I drove a 2017 Malibu rental.
Looks OK from outside. Clean lines, although a bit saggy in the back for my taste. The wheels look good, and the lighting is sharp.
The interior is fairly solid. Rattling/vibration sounds were bearable, and mostly while stopped. The interior design is poor, and the layout leaves much to be desired. The waterfal doesn't appear to be designed for the driver to use at all. Controls are ambiguous. Pictures are worth a thousand questions. The seat went back a bit, then stopped a few inches shy of comfortable. The wrist rest on the door was annoying, because my arm was against the side of the door below the B pillar, and my elbow was jammed into the side of the car. The controls for the windows were a reach, as were the radio, climate control, start button, etc. I found the shift to be at an awkward angle--particularly when having to manually shift, as below. I also found the road view to be poor, but didn't feel comfortable putting my head any closer to the roof; also, the sides of the roof curve down, giving that claustrophobic effect. The steering wheel is annoyingly about an inch left of center, probably to accomodate the unnecessarily-large waterfall. The headliner and visors appear to have a quality covering, and much of the rest of the interior is soft or cloth-covered. Good visibility through the side mirrors, but the mirror controls are a bit clunky. I found the center console to be mostly decorative; I prefer function. The overhead console is not reachable or usable by the driver while driving. Totally not intuitive.
From sitting in the car, the view is claustrophobic. The B pillar is in my line of view. I'm sitting so far back in the car, I may as well be in the back seat. The slit of the windshield far ahead is like the light at the end of the tunnel. The roof occupies a large part of my view. The angle of the A pillar serves to cause a large blind spot. While the windshield itself is large, it is raked at such an angle that you're far back from the dash. This wastes several feet of space, and gives the perception of riding in the tail seat in an airplane. I think this would tend to make a driver reactive, rather than proactive, because they wouldn't feel as much a part of the action on the road ahead of them. In reality, since there is so much of the car in front of them, they should be more aware of what's in front of them.
The decorative rearview mirror makes cars appear twice their actual height, as well as distorting distance. There is an ”auto stop” ”feature” that turns off the motor. When you let off the brake, the motor is started, and the car lurches into gear. I found this very disturbing in stop-and-go traffic. This can also cause a dead battery issue.
The turn signal stalk is on the left, and the wiper stalk is on the left. They are angled high, which places them at an awkward position for usage. I think this dual-stalk idea is bad, because it forces me to change driving hands. The stalks' high position also places them at such an angle that your hand must leave the wheel. Worse yet, the function is at a bad viewing and usage position.
The seats are like collapsable theatre seats, in that they suck you into the seat. They didn't appear to be designed for anyone with an athletic butt or big legs. My legs were forced together, because the sides of the seat are too high, and the center too low. The sides of the seat don't curve enough.
If you press the silver button on the outside handle, the doors lock. Pressing them again unlocks the passenger doors, but not the driver's door. So, you can lock yourself out from the driver's door, while outside the vehicle. Interesting that it conveniently forgets that the key fob is in the car, but reminds you when you get back in and while you're driving. Pulling on the inside door handle both unlocks and opens the door, which is nice, but feels oddly, for some reason. Perhaps because the door feels so light. Almost effortless to open.
Throttle response is delayed and anemic. Almost as if it's Napoleon Dynamite (”GOSH!”). It may be hunting for a gear, or waiting to be sure the driver really wanted it to exert itself more. The good thing is that the lack of power cuts down on torque steer. The throttle pedal is metal. No rubber pad. My foot did not slip, but I suspect a hard-soled shoe would--particularly when wet. In the parking lot, the car feels peppy; you'll only notice the lack of power when trying to accelerate on ramps, when starting at intersections, when passing, and when climbing hills. In fact, on single-lane roads, passing must be planned, in the face of oncoming traffic. I had to resort to manual shifting to be in the correct gear. I could almost swear the transmission upshifts when I want to pass. The most frequent sound I heard when stepping on the throttle was what sounded like lugging the engine. The passing was about 60MPH, which is as close to a power band as this car has. Once the car gets rolling, the pep is until maybe 15MPH, then it slowly gathers speed. I noticed the odd times power comes on, previously, with an Impala. The volume control under the right foot seems to have some influence on the throttle. The car briefly wakes up about 60MPH; otherwise, it is a total slug. When trying to accelerate, I found my foot was almost always on the floor, waiting for something to happen. Waiting is the operative word.
Steering isn't bad, except for a notice that keeps advising you that steering assistance is reduced and to drive carefully. The steering feel is far too soft. This issue is very noticeable when trying to counteract the front-wheel drive effect.
Once you get up to speed, the feel is slower than the speedometer indicates (80 feels like 70)
The cruise control wanders. Setting it at 70 means about a 15MPH variance. Twice, it fell off cruise.
