It's amazing the ridicule that any GM recalls have wrought on this board. That's especially compared to the mitigation that will be mentioned for other problems, with or without recalls, in other brands.
To parallel: the key cylinder and lock were from a supplier. It's their fault. Or it's the owner's fault for having the oversized mats, errr I mean keys, in the car. Or we should just have NASA check this out and see if they can find anything. :grin
And this after a point not to discuss recalls when some other brands were having recalls in the news because "discussion recalls takes away from the point of the topic" to paraphrase.
That's enough. I need to go polish my '14 Malibu in the garage. I think I saw some dust on it.
Good for you! I've decided I like the front-end on the '14 a good bit better than the '13. Of course, your purchase decision will be met with ridicule (it won't now that I've said that! LOL). Good for you! What model did you get, in what color?
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
@uplanderguy said:
Good for you! LOL). Good for you! What model did you get, in what color?
After many car visits and test drives, I liked the Malibu and test drove it more.
It really is agile and holds its own on rougher roads.
2.5 L engine in the 2LT in the Granite Black optional color with Cocoa leather for the heated seats. The Electronics package with Pioneer speakers and amp, rear camera, and other trim items. Then add on the Safety package with forward warning, lane wander alerts, blind spot monitor lights in the mirrors, and the one I wanted most, the side alert warning for someone approaching while backing out of a parking space in a grocery, e.g.. The 2LT includes the RS package somewhere in those options.
Hard to find car. I was assured they could find one 99% of time for dealer trade. They did. I was expecting to try to order to get exactly what I wanted.
We went through my wife's liking the Atlantis blue (medium blue), then the Champagne Silver with Cocoa interior, and of course the Crystal Red. But we've had two red leSabres. So the black was it after she looked at more sitting on the lot. We likely would have bought the Champagne Silver but the one in stock had the 2.0 T.
On the interstate portion driving I70 to Columbus to have lunch with son at OSU it gave 42 on way over and 36 on return. There was about a 10 mph west wind and I drove 63 approx. I'm very happy with it.
Our '11 is black granite. I said I'd never pay extra for a color but that's what the wife wanted. She initally wanted whatever they called their navy blue that year, but changed her mind after I had the dealer do a search! Ours turned over 40K miles a week or so ago.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
@imidazol97 said:
It's amazing the ridicule that any GM recalls have wrought on this board. That's especially compared to the mitigation that will be mentioned for other problems, with or without recalls, in other brands.
To parallel: the key cylinder and lock were from a supplier. It's their fault. Or it's the owner's fault for having the oversized mats, errr I mean keys, in the car.
Well, ultimately supplier issues are still the manufacturer issues. In the case of the Toyota truck frames, they had to replace them. In the case of the lock cylinders, the same. The difference is the length of time and the deaths and the lack of rapid response. Similarly to Toyota's shameful bungling of the UA situation.
When done proactively I don't see a huge issue with recalls. With the complexity in today's vehicles, there's no way ANY make is going to avoid having some problems.
@Stever@Edmunds said:
Congrats, Imidazol97! Didn't even know you were looking.
Thanks. I've been looking for 3 years. Thought I'd end up with a used car and didn't know what I wanted. But decided that a fleet or rental Malibu didn't have the kind of options we wanted. I hadn't put any maintenance into the 98 leSabre for years. It needed new strut, muffler, sway bar bushings in front. Hey, at 200,000 mi it owed me nothing. But with a little maintenance on the parts the engine and trans would have gone 300,000 mi. But my wife would have divorced me over keeping it.
Imidazo was being sarcastic. There used to be a regular poster here who always said about any current foreign car recall, that since a supplier provided the part, it was their fault. I used to basically say, "you gotta be kidding", because ultimately the manufacturer is responsible for what goes in their cars.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
My son's '98 LeSabre is getting to the point of replacement soon. It's starting to require more and more to keep it running well. Don't know yet what he'll replace it with. Is the Malibu as big as a LeSabre? He's 6'3".
