I am MALIBU - hear me Roar!

First Impressions - 2008 Chevrolet Malibu

They say first impressions say a lot and it's so true. I was driving by the Chevrolet dealership on Sunday when I saw one of these 3rd generation front-drive Malibu's sitting in the parking lot. I knew I needed to take a look. I am the owner of a 2001 Malibu (1st gen) with over 150,000 miles on it and (I will admit) has been driven a little harder than the average owner would. Therefore, I wanted to see how far they have come in 2 generations.

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  The lines of this car don't scream "Rental Car". This car is designed to take on Accord and Camry, 2 of the leaders in the mid-size sedan segment for many years.
  


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  This is probably the most agressive Chevy in this line since the early 70's Nova. WHAT?!? And how many of you thought I was going to say "early 70's Chevelle". I'll explain my thinking at the end of this entry.



• The interior / dashboard received the most upgrades since my '01, though it's nice to see the ignition switch still in the dashboard instead of the steering column. We even get cool features like steering wheel controls. This photo was hard to get due to reflections but the interior of the '08's are 2-toned.

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  A window sticker was laying on the back seat. I forgot to look at the fuel economy part (boo hiss!) but I can safely tell you the price of this higher-line LTZ was over $28,000. A little bit of window shock since I paid around $9,200 for my '01 when it was only a year-and-a-half old (less than half the original price).

Synopsis: If this car can perform as well as it looks, then Chevy has a winner on its hands.

*Explanation on my coment on the 70's Nova. The front-drive Malibu's (introduced for '97) are not direct decendants of the 70's Chevelles. Those Chevelles gave way to the downsized and boxy Malibu in '78. They were phased out as the Celebrity took hold in '82. This was followed by 2 generations of Lumina's and now 2 generations of Impala's. The Impala is a direct decendant of the 70's Chevelle.

On the other hand, the 70's Nova stuck around until '80 when the line went front-drive and became the infamous Citation. This was dropped after '85 and thus a gap of a few years existed before the Corsica / Beretta appeared (they even had a Citation look to them). When they were dropped after '96, that's when the 1st generation front-drive Malibu appeared.