Chevy got this one right.

SUMMARY: I have owned the car for a month now. I have the LT with every bell and whistle (XM, OnStar, 6 CD IN DASH just to name a few). The car has leather appointed seats (this means that the edges are one type of leather, and the actual seating surface is suede leather). This seat design is excellent and extremely comfortable. The engine is great. I can keep up with most anyone on the road, and can zip into an opening in traffic without a worry. The mileage is more than adequate. The interior is quite quite even at high speeds. The temperature is based on a single set point for the whole car that adjusts with a digital readout. The rearview mirror has "autodim", which quite honestly I haven't even noticed. The OnStar is actually quite cool. You get 30 minutes of phone time included, and if I were extremely rich, it would be great to use that as a phone while driving. The reality is that I will only use their "safe and sound" plan, which is a little pricey after the first year (~17 a month), but one bad accident, and no price is too much. Another very nice touch is the remote start, which I have found can be done quite far away from the car.

SOME MORE SPECIFICS:

I am not a "car-guy" by any stretch of the imagination, but hopefully this will help.

ENGINE / TRANSMISSION PERFORMANCE: The 200HP 6 cylinder has shown sufficient power to grab the openings in traffic or quickly pass someone on the highway without any worries whatsoever. I can be travelling at 70mph, hit the gas and get up to 85 to pass someone readily. I have hit 100 just to see, and felt like I could have gone faster, but I generally don't drive THAT fast. The car was is extremely quiet inside even at highway speeds.

The car shifts are incredibly smooth, and the car seems to pick the right gear to get the appropriate amount of power when passing on the highway. No lerching whatsoever. One thing I also have been very impressed with is the smoothness of the cruise control. On the Grand Prix I traded in, I had to subtract a couple of miles per hour whenever I wanted to use the cruise control because the car would add a couple of mph as soon as I started it. With this Malibu, there is no adjustment necessary.

The car also comes with a manual shifter (thumb controlled) that goes into effect when you put the car in Low. I have tried it a couple of times and it works fine, however, I don't see myself using this too much.

STEERING: The only comment I have on the steering is that I feel no problems. When I was reading reviews, one of the recurring themes was "We really don't have any problems with the car, but since we need to say something, the steering is a little TOO responsive". I don't sense any issue one way or the other. For a car enthusiast, it might be an issue, but for me, I turn the wheel and the car follows.

BRAKING: One report I read said that car had a little bit longer braking distance than they would have liked, but again, I don't see any problem. Now, I haven't had to test this out in a serious situation, but they seem fine. I did test the ABS feature on my side street to see if I would get some tire screech, but the car stopped hard and without any screech each time.

INTERIOR: I am 6' 3", and I fit in no problem. I do put the front seat all the way back, but I have also driven with it more forward, and was plenty comfortable. I don't think someone my size could sit directly behind me and have both of us luxuriously comfortable, however, I have had 4 adults in the car with no issues.

The controls are easy to reach and totally logical. As I have the LT, all of the Cruise control (obviously) and radio controls are on the steering wheel face, but even if the radio controls weren't there, the radio is easily reachable. The radio has autovolume and the ability to search for differnt types of FM stations.

The display shows the temperature outside the car. I kinda wish that they had also added a compass.

SEATS: The seats, as stated above, are leather appointed and very comfortable. The front buckets feel like they wrap around you, and there is an adjustable lumbar support. I can't really speak to the back seats, but my few passengers have said that they were comfortable when they sat there. Both front seats are heated with 2 different heat levels. Seeing as how I live in Florida, this won't be used often, but they do work quickly, and my wife even put them to actual use one morning and was very pleased.

MILEAGE: The last tank I just filled up on I got a little bit over 27 mpg. I drive mostly highway miles, but there is enough back roads between the highway and work/home, that I would put the mileage at 75% hwy and 25% stop/go. Chevy claims 32 hwy, so I am hoping that this may go up a little, but it is still better than I was getting with the Grand Prix. I am also fairly certain that if I never went over 70 that this would improve as well.

GENERAL RIDE: All of the reviews, even one of my friends who is definitely a car-guy, rave about the Epsilon platform that this car is built on. I feel as though the car rides great. It takes speed bumps with a single bounce which feels better than my old Grand Prix did, and I guess it feels stiffer. Bottom line is that it feels great when I am driving it.

TRUNK/INTERIOR STORAGE: I haven't had to challenge its storage capacity yet, but it appears very roomy. The rear-seats and the front seat fold flat, so I anticipate that I could store a lot of stuff if I need to. Our other car is a minivan, so this wasn't a selling point. I am sure that I could fit multiple golf bags in the trunk with no issue, so as far as that goes I am happy. There is a middle compartment between the front seats which has plenty of room, as well as a second car lighter charger (the first one is where one would expect it to be on the front dash). There are 2 cup holders, and a couple of other little slots and holder for the driver (even a nice little work badge shaped one that I didn't even see for the first couple of weeks). There is what I believe to be a useless plastic clip on the driver's side of the windshield that I almost broke the first day because I thought it was something the dealer left on. I'm not sure what Chevy was thinking with this, but I just ignore it now.

STYLE/ASTHETICS: To me its exterior is generic looking that neither wows or dissapoints. It certainly doesn't stick out in the crowd in terms of exterior styling. Since I don't care to draw attention to my car this is not an issue. The interior has a mix of plastic and wood that is pleasant to look at. The cheapest part to me is the sun visor that feel flimsy, but they do have extenders, so they do their job (both the driver and passenger have lighted mirrors as well). To date there are not rattles or squeaks that would imply shoddy workmanship.

SUNROOF: This has a tilting sun-roof that does a one-touch to vent, one touch to open, but needs the button to be held the whole time to close. In addition, prior to adding a windsheild to the front of the sunroof opening, it was very noisy, especially at highway speeds. This part of the car could certainly have been designed a little better.

FINAL WORD: I was looking for a comfortable way to get to work and back, with enough bells and whistles so I wouldn't spend the next few years feeling I had shorted myself. I spend almost 2 hours a day in the car, so it had to be enjoyable. At the same time I needed decent mileage. This car has exceeded the first requirement and met the second. I can't imagine that I could have gotten any other car with all of the features that I got for nearly the same price. With trade-in, 3400 GM dollars and factory rebate, I drove out of the for just under 20K, and I have every option available on the car.