11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
A Great Budget Family Car
Date of Review: Dec 3, 2007
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this car to any family - it's a great, safe, buy with lots of fun features for little money.
My wife and I needed to buy a new car with 4 doors, since we are expecting our first baby in early January, and we both only had 2 door cars. We test drove 8 different cars before narrowing down our choices to the 2008 Honda Accord or the 2008 Chevy Malibu.
We decided to purchase the LT1 Malibu (with power convenience package) over the LXP Accord for a few major reasons:
1) We had the GMS Employee Discount, which saved us 8% off the sticker price of the Malibu
2) Even though the Honda Accord may require less maintenance over time and will have a higher residual value after several years, we decided that saving money now is better than saving money later (NPV = net present value of money). With the GMS discount, the NPV was nearly a wash.
3) We really like the interior of the Malibu more than the Accord. The stereo / A/C dashboard buttons in the Accord are HUGE! They make the stereo / A/C console look like the focal part of the car's front interior. The Accord is missing several fun options that the Malibu has, like: ambient interior lighting, a more ergonomically friendly driver interface, OnStar, 3 months of free XM, a user-friendly stereo interface.
4) We were able to get Remote Start on the Malibu as an option package, rather than having to buy a much more expensive Honda Accord model.
5) The Honda Accord handled very tight on turns at slow speeds. We liked the way the Malibu handles better - it has a larger wheelbase and smoother / steadier ride. The Accord has more of a touchy / sporty handling feel to it.
6) Not much difference in acceleration - the Accord is slightly faster, but the Malibu has the lower gears set so that the Malibu is really quick from 0-30.
7) The Malibu has an INFO center on the dashboard, that shows tire pressure, external temperature, MPG, range, etc.
We get a lot of compliments on how good the new Malibu looks. It is really fun to drive, and does look very cool for a family car. It sure was cheap with the GMS discount - a real value. We bought the extended warranty for 7 years, and 84,000 miles. It comes with a better base warranty for powertrain than the Honda: 5 years and 100K miles, instead of only 60K miles. We hope that the Malibu turns out to hold up as good or better than the Accord, which has a reputation of being very reliable. We ultimately chose the Malibu because of all the extra little features that came with it, as opposed to being a lot more expensive and only available in the EX-L model of the Honda Accord.
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