Cornering is not bad, in terms of behavior, but the feel left me with a lack of confidence. The back end eventually comes around, without warning. The body roll is acceptable, as are the lengths of the control arms. The tires grip well, and staying in the throttle does help cornering--just take the traction control off. The car does appear to struggle a bit with the different speeds of the front wheels in turns, and I found that this upsets the balance. I found that repeated alternate turns at speed seem to upset the vehicle. I had to back off a bit, partly because of that, and partly because there was a lot of wheel motion required. I should have checked the turns of the wheel, stop to stop.
The brakes are very sensitive, but suffer extreme fade. For me, the brakes are too sensitive for bad weather. I locked them up quite a bit in the wet and ice. The anti-lock needs to trigger a bit too easily. When skidding to a stop, the vehicle does not stop straight. Perhaps the anti-lock is for a vehicle of a different weight, but the solenoids don't seem to be balanced. I had a hard time modulating the brakes for my comfort level of control. I understand that you're supposed to step on these brakes harder and not pump, but there needs to be something between control and skid. Perhaps the anti-lock should kick in sooner.
Economy was a terrible 17.1MPG.
Rather than being helpful, the various gadgets are distracting. The NAV center angle is not adjustable, and is basically useless, due to the glare and poor viewing angles. I actually had to lean forward to read it. When the carputer is off, it shows a digital clock in a tiny font as far from the driver as possible, directly where the sun shines. I think that screen must double as a solar panel.
If you have the misfortune to hit a bump, it's a jarring experience, and the sounds of destruction around you are fear-inspiring.
The engine noise isn't bad inside, but the blinkers are very loud. I wish the noisy blinker relay was on the same side of the car as the blinkers, somewhere in the instrument cluster area. The sound and the indicator seem to have no relation to each other.
The transmission is apparently a 6-speed, and always in the wrong gear. When trying to accelerate, it's in a high gear, but you can shift to L, then press the minus to get to the correct gear. In D, if you accelerate, then let off the throttle after accelerating, the transmission fails to downshift for 30 seconds or more, with elevated RPMs. I finally just manually shifted the car.
When you get to the pump, you discover that the filler is on the wrong side, meaning you must walk around the car. To open the lid, press on the lid, one side or the other, until it opens.
The car has both a digital and an analog speedometer. I'm not sure which one to believe, because they seem to have different opinions on vehicle speed. They only agree while driving at a constant speed.
While driving forward around 55MPH, the backup camera turned on and had some sort of warning.
The driver information center sometimes decides it should remind you that the keys are in the car, complete with two chirps from the horn. Other drivers do not seem to appreciate this. In fact, if there was a way to turn off all the annoying little audible and visual alerts, I'm sure the driving experience would be greatly improved. When I tried to accelerate, it'd pop up things about economy. It pops up notices about the weather, the temperature, etc. Think those annoying alerts that pop up when you're trying to watch TV--only they are distractions to the driver. During rush hour today, it decided to have an infomercial. Something that started off with, ”did you know this car is equipped with...” I fiddled with the steering wheel controls, which are cheap rubber on the steering (only useful while not driving), and the DIC crashed. Lots of errors. How reassuring. The car went into ”limp mode”, which made it run worse than ever. I pulled over and shut it off. Now it has service codes. Clearly, the DIC thinks it's in control. It always has some reason or other why it won't do what I want to do. This constant hindrance is annoying. If the car were mine, the DIC would have been gone after about 5 minutes.
The traction control is not improved from previous years. Acceptable in dry weather, but scary when wet. The tires appear to swap back and forth for traction, resulting in the car pulling from side to side. Unfortunately, these are the steering wheels also. The only time traction control was a benefit was going up an icy hill in a parking lot. It was making slow progress. I floored the pedal, and the car crept forward. Unfortunately, the transmission started smoking, and apparently overheated. The tires barely slipped, though. I'm guessing that the traction control is not right for this particular car. Previously, when trying power turns in slick conditions, I had a hard time controlling the front end through turns if the traction control was on, and I was on the throttle.
In case you're wondering, when the engine overheats, the driver information center changes to yellow, then red. I turned the engine off, but the electric fan did not run, and the engine continued to get hotter.
I really think that the font size of the words in the driver information center should be larger. I can read them, but for a fast glance while driving larger is better. For comparison, the font is much smaller than the numbers on the Fiero speedometer.
I didn't test power slides with the e-brake.
The wind and tire noises are acceptibly low-decibal.
The back end does seem to have enough weight that it doesn't catch air over bumps. Actually, it tracked well.
I'd like the steering wheel to be a bit greater in diameter. I felt like I was angling my arms in too much.
The brake pedal is nice, in that it doesn't go to one side when you step on it.
There isn't a lot of foot room under the dash. My right toe kept hitting something.
The steering column didn't get in the way of my knees.
The prominent vertical heat strips in the middle of the rear window are annoying.
I'm curious about the visibility of the rear lights in bad weather. I suspect this may be an issue.
Overall, the car seemed to have lots of bells and whistles that were not only useless but also problematic. Function seemed not to have been a primary consideration.
Bottom line, the car did eventually get me where I was going, but the ride was not comfortable or pleasant. I'm not sure for whom the car was designed, but clearly not me. Returned.
Is this the trend, for new cars?
Edited for remaining items.
