Meet The New 'Bu, Same As The Old 'Bu

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

The wraps have finally been taken off from the refreshed 2014 Chevrolet Malibu, and it…looks pretty much the same as the last one, though GM assures us that there have been real changes made.

Rear seat passengers get an extra 1.25 inches of knee room thanks to shorter bolsters, redesigned front seat backs and new cushioning for that places your backside deeper in the seat.

On the powertrain front, the base 2.5L engine has been revised, with a stop-start system adding 1 mpg all-around, or 23/35 mpg city/highway. Output is 196 horsepower and 186 pound-feet of torque, while the 2.0T gets a 14 percent bump in torque to 295 lb-ft (horsepower is unchanged at 259). Blind spot monitoring and cross-traffic alert are also part of the package.




Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 145 comments
  • Wodehouse Wodehouse on Jun 01, 2013

    The cut of 5+ inches of wheelbase compared to the previous (and still great looking) generation Malibu is what really spoiled this new Malibu's looks. I know it was done to not overlap the new Impala/XTS. Those two would actually look better with 4 or 5 more inches of wheelbase. The new face fixes the sad sack look of the 2013 model, though.

    • See 1 previous
    • Shaker Shaker on Jun 04, 2013

      Previous Malibu had 112" wheelbase, 2013 is 108". My 2008 Elantra had a 104" wheelbase, so it's a step up for me.

  • Dhathewa Dhathewa on Jun 03, 2013

    GM just ran its montly Sales and Production conference call. They declined, twice, to discuss the price of the 2014 Malibu. If eAssist becomes standard, as seems the case, one would expect a significant bump in the base Malibu price. eAssist has traditionally been priced up towards Camry hybrid territory, without the corresponding benefit.

  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
Next