[Nando779]

Hello all,

I am currently looking to buy a used 08 and up Chevy Malibu. A couple of years ago I rented an 09 LT (I think) with the V6 and I really enjoyed how it drove on the highway and thought it had nice passing power.
I am currently the owner a 03 BMW 325CI which has been a pretty good car with decent power and drives beautifullly. However, it is a coupe and I am in need of a 4 door since my wife had our first child .

I am a DIY kind of guy and have done many large and small projects on my bimmer and all the maintenance with the help of a forum called bimmerfest.com. It is a very tight forum and has literally saved me thousands. Even though my car is definitaly not the easiest car to work, it has made me WAY more comfortable working on other cars including my wife's Hyundai Accent which is a cake walk compared to the E46.

Sorry for the long introduction but what I am wondering is if there is anyone that would like to share any info on the gen 7 Maulibu for a potential buyer. The weak points the gen 7 Malibu might have, what trim is the most preffered (LT, LTZ...??), is the Malibu a pretty straight forward car to work on or any thoughts at all on the Malibu?

 

[Silver LTZ]

Your best bet is to search. All the Malibus positives and negatives have been gone over in here.

 

[DrivenDaily]

Like Silver says, use the Forum Search feature to find a lot of comments, pro and con, that can guide you.

As far as trim levels go, I had an '09 2LT and now have an '11 LTZ. The only thing I wish I could change is to swap out the automatic climate control for the manual one. This ACC never chooses right. It was 52 degrees the other day and I had it set for 69. It turned the freakin' AC on! I had to manually turn it off and then run the temp up to 74 before it finally (and slowly) switched over to heat. As I moved it lower I was able to get to 70 and keep the heat, but at 69 it went back over to cold air. But by then the outside temp had changed - to 48! This ACC makes no sense at all.

The rest of the car is a delight (for the most part). I really appreciate the heated mirrors and the heated seats. My 2LT didn't have the heated mirrors but it had heated seats. Real nice! Both had/have the sunroof. Both experienced rattles when the shade is open, mostly when the sunroof is fully open.

 

[Whiteboy]

Hey man we just bought our first 08 Malibu about 3 1/2 weeks ago , We got the car from a local dealer Ive been using for about 15 yrs, It has 50,000 miles they were asking 18,900 but after some nit picking beating up my sales man & getting the most out of our trade is I ended up walking out the door with a 3yr bumper to bumper warranty whole package deal for $12,200 not to bad. Shop around man and dont be afraid to wheel & deal dont settle for what there offering beat them up. This was a one owner car she was around 50-60 yrs old I think & was a drug rep the car still smells brand new & was very well taken care of. Good luck in your search.

 

[Nando779]

Thanks for all the responses and coming from a tight forum like bimmerfest I should have used the search feature hehe. I guess I got lazy I did go through some threads with the pros and cons and briefly visited the DIY section. It seems like any car, the Malibu has it's issues. For instance my current car (E46) the BIG weakpoints are the cooling system, CCV, window regulators and vanos seals. I will have to do more searching to figure out what the big weakpoints for the Chevy Malibu.

From what I have read, the Malibu doesn't look too bad to work on as far as maintenance items go. I am currently leaning towards the LT trim, hopefully with a V6. If I can find an LTZ in my price range I will go for it. The cheapest I have seen one around here was 19k for an 08 .

BTW have you guys ever thought of putting together a wiki for the generation 7 Malibu? Here is an what the E46 guys at bimmerfest did: http://www.bimmerfest.com/wiki/index.php?title=BMW_E46 So instead of telling all the new members to search, we tell them to read the wiki.

 

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

Dear DrivenDaily,

I read your post about your automatic climate control. I am sorry that you are not happy with that option on your Malibu. What has your tech had to say about that? I am curious if any of the techs have discussed that this was normal or not.

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service

 

[Malo83]

Good idea to stick with the V6, LTZ if you can find a good one

 

[DrivenDaily]

Michelle,
I haven't spoken with a tech or service writer about this. I just figure it's a design issue and nothing can be done. But your comment gives me an idea: I'll talk to a dealer service person and see if mine might be experiencing an issue that has a fix.

Thank you for replying!

 

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

DrivenDaily,

You are very welcome. I am glad the my post was able to assist you with an idea of possibly getting this taken care of for you.

I hope that you are having a good Wednesday!

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service

 

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

Nando779,

I would agree with SilverLTZ and DrivenDaily. However, I also recommend test driving the vehicles too. I realize that more than likely you are going to do this, but this is my favorite way of finding out if a vehicle is what I like. The vehicle can look great, but if it doesn't handle the way that I like it to or if I don't feel comfortable sitting in the vehicle and the way that it wraps around me then I know that it is not for me and on to the next vehicle of interest.

The members of this forum are full of knowledge and seem to really like to assist with technical information throughout the threads.

Michelle, Chevrolet Customer Service

 

[budman65]

Hello all,

I am currently looking to buy a used 08 and up Chevy Malibu. A couple of years ago I rented an 09 LT (I think) with the V6 and I really enjoyed how it drove on the highway and thought it had nice passing power.
I am currently the owner a 03 BMW 325CI which has been a pretty good car with decent power and drives beautifullly. However, it is a coupe and I am in need of a 4 door since my wife had our first child .

I am a DIY kind of guy and have done many large and small projects on my bimmer and all the maintenance with the help of a forum called bimmerfest.com. It is a very tight forum and has literally saved me thousands. Even though my car is definitaly not the easiest car to work, it has made me WAY more comfortable working on other cars including my wife's Hyundai Accent which is a cake walk compared to the E46.

Sorry for the long introduction but what I am wondering is if there is anyone that would like to share any info on the gen 7 Maulibu for a potential buyer. The weak points the gen 7 Malibu might have, what trim is the most preffered (LT, LTZ...??), is the Malibu a pretty straight forward car to work on or any thoughts at all on the Malibu?

I've been considering selling my Bu for a truck. Interested in a black granite metallic 2LT?