfortable. It’s a ridiculous ergonomic blunder that would sink the car before any of my other complaints.
Fuel economy? Can’t complain: 27 mpg in conditions where my Lexus has been getting only 22. But it makes half the power and twice the noise, so it had better use less fuel.
Yes, I’m making a bunch of First World Problem complaints about a car that is objectively competent. The issue here is everything in this vehicle class has been competent for a long time, and since at least 2018 they’ve all handled and rode nearly as well and provided nicer interiors. At this price point there should be something that makes you look forward to getting behind the wheel, but I couldn’t find it. The responsive engine is marred by its coarseness. The solid handling is ruined by the repulsive steering wheel. The quiet freeway demeanor is overshadowed by the awkward driving position. The interior is cheap but not cheerful.
You can still find new Malbus on dealer lots. Who would seek one out and why are mysteries to me. Perhaps GM loyalists who don’t realize an Accord or Camry have a higher domestic parts content. Perhaps someone who simply will not cross-shop. Perhaps fleet managers looking for a deal. Price is key. The MSRP for mine was $29,000. Don’t you dare pay anything close to that. This belongs on the 30% off rack.
Who gave Kyler the keys to the ‘Bu?
Even better, find one used, heavily depreciated and kind of banged up. Buy that one for your own Kyler. Let him hone his responsibility avoidance skills by ruining other people’s property with it. It won’t do a thing to the value of his (your) Malibu, and it’s a modern safe-enough car so he probably won’t end up in the hospital on your dime either. That’s a win-win, because every Kyler with an expensive honesty problem is funded by parents who enable him, and it’s better for them if someone else picks up the tab.
Had one of these as a rental recently. The utter contempt this car shows to its user is atrocious. Every interior button and surface mocks you with its performative, sloppy, blingy-ness. Grand design gestures and sweeping shapes fouled by coarseness and slipshod execution. Not a shred of richness to engine or interior. The best I’ll say is the exterior is pleasant and interesting in that mid-twenty-tens sort of way. Why GM would produce such a car is beyond me. Maybe it has to do with CAFE?
They really seem committed to the “make it just good enough to sell at a discount” philosophy. How much more would it cost GM to bring the materials and switchgear up to average class levels? Even a base Corolla has switchgear and stalks that move with a quality feel.
The powertrain coarseness perhaps can’t be addressed so easily, outside of simply stuffing as much sound-deadening insulation as the firewall can hold.
Interesting review, to be honest I didn’t know the Malibu was still in production so I certainly learned something today, only a bit late.
An almost class competitive sedan when it was introduced, and left to wither on the vine. I guess new GM is a lot like old GM in some ways. It’s lamentable that they still can’t or won’t make a competitive passenger vehicle.
I was looking around the Canadian Tire parking lot this weekend, noticing a lot of Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic from the mid teens. What are middle and low income people going to be driving in the future? 10 year old Range Rovers, I think not.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t realize that Malibus were still made. I’m sure I’ve seen these on the road, but I probably just thought they were Impalas.
Like Petrichor says, it’s not a bad design… but I suppose that’s about where my interest stops. Pity, because a well-executed sedan can still be successful outside of rental fleets.
“…it’s not a bad design…Pity, because a well-executed sedan can still be successful outside of rental fleets.”
This is the tragedy of the Malibu. It is a nice design. It has a good chassis. It was fully competitive when it debuted. They got the expensive parts right (caveat on the 1.5t + CVT, no idea if that’s a reliable powertrain) but dropped the ball on the interior and did so in ways that feel outright insulting.
I know so little of the interior workings of automotive companies. I’d love to know how the decision is made to spend so much engineering a competitive car only to kneecap it in a few key and easily-fixed areas. Baffling.
Yup. The last time I drew one of these in the rental line, about the only good thing I could say about it was that the touch screen was admirably sized and thankfully wasn’t aping a flat panel television. Oh, and the kind of analog gauges were ok; albeit oddly sleepy as you note (and therefore I tend to doubt that they were really doing anything meaningful).
