QOTD: Will You Miss the Chevrolet Malibu?
It might surprise you that the Chevrolet Malibu is still in production, but according to a The Detroit News report I found via Autoblog, the venerable mid-size sedan will finish rolling off assembly lines in November.
You may remember that GM has been slowly exiting the four-door sedan business for a while -- and the Malibu's cancellation is part of that. Personally, I think this is silly -- while we may live in a crossover-crazed country, there is still a sedan market, albeit a shrunken one. I understand that some of this is my pro-sedan bias showing, and I know the bean counters in Detroit have a better sense of whether the cost of production is justified by sales than I do.
Then again, the Malibu was Chevy's third-best selling vehicle in 2023. So maybe us keyboard warriors are on to something.
Yes, some of those sales were almost certainly to fleets, but still.
The Malibu was far from the best in the segment, but it wasn't terrible, either. I don't look askance at anyone who plunks down payments on one, even if I would advise any mid-size sedan shopper to look at the Accord and Camry first. The Malibu wouldn't even be the third choice, but again, you could do worse.
Maybe it's just sentimentality of the long-ago diluted Malibu name. But I might miss the darling of the rental-car lot, at least a little bit.
Will you?
Sound off below.
[Image: Chevrolet/GM]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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I rented one last fall while visiting Ohio. Not a bad car...but not a great car either. I think it needs a new version. But CUVs are King... unfortunately!
So if GM was serious about selling this why no updates for so long? Or make something truly unique instead of something that looked like a downmarket Altima?
Malibu will be the Ford Panther of this decade. We won't miss it until its gone. GM will tell you there's no market for sedans anymore. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, Audi and others will challenge you on that. GM gave up on Malibu as soon as it was introduced in 2017, no development, only de-contenting and relegation to "Fleet" status. I've had a lot of Malibu rentals, they were fine. Not as nice as an Accord or Camry, but preferable to an Altima, Sentra, Sonata or Jetta in my mind. A little development in the powertrain, refinement of the suspension and clean up on the styling would have done wonders. But that's not the GM way. Replace it with something else equally mediocre or worse but charge more because it sits higher. It's a shame GM has been relegated to such a back of the class manufacturer when spectacular cars like the C8 Corvette show what they can do when someone really gives a damn.
I will forget about the Malibu when I have a new Camry in my driveway.