Not long ago my beloved BRZ fell victim to a negligent driver and spent some time in the body shop. My insurance loaner turned out to be a 2024 Chevy Malibu.
Having the car for a couple weeks is a great opportunity to do a review, so lets take a look at the interior and exterior design, features, driving impressions, and how it compares to competitors.
Design and Features
Any impression of a car starts as you walk up and climb inside, so we’ll start with design and features.
Exterior Design
Unfortunately, most of my time with the Malibu was very rainy, so it wasn’t possible to get many good pictures of the car.
Overall, the design is simple and flowing with an attractive silhouette. The front and back end are parts-bin Chevrolet with the same styling theme you can find on many other Chevrolets. This car has the 1LT trim package with the nicer 19 inch wheels which look pretty good.
The side profile reminds me of similar designs found on the Audi A5/S5 Sportback or a BMW 4 series Gran Coupe and Kia Stinger. It looks great, but like in the Audi, BMW and Kia it also reduces head room for back seat passengers. Unlike those cars though, Chevrolet’s approach also limits rear visibility.
Interior
Weather prevented good interior pictures, and since this is a rental car, I also spared you from seeing the stained fabric seats.
GM struggles with interior design and execution more than other automakers, and this Malibu is no different. I’ll start positive and then move to the negatives.
Positives
- The switch gear is substantial and feels like it will hold up in the long run. In some cars like Hyundai and Kia, the plastics on switches and buttons feel brittle. Even the rotary knobs for the cabin temperature were stout and didn’t wiggle slightly like some other makes.
- While we are the topic of buttons… It has buttons; lots of them. All the essential functions to operate the car like HVAC, audio volume, and disabling the auto start/stop. So many cars these days align these functions to touch screens which leads to distracted driving. I really appreciate all the physical buttons in this car. Granted, this is because production of this generation started in 2016 and GM has essentially done nothing with it since.
- The infotainment screen is crisp, clear, and the interface is simple. Overall, the system is easy to navigate, but used Android Auto and Car Play almost exclusively and accessed it very little. The touch screen was responsive with no noticeable lag.
- The seats were comfortable for both in-town and long drives. I prefer a seat with more bolstering and firmer padding, but even after 7 straight hours on the road I didn’t have any back pain or a sore butt.
- Backseats are comfortable and there is plenty of leg room for all passengers of average size.
- I really liked the little cubby directly below HVAC controls and in front of the shift lever. The USB ports are there anda small, flat area covered with soft rubber, has plenty of room for both my phone and my sunglasses.
- Trunk space is really quite good. Official specs lists the trunk space at 15.7 cubic feet, but it honestly looked and felt much larger. It easily swallowed all our luggage and other items needed for a visit with out of town family. The trunk itself has a pretty wide and low opening, but the bottom of the trunk is deep and well below the opening. This could lead to problems lifting out heavy objects for people with physical limitations. A hatchback with a trunk from similar cars like BMW, Audi, or Kia would be cavernous and allow designers to both raise the floor for easier access and lower the trunk line for better visibility.
Negatives
- Material choices. The switchgear are the only quality pieces of the interior. The fabric on the seats is thin, feels really cheap, and seems to stain easily. I wouldn’t count on the material holding up well over time. Also note the panel directly above the glovebox and the small one just to the left of the gauge cluster. The fabric on those surfaces is an even cheaper material than the seats. I can’t imagine how anyone thought that was a good idea. It’s ugly and makes an already cheap interior look even cheaper. The rest of the plastics are hard and have a very cheap feel.
- The gauge cluster is awkwardly angled downward! No matter how you position the seat, the gauges are always looking away and it never feels natural. I drove the car with the seat as low as it will go and the gauges were still pointing away. The whole cluster seemed to have a very cramped look to it as well. This is likely because of Chevy’s parts sharing. The entire gauge cluster is likely either a standard GM parts bin piece or one designed for a much smaller vehicle and re-used in the Malibu. Regardless, it doesn’t work and seems like an afterthought.
- The navigation screen has the opposite problem of the gauge cluster and it leans back quite a bit to almost match the angle of the dash. In any well-lit environment it leads to issues with reflections and light washing out the screen making it unusable. Evenings and nights are really the only time the screen is fully usable. The design makes no sense since it’s a separate part stuck to the dash. Chevrolet could very easily push the base of the screen in and given it a more vertical orientation and still allow easy access.
Features
There isn’t much to talk about regarding features. It doesn’t come with lots of tech or safety, but does include most of the necessities. The Malibu has common safety features found on other sedans today like dynamic cruise control and lane keep assist. Car Play and Android Auto are wireless which is standard for most cars today, but the convenience it offers is worth mentioning. The LT trim package in this car also included navigation, but phone mirroring makes the option redundant and unneeded.
Seating is a head-scratcher. On one hand, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Malibu equipped with heated cloth seats which were appreciated in the cold damp weather. Many lower cost cars only give you heated seats with the top trim package and requires leather seats. On the other hand, only the driver seat was power adjustable. GM does this with many vehicles and I don’t get it. If you’re going to offer a power driver seat and heat both front passenger seats, there is no reason for the passenger front seat to not have power adjustment.
Despite a respectable list of features, one noticeable oversight for a car built in 2024 is LED headlights. They are only available on the highest trim level. This is another another head-scratcher considering the LED daytime running markers already on the front of the car. The mixture of LED and halogen lighting just looks strange and screams cost cutting. The halogen projector beam headlights are terrible. Light output is well below other similar cars with halogen headlights I’ve driven over the years, to the point of being unsafe in poor weather conditions and barely usable in normal dark conditions.