Given the small number of buyers who seem to be looking for a “car” (versus something that either is, or pretends to be, a truck), it’s obvious why no one beyond a rental car company would purchase one of these. Particularly when you can apparently get a Camry for about the same money and have a far superior product and experience. It’s a chicken and egg problem…the conventional sedan is effectively dead, but of course it is when all that there is to buy are dead things like this Malibu.
Yes, indeed the Malibu isn’t doing anything to resurrect the segment. Even the Accord is struggling and that’s an updated class-leader without major foibles.
A big reason the Accord is struggling is sitting on the same lot – the Civic.
We’re starting the process of looking for a new car, as my daughter will be driving later this year, and I’ve promised her the use of our 2017 Civic EX-T sedan.
There really isn’t any reason to choose the more expensive Accord over the Civic.
I may be one of the few people who prefer the looks of the previous generation, despite its too-short wheelbase.
I admit that it’s gotten long-in-the-tooth, although I think the Malibu’s styling has aged gracefully. I particularly like the rear styling. It never had the Asians’ goofy climbing taillights, etc. (although I know the current Accord doesn’t, either).
I rented one a year ago and put 2K miles on it in five days. I was surprised at how much I liked it. Super quiet, smooth, roomy, and zippy enough for me. Personally, I like that it’s from a domestic company, built by union workers, and sold and serviced at a dealer organization that, along with Ford, is by-far the largest in the nation. Small towns still have small Chevy dealers. I like that.
I’m sure it could be bought for less than anything else like it.
I’m generally not a “piler on”, for good things or bad, but Honda doesn’t need my money. 🙂
A broad dealer network is certainly going to be a selling point for a lot of people. Repeated experiences with my local Ford and Toyota service departments are having me look for reliable independent garages, however. The saving grace is that the Toyota never needs repairs–just fluids and brakes–so I don’t have to deal with them much. The Ford on the other hand…
“I’m sure it could be bought for less than anything else like it”
Probably, and that could be a big plus. At $23-24K new, my rental would be a lot of serviceable and competent car for the money, assuming it doesn’t break more often than it should.
This really hits home with me. Since being a part of this community, I’m being educated greatly about Americans love affair with their cars, but that these cars weren’t always what the marketing people made out to be.
Let me explain: my next installment will help some, but to me, just looking at the design and features of any car made me happy enough to buy without looking at some of the truly horrible build quality. We were typically GM with some Ford from the time Cindy and I got married. Reading this review made me think back about the sad excuses sold to the public (I’m not including Toyota or Honda because I don’t have enough experience with either brand)
This past year we’ve had to buy two vehicles. Our GMC Sierra that was bought out of shear necessity due to my FIL leasing a new Honda and dumping all his negative equity into it, then trading that for a used Equinox dumping more negative equity in to that, causing us to trade in two for one- had a transmission failure at only 40k. Fixing it would have been covered but there are no parts, no rebuilt units for the foreseeable future. Why? GM knew about these issues.
You have just shown me how unwise I’ve been over the years. At 61 years old, buying a car wasn’t what I had in mind. But, knock on wood, the Rogue we bought took our interest rate down 13 points and shaved two years off our loan. (I’ve heard it said that people don’t buy a Rogue because they want to, it’s because they need to!)
I must say, it seemed to be screwed together better than most all of my other cars.
Oh, if I’d only known then what I know now…
Good write-up, I’ve rented a few of these.
What impressed me most was the low fuel consumption on the positive side, and the feeling of cheapness on the negatives side.
I’ve seen these with the 2.0 turbo, and leather interior. Now those DO NOT feel cheap at all. The drive exceptionally well. However they are, or were, stickering at the low to mid $30s.
Yes, I’m quite curious about the high-end 2.0T. Impressive power and efficiency numbers from that powertrain, and the touchpoints of the interior look notably better in photos, with soft-touch panels replacing some of the nastier ill-fitting plastic panels on the center console. Anything would help. Maybe the leather seats would be more supportive for me as well.