@uplanderguy said:
Imidazo was being sarcastic. There used to be a regular poster here who always said about any current foreign car recall, that since a supplier provided the part, it was their fault. I used to basically say, "you gotta be kidding", because ultimately the manufacturer is responsible for what goes in their cars.
That's right. The company owns the choice of parts. But failures do happen in supplied parts that don't meet the requirements. With a switch and lock cylinder like that, wear would not be expected to leave it vulnerable. Something like the metal going into parts made in the plant for a Delco AC compressor can be quality tested with samples from each lot shipped into a plant. But the moving parts in an ignition switch would wear over time with the unexpectedly heavy key rings a few folks use. Dust and dirt in the environment may get into the friction points and speed the wear. A lubricant used may break down speeding the wear.
@suydam said:
My son's '98 LeSabre is getting to the point of replacement soon. It's starting to require more and more to keep it running well. Don't know yet what he'll replace it with. Is the Malibu as big as a LeSabre? He's 6'3".
Not as wide for 3 across, but comfortable. I like the entry and the range of seating. The interior is roomy for us coming from the two leSabres. The Cruze and Verano were slightly smaller, but the driver position still had lots of leg room for us. The power seat in this model is 8-way w/ lumbar. I am 5'7" however.
I kept expecting to find a fleet/rental/lease previous generation Malibu at the local dealer that would have the upscale options. The dealer runs a lot of those cars through their lot. But none had heated seats in the earlier Malibu with the 2.4 L 4-cylinder engine that I wanted for the great mileage they give. If I wanted a 3.6 L V6, they had those.
Some 13 Malibus from rentals had shown up at a nearby Chevy dealer at good prices if they had the options you wanted.
What do guys think about an 08 Pontiac G6 GT coupe? I was at my Chrysler dealer getting the oil changed on my Ram and I saw the G6. It's clean, fairly well loaded, has 65k miles on it. Dealer is asking 11,900. If I could get them to under $10k I might bite. Though it might be a decent extra car for my daughter to drive when she gets her license this summer. It has the 3.5/4speed.
Congrats! You got your money's worth out of that LeSabre. My uncle has a 98 LeSabre that is starting to accumulate miles - but he really likes the car, and doesn't want to spend what newer cars cost to replace it. He's kept up on the wear and tear maintenance.
What you found is a problem with rental Malibus of this generation, most of them aren't highly equipped. It seems nicely equipped Impalas are a lot more common.
Well, congrats on the new car. It was good you went for a more upscale trim than a rental would have provided. You keep cars a long time and will live with this for a while - you should be enjoying it! Good luck with the new ride.
@suydam said:
My son's '98 LeSabre is getting to the point of replacement soon. It's starting to require more and more to keep it running well. Don't know yet what he'll replace it with. Is the Malibu as big as a LeSabre? He's 6'3".
I'm also 6'3". I wasn't able to get a very good feel for the '14 Malibus at the auto show this year because the power was disconnected, so I couldn't put the seat where I would want it. However, I remember sitting in the '13's last year, and the front seat felt okay to me. Legroom was good, and the seat seemed fairly thickly padded. The back seat, however, was extremely cramped. They've changed the '14 a little bit...hollowing out the front seatback, and doing something with the back seat cushions, to give a little more legroom back there.
As long as he doesn't need use of the back seat on a regular basis, I think your son should be fine with a Malibu. If your son wants something a bit more comparable to that LeSabre though, maybe he should hold out for a 2014 Impala. I trolled cars.com the other day, and noticed used ones are starting to pop up already. Those are some very roomy cars, both front and back. I found the 2013 and earlier Impala to be roomy up front as well, but it still had a cramped back seat. The '08-12 Malibu also fit me pretty well up front. It was a little tight in back, but I could fit back there better than the '13 Malibu, or even the '13 and earlier Impalas.
@fintail said:
Congrats! You got your money's worth out of that LeSabre. My uncle has a 98 LeSabre that is starting to accumulate miles - but he really likes the car, and doesn't want to spend what newer cars cost to replace it. He's kept up on the wear and tear maintenance.
