I haven't had much good opportunity to populate around here lately, so much to do, so little time.

We added another vehicle to the fleet the other day.  What started as looking for new or slightly used ventured off into 'let's just get a bridge car' for awhile.  Something that may be useful for not just my college kid, but also a budding HS kid who will be learning to drive soon.  And, something that I may also be able to use to drive the 70 mile round trip to work each day and spell the miles from the van and TourX.

Now we have to decide if we are going to get rid of the Grand Prix, which, it's probably time.  

Since the motivation here was more that I saw this on the dealer lot while I was taking new Mazda test drives.  It was a good price and even with some strange body dings, it looked real good with its red color and new tires and all.  And it had a sunroof, that was the ultimate hook.

Surprisingly, to me it drove really nice... seemed like everything was tight on it and low miles, for cheap.  This vintage of Malibu was never really top rated in its class at the time, but it had a lot of positives I overlooked at the time which I can appreciate more nowadays.

But it was in a competitive market segment and so to improve even more, Chevy did a full redesign again of the Malibu for 2016.  I actually did lease a 2016 Malibu LT and after all this time, its interesting to see the contrasts between the two designs in the rearview mirror of time.

A couple photos here shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 20251 yr by regfootball

Nice to see one in red w/ a sunroof.  I drove several of these as rentals back in the day, liked the styling of these more than the successor.  They drove quite pleasantly IIRC. 

These rode nicely, but after its much larger predecessor, they were a bit of a letdown because they felt tight inside and smaller than the CamCordTima. I'm sure Chevy did that to push more people to their new Impala but instead it pushed them away.  I assume this is the 2.5 or the 2.4 eAssist since you would have mentioned the engine if it was the 2.0T.  The eAssist gets a bad rap because people expected Pruis-like fuel economy out of it and it just wasn't that kind of hybrid, but it did alter the torque curve enough at low speeds to give it more oomfph than the basic 4-cylinder and you could still tickle 35mpg highway in something as big and heavy as the Lacrosse. 

WOW, must have been a retire persons auto as that is in great shape. Congratulations on your new ride.

On 5/29/2025 at 8:03 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

These rode nicely, but after its much larger predecessor, they were a bit of a letdown because they felt tight inside and smaller than the CamCordTima. I'm sure Chevy did that to push more people to their new Impala but instead it pushed them away.  I assume this is the 2.5 or the 2.4 eAssist since you would have mentioned the engine if it was the 2.0T.  The eAssist gets a bad rap because people expected Pruis-like fuel economy out of it and it just wasn't that kind of hybrid, but it did alter the torque curve enough at low speeds to give it more oomfph than the basic 4-cylinder and you could still tickle 35mpg highway in something as big and heavy as the Lacrosse. 

you're 100% spot on here, they tried to walk that line with both offerings... the Impala ended up pricey for a lot of people who wanted the size and also at that time, the LaCrosse had the all wheel drive option whereas the Impala did not, which limited things greatly for the success of the Impala.  Especially since the Ford 500 and 08+ Taurus had all wheel drive options, as did the Charger and Chrysler 300.  

Since this version of Malibu then was considered undersized for passenger space in its competitive room, is one reason it never lit up the sales charts.  They did fix that with the 2016+ / current version (its been fun comparing this one vs my 2016).  Even though the 2016 had the right amount of space, they pushed the seat height down a bit.  I really wish they would have kept the seat hip point up at the same height as on this 2014. You can definitely feel the much shorter wheelbase of this one, but the car feels more zippy because of it.  Perfect for what we want it for right now.

So then rather comparing this one to its contemporaries at the time, since this is a used purchase i look at it more just as its own lens.  I actually was able to purchase something used similarly priced to the smaller Cruze for about the same money, and not as large as the Impala.  More solid and safer than the Cruze.  That sort of tweener size works well for what we need in this case.  We had the family or four in the car for a drive last weekend and it was tight.  Yet the seating was comfortable.  The width of the cabin is good; its primarily the leg room aspect that is difficult for the back seat passengers.  The smaller wheelbase makes it zippier around town driving and parking, and the 2.5 is perfect for what is needed.  The 6 speed shifts well, and with the huge gas tank with 30+ mpg you really can expect near 500 miles on a tank.  At the time in the market, the smaller size was a disadvantage but now that its just a used car on the market its the right size and power and fuel economy for what is needed 95% of the time.  The trunk is very big also and the rear seats fold..... nearly as much utility as if it were a hatchback.

52 minutes ago, G. David Felt said:

WOW, must have been a retire persons auto as that is in great shape. Congratulations on your new ride.

actually, it was indeed a car that was passed down from a retired person to their relative for a short period.  Strangely, there is a lot of weird body scratches and things that are kind of random and don't show up in pictures but they also buffed them out and paint finished them as best they could.  Not deep scratches, just very puzzling....how the hell did they get there?

Car had the valve cover gasket and rocker arm control valve fixed, replaced transmission lines, and had new tires.  Seemed oddly tight and good shape for steering and brakes for a used car, but i'm like 'i'll take that'!  I'm not expecting it to have perfect reliability and it something costly happens, so be it.  I didn't buy an extended warranty because the affordable warranties for this old of a car don't cover very much.  To get a more comprehensive warranty is cost prohibitive, IMO

Edited June 4, 20251 yr by regfootball