I’ve never even sat in the last few generations of Malibu; I do remember having a Maxx rental which was not impressive except for the packaging. More than anything else, it reminded me of the Citation I drove briefly in 1981. Reading this review, the final Malibu, despite its four doors, sounds like the spiritual successor to the Vega. Harsh engine that doesn’t like to rev, and an interior that showcases all the corners that can be cut in the material selection, tooling design, and molding of plastic parts.
“…an interior that showcases all the corners that can be cut in the material selection, tooling design, and molding of plastic parts”
Bingo. There’s inexpensive, then there’s unapologetically cheap.
Conventional wisdom has it rental companies provide good advertising for car manufacturers and car dealers.
I wonder how many Malibu rentals converted to new Malibu sales? Maybe rental companies were GMs biggest customer for the Malibu. Same for the long-gone Impala.
Apparently, Camrys and Accords still sell well. Why continue to waste resources on a car that’s irrelevant? I don’t capiche.
If you take the Camry out of the equation, the Malibu has been selling surprisingly well. The average annual sales for 2022, 2023, and 2024 are:
Camry: 299,000
Accord: 172,000
Altima: 127,000
Malibu: 121,000
Sonata/Optima/K5: 111,000
All three non-Camry competitors were comprehensively refreshed or redesigned since this Malibu’s debut in 2016. Probably a good part of the reason Chevrolet has kept it around. They could redesign it, but with numbers like this, why?
Accord sales numbers have fallen strongly since 2018. The Camry outsold it nearly 2:1 in 2022 and 2024.
“Don’t buy one unless there’s a suitcase full of case on the hood” says it all. As usual with domestic sedans, price is the only thing that makes any sense to buy one versus a Camry or Accord.
Interestingly, Fairfax Assembly in KCK where the Malibu was built is being converted to the all-new 2026 Bolt. I sure hope it comes out better than the Malibu but I’m already having doubts.
For starters, the new Bolt will not be based on a smaller Ultium platform but, instead, will be using cheaper (but less efficient and heavier) LiFePo4 battery chemistry.
I’ve driven two of these lately as I alluded to the other day and both were Enterprise rentals. The first was a 2024 which I swapped for a 2022 two days later.
The 2024 had about 20k miles and the original (by this point worn) Bridgestone tires were horrifically loud from the rear, to the point that the radio was not audible under half volume and a phone conversation on the freeway had to be at max volume. That wasn’t going to work for a 10day rental period so I swapped it another which turned out to be a 2022 with 60,000 miles as I figured something was just plain wrong with the first one or its tires.
Well the second one had the unfortunately not so uncommon for Enterprise around here THREE different brands of tires (One Advanta, one Sailun, and two Goodyears) all with decent-ish tread. This one was just a little quieter but not significantly so. Just a complete roar from the rear at anything over 40mph. I’m somewhat curious if Enterprise spec’d them to remove any and all sound deadening from the rear the same way they had the side airbags not installed in the late 2000 Impalas to save $100 or so a unit?
Other than that, the ride was fine, engine power was acceptable, fuel economy was over 30 on my mostly freeway driving which is a bigger deal to me in general than an overly powerful engine and it was plenty capable of effortless cruising at high speeds. The interior was “rental grade + ” I suppose with not much to overly delight beyond the heated seats and an attempt at design. Yes, I too noticed the very oddly placed starter button and some cheap plastics, the cloth trim on the dash and under the radio I can report actually holds up quite well over 60k rental miles but wouldn’t be my choice as a touchpoint material.
Seat comfort was pretty good as was rear seat space for my passengers, no complaints about trunk space. High speed handling (on freeway) was borderline enjoyable actually, if it weren’t for that noise issue I’d be much more positive.
However. At the advertised (sticker) price it’s a hard no. And I don’t mind modern Chevys as a rule anymore, when new I generally like them a lot.