The engine and transmission were great shape at 200K.
What you found is a problem with rental Malibus of this generation, most of them aren't highly equipped. It seems nicely equipped Impalas are a lot more common.
My problem has been a doing a dual search for a replacement. I thought about an older mid-size or small car for a high fuel mileage around town driving car. Used car prices were high. But rarely did they show up at reputable dealers. I refuse to do Craig's list after a neighbor's experience with an AC contractor stealing his heat pump when he was supposed to be replacing the outside unit.
My other search was a new vehicle with a good clearance price at the end of model year or end of month.
I didn't know which I wanted. I did find a 2010 Cobalt 2LT with 60K and $13000 price tag at local dealer. It was a local car and well serviced at that . After they had it 2 months they might have taken much less. But it was an unsaleable color, for me, a dark gray green with blue tones. It had been owned by a lady in my area. OTOH nearby dealers had 4-cyl Malibus in the previous design with 14K and $16999 for a lower model but mostly lower plain models.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra gave her most critical statement yet on the automakers' handling of a flawed ignition switch, calling it a tragic situation in which "terrible things happened."
"After all, something went wrong with our process in this instance and terrible things happened," she said. "As a member of the GM family and as a mom with a family of my own, this really hits home for me."
Barra said because of the problems, GM is changing the way it decides and manages recalls in the future. She also said that the company has dedicated 50 employees in a customer call center to do nothing but handle phone calls about the recall.
In addition to details about the ignition switch, Barra mentioned new recalls Monday totaling about 1.5 million vehicles.
The recalls involve problems with the air bags in some crossover SUVs, the brakes of a Cadillac sedan and the instrument panel of a full-size van, and are unrelated to the ignition switch recall. But she said it's an example of GM demonstrating to customers that it now moving quickly to solve vehicle problems when discovered.
"The bottom line is we will be better because of this tragic situation if we seize the opportunity. And I believe we will do just that," she said.
Hyundai has taken the unusual step of having to restate its estimated gas mileage figures on a major model -- again.
The company said Monday it overstated the gas mileage of its revamped Sonata sedan in publicity material recently distributed to reporters in its home country of South Korea, the Associated Press reports. That would make a 6% improvement for the next version of the midsize sedan, which is also sold in the U.S.
Not so fast. The South Korean government put the gas mileage of the Sonata at 28.4 miles per gallon, not 29.6 mpg as Hyundai had estimated two weeks ago. The new version is reportedly heavier than the outgoing one, so eye-popping gas mileage stats are harder to achieve. The new Sonata is to have its debut at the New York Auto Show next month.
To parallel: the key cylinder and lock were from a supplier. It's their fault. Or it's the owner's fault for having the oversized mats, errr I mean keys, in the car. Or we should just have NASA check this out and see if they can find anything. :grin
Well, as a NASA employee, I think we contractors outnumber the government workers something like 3 to 1. So if our findings were wrong, it would still get blamed on a contractor/supplier!
@imidazol97 said:
That's enough. I need to go polish my '14 Malibu in the garage. I think I saw some dust on it.
Congratulations on the new ride! Hope it gives you years of faithful service! You should post some pictures when you get a chance.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra gave her most critical statement yet on the automakers' handling of a flawed ignition switch, calling it a tragic situation in which "terrible things happened."
I find it refreshing that Mary is being upfront about issues. This IMHO is a good sign for her leadership and focus on improving GM as a company. Give her a few years of leadership and I would expect major changes. She may be able to turn GM's reputation much more positive to a larger audience.
I find it refreshing that Mary is being upfront about issues. This IMHO is a good sign for her leadership and focus on improving GM as a company. Give her a few years of leadership and I would expect major changes.
There's nothing like good open conversation about a negative. The sad thing is there are people who may have been injured beyond normal because the air bags were turned off by the ignition switch. But there's nothing like sunshine on a problem and she opened the blinds wide with the additional minor recalls yesterday.