Mechanical Info and Driving Impressions
A week of commuting time coupled with a 900-mile road trip allowed me to become pretty familiar with how the Malibu drove.
Mechanical stats
The car is only available with a single engine: a 1.5L turbo four cylinder unit driving the front wheels via a CVT. The engine is rated at 163 HP at 5700 RPM and 184 lb-ft of torque at 2500 to 3000 RPM. Fuel economy is officially rated at 28 MPG city, 36 MPG on the highway, and a combined rating of 31 MPG. Other mechanicals like disc brakes and MacPherson struts up front and rear multi-link suspension are unremarkable for any modern sedan.
Driving Impressions
At this point I’m sure everyone is saying, “Enough with the details, how does it drive?” The short answer is, not terrible.
Anyone buying a Malibu isn’t looking for a performance car. It won’t pin you to the seet with blistering acceleration and it won’t develop face-stretching g-force loads in the corners. The car simply gets you from one point on a map to another with a drama-free experience that’s forgettable.
Powertrain
If you look at just the the specs, two items stand out and would give anyone pause: a small low power engine and the CVT. In most cases those two things together make a mid-sized car unable to get out of it’s own way. To GM’s credit, this formula works with the higher torque being the hero. I freely admit to hating CVT’s. They are rarely any good and those from Nissan and Ford are truly terrible in my experience. The CVT in this Malibu is the smoothness and most seamless one I’ve ever driven. It doesn’t hunt for the rate ratio and it’s very responsive with none of the delay or rubber-band feeling typically felt in a CVT.
There is a point in the steeper hills along our road trip route which can easily catch a traditional transmission off guard. A steep climb with a sweeping turn and moderate traffic means you often must slip into an opening in traffic to make a pass slower traffic struggling to make the climb. I was worried about what would happen at this point, but the Malibu got us through this stretch with ease and the CVT kept engine right in the powerband. Other automakers should take note. Through it all the engine seemed to smoothly run along almost unnoticeable.
Gas Mileage
Observed fuel economy matched the predicted numbers. We typically make the same 900 mile trip in an SUV which gets around 28 MPG on premium gas. Being able to make the same trip in a car getting 36 to on regular gas was a nice money saving experience. The 16 gallon fuel tank means you can go a very long way between fill-ups.
Steering and suspension
The handling is competent, but a little on the soft side. In urban environments where roads are not in the best shape, the softer suspension is appreciated. At high speeds on the highway I prefer more dampening from the shocks to control body motion. Overall, the ride is smooth and comfortable and you can easily saw though lots of drama-free miles.
Steering is numb like any electronic power steering system these days, but I also found it has a slow steering ratio which means larger than expected movements of the steering wheel in any maneuver.
Around 2016 or 2017, I drove a similar Malibu right after this generation entered production. I remember that car having tight direct steering and a good suspension setup. It’s interesting to now drive this car at the end of its production life and see the decline. It’s a shame Chevrolet didn’t leave the steering and suspension alone.
Noise and comfort
Overall the interior is fairly quiet with little to no wind noise coming into the cabin. Road noise is a bit loud and even louder on concrete road surfaces. A mismatched set of no-name brand tires mounted by the rental car company likely contributed to some of this road noise, but I doubt a set of proper tires would reduce noise levels to match it’s competitors.
Competitor Comparisons
If you don’t compare the Malibu to any other mid-sized sedan on the market, it appears to be a fairly competent car. Things start to fall a part when you look at other options on the market today.
Chevrolet priced the 2024 Malibu 1LT at $29,195 and the 2025 at $28,100, which is overpriced. The price puts it right with market leaders like the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Hyundai Sonata, Kia K5, and Nissan Altima. In every case, those competitors offer more powerful engines. Some even offer a couple powertrain choices to include a hybrid. Each one of those sedans has seen a revision at least once (and some twice) while the Malibu limps along essentially unchanged after nine years. Every one offers better interiors, more features, a more modern design, and better driving experience. The Malibu simply isn’t competitive with other new cars on the market today.
On the used market the Malibu isn’t competitive either. Every one of the above mentioned cars for a comparable year would be a better choice. If you start to add in cars no longer made and stick with a US automaker, the Ford Fusion (discontinued in 2020) is a better choice as well.
Final Thoughts
Chevrolet is keeping the Malibu on life support as their only sedan and their only passenger car outside the Corvette. It’s obvious they gave up on it years ago. I wonder if senior leadership at GM and Chevrolet even remember the car is in production.
Overall the car is somewhere between adequate and mediocre when viewed as an overall package. It isn’t something you’d hate to drive, but certainly not something you’d look forward to. You’ll also likely not remember anything specific about your time behind the wheel.
This leads me to one last philosophical thought. The market for sedans has been shrinking for years. The market for sedans from the US automakers has imploded. Dodge and Chrystler have ended production of the Charger and 300. Ford’s Fusion, Taurus, and Focus are long gone. Each one of those automakers ended production because of slow sales and blamed customers shifting preference to SUV’s. If that was completely true, the Europeans, Japanese, and Korean automakers wouldn’t be selling a healthy number of sedans to this day.
I’ll go out on a limb and say the death of the sedans from US automakers is they simply gave up on them them like Chevy has the Malibu. Cars like the 200, Malibu, and Fusion always struggled to compete, and rather than put in the effort to make a viable product, they switched they attention SUV’s and trucks which drive a higher profit margin. The easy choice for the consumer was to look elsewhere and the death of US made passenger cars became a self-fulfilling prophecy. At least Dodge and Ford knew when to pull the plug on their cars. Chevy continues production of a poor product consumers have long forgotten and is relegated to commercial fleets.