My theory – This car was conceived in the early 2010s and released in what, 2016? That was the pile ’em high and sell ’em cheap era. If the sticker is $28k on an LT currently, that’s about the same price as a new (now all hybrid) Camry despite the Malibu being FAR less of a car if in no other metric than reputation. My belief is that GM created this car to sell it using the JC Penney model of using a comparable or higher sticker price than others but then always transacting at a price point significantly lower. If $28k for a Camry or Accord or whatever else in the class is too steep, an Altima or Sonata at $25k still too much, then a $28k Malibu discounted by $5000-$7000 or whatever starts to look mighty attractive to someone who simply buys cars by the pound, such as a rental car company or some private buyers. However, those days are mostly gone and the competition has become far better, so yes, it won’t be a big loss when these are finally cycled out of the fleets for good. But check it out as a used car, and compare the pricing to an equivalent 5yo Camry, it (for some) makes sense again.
P.S. Bummer about the 4R, hopefully it was fixed well enough for you.
We test drove a new 2024 Malibu in September or October; it had less than 100 miles on it. It was loud like you describe.
Additionally, the salesman, who seemed bothered to be showing it to us, pretty much alluded to the sticker being the price.
Mrs. Jason didn’t take me up on the offer to drive. Obviously, we didn’t buy one. What we did buy came to a purchase price not terribly more than the sticker on the Malibu and it’s much more car for the money.
One of these days I will schedule something I wrote about our shopping experience. It literally has something for everyone.
Yes, my son is not a car guy. Last spring he was in the last semester of law school when his old sedan died. 8k estimate to rebuild engine. No thanks. He just wanted an affordable sedan. Dealers were advertising Malibu as low as maybe 22k and change. But the dealers did not want to actually sell him a car. He ended up in a loaded up Forte. A bit smaller, but ended up at same price point but with lots more features.
But GM has been so focused on EVs that they abandoned so many segments. Malibu was last sedan. Camaro is also no more. I did buy a 23 Camaro convertible with 2.o turbo, stick, loaded up. Like the Malibu, GM did next to nothing to keep up with the competition. Almost like Dodge with Challenger. My Camaro has no side blind spot monitors, speed control does not adjust, lots of hard plastic. But when the top goes down and the turbo spools…. well you get the idea. I bought it despite being a GM product. Not a good place for GM to be.
We bought our son a 2010 Malibu a couple years ago as a first car, It drive pretty well, but has taken more work for 120k mile car then I would like. But as the first GM car I have ever bought the most surprising thing to me was how weird GM is with what features a car does and doesn’t have. Like just bizarre things like manual recline and power back and forth seats. The fact that the key won’t deactivate the alarm from the door and is also not connected to the power locks. The lack of a key slot at all on the trunk, but for some reason it has remote start. Just weird.
I think you are quiet correct about the car being tailored to the 2016 market and competition. In it’s first two years I think it was strongly competitive; the little turbo engine had a 6speed auto instead of a drone-inducing CVT, there was a hybrid and fast 2.0turbo to choose from, and the ’16 and ’17 Camry and Accord had cheap interior materials unless you opted for the top trim. But they made big leaps in 2018 and the Malibu not only didn’t…it became progressively worse. The hybrid and 2.0T were pulled several model years ago.
Interesting observations about the road noise, I’m not sure how to account for the difference other than Enterprise equipped mine with matching tires. It was notably quieter than our 2016 Camry and I didn’t notice a big increase in noise floor from the GS350, but my time was limited and I didn’t take it on any really coarse or concrete freeways.
Still waiting for the result of the 4Runner repair; it wasn’t an enormous amount of damage but the holidays have slowed everything down.
This is a classic GM rental/fleet-mobile, just like so many others in the past. According to Cox (which tracks sales/registrations) in any given month of 2023, more than half of Malibus were sold to fleets and, in some months, it was nearly 75%.
This is the only reason why GM kept it in production. Its MSRP on the retail market is essentially irrelevant. It’s just not intended to be competitive. And this is why it’s being axed.
Yep high fleet sales. I know my former employer used to buy hundreds every year thou they seemed to have shifted to ford escapes now. Lots in rental fleets but also lots being driven by company reps and sales people. Also lots of government sales. It’s a car that gets onto lots but mostly because of ordering bonuses or incentives. They will than sit at full price for a while and then when the floorplan is coming up sold cheaply to get it off the books.
I’ll give a polite counter to this article. First, I work at a Volvo and Mazda dealership and deliver new vehicles all over the southern California area. I’ve put a lot of miles on both brands. In this job, I end up in Uber/Lyft rides all the time and many of those are late model Honda’s or Toyota’s or Kia’s, etc. Me personally? I’ve owned several import brands (VW, two Kia’s, several used MB and Jags), but I normally drive a Chevy or Buick when they still made sedans. I’ve owned a 2021 Chevy Malibu before my current 2023 Chevy Bolt EV. I’d take them over any Mazda. So this is just to give some perspective from what I would call a wide view lens.
I absolutely loved my Malibu. The engine had plenty of power and it was well paired with that CVT (even though I don’t really like CVT’s). The car was super comfy, very quiet, well equipped and got me great MPG’s. For the entire time I owned it, I averaged 32.8 MPG in mixed driving. It gave me zero issues and was just a fantastic car. But I wanted to go back to EV and they don’t offer that in the Malibu or I would be driving one.
I mentioned above that I’m in a lot of Uber/Lyft cars and most of them are of the Asian or Korean brands. Anyone who tries to say they have better interiors than the Malibu is just plain false. I get way too much seat time where I have nothing to do, so I end up touching the materials and looking around. I hear the road noise most have and rattles. I pay attention to the dashes and door panels. I will say that I didn’t care for the cloth material on the dash and doors of the Malibu, but it’s certainly no worse than what these others use. To be honest, there isn’t a vehicles built today (for under 40 grand) that comes close to the interiors of the Buick’s from the 80’s and 90’s. All cars today have way too much hard plastics. None have carpeting on the bottom of the doors like they used to. They all skimp on materials and sound deadening. So would I give the Malibu I had the same interior grade as a 1992 Buick Park Avenue? No. But the same can be said about the Toyota’s of today over the Lexus of the 90’s.
Although not perfect, I feel the Malibu is ( and has been) a very good sedan that did exactly what it’s supposed to do and does it better than many. If going back to an ICE vehicle today, the Malibu would be one of the few on my short list.
I appreciate the polite response and I’m glad your liked your Malibu, Dan. I have no doubt that a ’21 Malibu will hold up just fine until traded in on a ’23, and that the front cabin is a nicer place than the rear seat of any number of Ubers. And your observations on the powertrain performance (minus the refinement issue), fuel efficiency, and low road noise mirror what I wrote in the review.
“Anyone who tries to say they have better interiors than the Malibu is just plain false”
This is where your response confuses me. I’ve been in a 2016 Mazda6, base model, in fact nearly bought one, and I am genuinely perplexed that you cannot see a quality difference between it and a Malibu. The Mazda easily had the highest-quality interior in the midsize segment those years. And if you are going to accuse me of being “just plain false”, I’d love for you to find me a picture of the kind of quality lapses in my 4th and 5th pictures in that Mazda, or even the cost-bitten 2016 Camry and Accord.
“To be honest, there isn’t a vehicles built today (for under 40 grand) that comes close to the interiors of the Buick’s from the 80’s and 90’s.”
Picture 6, the one with the open storage door showing the ugly flashing? That’s a 90s Buick. And I owned a 1990 Cutlass Ciera. We’re apparently using different standards for what interior quality means. Which is OK. Interesting, even. Maybe it would be a good article on Curbside: what, exactly, constitutes interior quality and how should it be judged?
It would be an interesting question as I think perceptions and expectations are all over the place. Some folks actually like hard plastics; for certain vehicles I am one of those people. On the other hand, as retired design and manufacturing engineer who’s spent a lot of time in molding and tooling shops in the US, Europe and Asia, I have zero tolerance for parting line mismatch, excess flash, sink and knit lines and flaws in the texture of molded plastic parts. The newest cars I have ridden in recently have been EV’s, and unlike some pundits I find the Model 3, Model S and especially Rivian interiors to be very nice (all American products 😀). I also think modern VW’s are excellent, more so than most mass-market or even near-luxury Japanese cars.
We need an interior fit & finish review series from you, dman. You can bring some badly needed objective to a highly subjective field.
Do you have any idea what caused that weird cone of plastic on the door panel picture above? Never seen anything like that. The cone bears the graining of the panel around it.
I wasn’t trying to call you a liar. I apologize if that’s how I made it sound. My point was that I have too much personal experience with many brands and I can’t agree with anyone saying the current Malibu is a lessor car.
As for Mazda? I really did like the Mazda 6 and thought the last couple years they were the nicest. However, there were many issues on Mazda 6 (all Mazda) interiors too. One of the worst, and I’ve seen this numerous times, was where the leather seats were shrinking/drying up and pulling apart at the seems. The leather was turning really hard and it just looked terrible. This was NOT on 8 or 10 year old cars. This was on 2 or 3 year old cars and I’ve seem it multiple times. The foam material hanging out from around the dashes by the front windshield. Center arm-rest tops that were broken and wouldn’t stay down. Dash materials that discolor easily (newest models) and more. So to say Mazda is at the top is just not true in my opinion from the many I’ve seen and been in. I have also been in several Uber/Lyft’s with Malibu’s. So I’ve been in and ridden in the back of them. Just not nearly as many as Toyota or Honda or Kia’s. I’ve ridden in the newer Malibu’s with way more miles than what my car had and they seemed to be holding up well or as well as average. My point in all that is to say that my personal experience with Malibu’s shows me it’s just as good as the rest. Yes, mine was purchased new and had new tires, so I didn’t have all the noise. In fact, I found it to be more quiet than most I’ve ridden in.
Lastly, when it comes to the interiors of the 90’s Buick for example, I wasn’t referring as much to the quality of fit and finish as you may be speaking. I was referring to the warmer and way more pleasant materials. I was talking about a more quiet cabin with more isolation from the outside. I was talking about materials that looked and felt higher quality over today’s cars.
As a side note: I also work with Volvo. They (IMO) may have some of the nicest interiors out there today. I will give Mazda credit for having nicer than average interiors too. However, in both brands, I can quickly point out rough edges and kind of sharp pieces.
No worries, Dan, I didn’t think you were genuinely calling me a liar, I should have been more careful in my response. I actually find our differences in perception on these issues interesting, because there are a variety of material aspects one could look at to judge “quality”. For instance, on that Cutlass Ciera, the panel fitments and tolerances seemed really loose and sloppy to me and the dash would bounce a bit over bumps…but most surfaces were padded and soft touch and the carpeting and seat fabrics so much thicker and nicer than now.
Interesting observations on the Mazdas. I’ll admit that I haven’t examined how well they age since I had been looking at ones only a few years old. Are you in a hot sunny climate or a colder one?
No worries. I agree in how we may look at (perception of) quality and a more luxury look/feel.
Mazda’s: I’m located in Los Angeles area. So yes it can be a warmer climate, but nothing like Phoenix or Palm Springs. The thing with the Mazda’s is the leather seat issue. Not all of them do it, but even ones that don’t do it still have a strange way of aging. Honestly, I think it’s just really cheap leather. But I’ve been in some where they are so dried and hardened, that the seams were literally pulling apart. Just awful looking and the seats were like sitting on rocks. On one Mazda 6, the guy was getting another Mazda 6 and I was taking his 3 year old lease back. When I saw the seats, I actually asked him if he knew why they were like that. They were so bad that I asked if his car had been in a flood. haha. He said no and that he thought it was just how leather seats got.
With two prominent “No smoking” stickers on the dash, why is the cigarette lighter still there? Strange. You’d think the rental company would’ve asked GM to delete it on their fleet order sheet.
Ah. That picture shows a 90’s Buick. Sorry, didn’t read the caption carefully.
My wife and I had a rental 2016 Malibu (first year of the latest generation) for our trip in August 2017 to see the solar eclipse in Wyoming and then travel around the state for a week, mostly on 2-lane roads, to ultimately visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks. We picked up the car in Denver and dropped it off in Billings, Montana, so quite a lot of miles were accumulated.
I was pleasantly surprised by the car. I believe it was an LT with the 1.5-liter engine. It definitely did not have the CVT, but rather a 7(?)-speed automatic. I remember this last detail, because downshifting manually on some of the steeper mountain downgrades worked quite well. The gas mileage was quite good according to the onboard computer (upper 30s as I recall). Handling and acceleration were more than acceptable, and I don’t remember it being noisy or thrashy. I also really liked the easy-to-use information display in the instrument cluster (trip odometer, mpg’s, tire pressure, coolant temperature, etc.)
But I’ve no doubt that GM did a lot of decontenting in the intervening 8 model years.
The CVT in the current Malibu is a blessing and a curse. On the positive, it’s very responsive and will get the engine into a strong part of the powerband very quickly, so the car is faster in instrumented testing than the geared automatic.
The downside is the fixed-rpm drone. I doubt this 1.5t is much harsher than a number of small fours. The same engine in the Terrain with a 9spd auto really didn’t draw much attention to itself.
Well I have direct experience here – we were given a loaner from this gen a few years ago, when our last Volt needed something under recall I think it was. I am a Chevy Guy, having had several Suburbans, a Tahoe, a ’22 6.2L Camaro, several IROCs/Z28s in my yoot, and even now a Z06 Vette and our ‘farm truck’ is a wonderfully reliable ’92 Cheyenne (stick). But neither my wife nor I liked that essentially new Malibu. It was the teeny engine, so maybe a 2.OT would have pleased me more, since I tend to be a ‘gimme the most power’ kinda fella. I don’t even recall WHY we didn’t like it, probably a mix of the issues given above. What’s funny is a year later we rented a midsize sedan for a trip to CO and my only demand at reservation time 2 weeks out was ‘please not a Malibu’. Of course you can guess what they had waiting for me come time to pick it up – A MALIBU lol. I said hey can you check the special notes section there on your screen? Ooopsy! They said well the only other thing we can come up with is a Sonata, which I happily took. It was ‘fine’ for the entire trip, better than a Malibu at least.
You mention Camrys – I am a Toyota lover as much as I am a Chevy fan, and I have a newish Camry, an older Camry, a Prius and a GX470 as my current Toyota Assortment. I actually look forward to driving any of them, they are just such excellent vehicles. Most are older than that Malibu so I think that says quite a lot.
My only comment in defense of the Malibu would be regarding the angled start button – it seems like the natural way to push it would be putting your right hand up there and then the angle would be perfect for your thumb to push it. Thinking back I am pretty sure that’s how I did it when we had that loaner for a week.
That’s an awkward way to push an ignition!
It should be directly facing the driver for a simple 90-degree approach with an index finger. The Malibu dash design doesn’t allow this. They should have channeled their inner Saab and put it on the console between the seats then.
I will die on this hill.
The police department in my city have a fleet of unmarked Malibu sedans. Sometimes I sign out pool cars and more often than not I’ll have detectives ask that I provided them with any vehicle except a Malibu. Most complaints center on how they ride and noise.
Looking at the picture of the interior I’m remind my 2010 Fusion is not that well finished inside either. The edge of the headliner at the top of the back window is now held back with two-sided tape (My wife’s suggestion) Panel gaps inside and outside are not what they should be. Still, its been a good car for us thus far.
I never realized this generation Malibu dates back eight model years! Where have I been?
Anywho…
I was rented this level Malibu – a 2019 or ’20 – from my car insurance as a result of my driving my own car the day after a snow storm, when I should not have been driving! An unlicensed driver opened the drivers door of his van directly in my path, gouging my passenger sheet metal, and chip-shotting the passenger sideview mirror assembly through the rear passenger door window, along with a bucket-load of window glass, into my back seat. The previous all occurred within one quarter of a second.
I drove the Bu home home, on my way to work, to check the tire pressures. All between 25-26 psi, AFTER driving 10 minutes local streets across town! I inflated them all to precisely 36 psi (door placard says 35), changed into my work clothes, and left the house for my mid-day 11am work shift.
My drive to work at the time was 10 minutes of local streets plus 10-15 minutes of the Merritt Parkway in lower Connecticut.
My first driving impressions, now that the tire pressure was squared away, wa that this generation Malibu was NOTHING like my GM smart lease 2005 Epsilon-gen Malibu.
The 2019-20 rental exhibited next to none of the weirdness(constant left pull, over-over-over-boosted, numbness, very little self centering) of that early GM foray into EPS (electric power steering).
GM must have learned their lessons, continuous improvement, etc. The steering was still light at parking, driveway speeds, but as soon as I turned the steering wheel right out of my driveway, I was impressed: the steering feel weighted right up, and felt more, well, CAR-like!
No pull or drift, afterall it was a year or less old car, acceleration adequate, quiet inside, etc. Brakes normal – this car had the auto-stop-start ignition feature, which transmitted through the cabin only a minimal shudder when leaving the traffic lights behind.
I can forgive substandard cabin upholstery and other appointments, but not steering that feels like a video game – as in, this Malibu’s elder 2005 predecessor.
The current Malibu rental exhibited little, if any of that. Plus, it felt more solidly put together than the 2003-2007 model.
The fact that I drove off in a rental car with tire pressures 10psi below spec unfortunately shows how little attention some car rental places pay to basic car maintenance. For every driver like myself, who bothered to check the tires, nine others would never have given it a thought: “it’s a rental car”, “tire pressure doesn’t matter” etc.
I drove it satisfactorily for almost one week, when my own car was ready at the body shop.
Yeah, my rental tires were filled to 27psi as well.
If this car had a class-competitive interior and bit more muffled engine note I wouldn’t have any substantive complaints. Seems like it’s 90% of the way there but GM couldn’t be bothered to pay for or pay attention to the remaining 10%.
As I recall, the tire pressures on our rental Malibu in 2017 for the Wyoming trip were within spec, except for the right front tire. On the road, we discovered that tire was losing air and found a small nail embedded in the tread.
We tried to get Enterprise to exchange the car in Casper, but they wanted us to get the tire repaired at a tire store. Not wanting to delay our trip plans, we kept the car and had to add air every morning to the affected tire.
It’s this sort of lowest common denominator thinking that led them to keep producing the Cierra up to ‘97 and the Chev Classic for an ungodly period… because it was selling so well to fleets. Unfortunately this has a dramatically corrosive effect on brand image and doubly so when the product is so poor. Pissing away brand equity for short term results. it’s practically a religion at the big 3
You know what they say about opinions, everybody has one, but I read the comments and the article and the first thing I see is the preconceived notions before most anyone here has touched a door handle, LOL. Reminds me of a GM forum I used to post on. One guy kept saying about a Cobalt, “Thrashy engine!”. Mine was whisper-smooth, where coworkers would comment on that. I finally got the guy to admit he’d never been in one. 🙂
In 2K miles in a ’24 Malibu, I did not notice a CVT drone, and the cabin was quiet. Oh well.
For looks, it doesn’t have the droopy mascara/is the taillight gasket falling out? look of Camrys of a couple or three years back, thankfully; I see that look didn’t last long at Toyota.
I’m a little reminded of one of the major car mags reviewing a ‘dustbuster’ GM minivan and commenting on the stupid looks of the high-mounted corner brake lights, then in a few months commenting positively on the same feature in a Volvo wagon. 🙂
There have been multiple GM cars I have tried to develop a relationship with, but they keep leaving me cold. Perhaps it is too many years of seeing how other companies do things on their cars.
Tell me – do GM cars still insist on turning on their white reverse lights when you lock or unlock the doors with the remote? On every other car, this is a signal that the car is in reverse. On GM cars it might mean that. Or it might mean that the owner is ambling towards the store and your courtesy of stopping to let them back out has been wasted. So not all the irritating stuff is about the driving.