The worse thing is there are people who are gleefully gloating over the problem and over that there may have been unnecessary deaths. That's sick. I read a story in business week yesterday about the recall citing a fellow in Cincinnati area, Green Township, and his son had been killed in a T-bone while the Cobalt was turning. The claim is the airbag should have gone off. I don't know the parameters for the airbags in a slow left turn situation. The car is still in the sheriff department's lot. But the father is already talking about the side airbags as well. To my memory many cars only had side airbags on the higher models. I haven't found a listing for his 2007 Cobalt if I remember the right year.
But that father will never let go of the idea that the airbags should have gone off and it's all GM's fault. A problem is that the car was turning so the ignition was still on or the driver could not have made the turn. So that accident is not related to the ignition switch at all.
The grief for parents especially will be more common here than it was in the toyota expose of the unexplained acceleration, despite floor mats and sticky accelerator position sensors.Many Cobalts are driven by younger people. Many of the toyota deaths were of older people. When a youngster dies, the parents never are the same. My brother died in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII and my parents never were the same my siblings told me. So the news media senses blood here with stories to make Nancy Grace (Muckraker) proud. Even if all the facts don't line up as in the Cincinnati example.
Excellent post, imidazol. I spent a weekend as a guest of a guest of a bunch of Battle of the Bulge veterans in SE PA in 2008; we slept in barracks and there were reenactments to watch and a lot of era-proper vehicles there. The fellows were fascinating to listen to. They called it 'shellshock' instead of 'PTSD', but described much of the same things. Many could remember exactly how many days they went without a shower. No political-correctness among those guys! I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Met a fellow who showed a '65 Buick Skylark at Hershey each year. He told me he had a '55 Studebaker President folder--pretty rare--and he did in fact send it to me. I wrote him that I'd see him at Hershey. When I didn't hear back, and saw that he wasn't in the program for Hershey that year when I went, I feared the worst, and his nephew confirmed it a couple months later in responding to my letter.
Incidentally, my '08 strippo Cobalt has side airbags. I was thinking '08 was the first year, but I am not sure.
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I'm in total agreement. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and it does seem that the new leadership at GM is moving to distinguish itself from the old regime.
@imidazol97 said:
That's right. The company owns the choice of parts. But failures do happen in supplied parts that don't meet the requirements. With a switch and lock cylinder like that, wear would not be expected to leave it vulnerable. Something like the metal going into parts made in the plant for a Delco AC compressor can be quality tested with samples from each lot shipped into a plant. But the moving parts in an ignition switch would wear over time with the unexpectedly heavy key rings a few folks use. Dust and dirt in the environment may get into the friction points and speed the wear. A lubricant used may break down speeding the wear.
Very true. My wife's 2002 Civic had the passenger airbag serviced under warranty. The company that makes the explosive charges did not store them properly, causing some to activate improperly if they went off in an accident; there were some serious injuries reported. Honda didn't make them, and the company who did is paying for the replacements. But of course it is still a "Honda" recall...
DETROIT (AP) -- The top executive of General Motors apologized for deaths linked to the delayed recall of 1.6 million small cars, saying the company took too long to tell owners to bring the cars in for repairs.
David Cole, the former head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the son of a former GM president, said it was the first time in his memory that a GM CEO has apologized for a safety problem. But the magnitude of the recall is also very rare, he said.
"I think Mary will be extremely forthright. She won't be blowing smoke at anybody. That's not her style," he said. "I think she is doing exactly the right thing."
The Justice Department is expected to announce Wednesday that Toyota will pay one of the largest penalties ever imposed against an automaker to settle a criminal probe of its handling of reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
Bloomberg News puts the settlement with federal prosecutors at $1.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal put it at $1 billion.
The part that bothers me is that we've heard this before, both before and after the bankruptcy, and yet it sounds like the "rule by committee" (or maybe "don't act by committee) style of running GM is still alive and well. Maybe Barra actually knows how to do a Williamson turn.
So far, GM it seems most "critics" agree GM is attempting to do right, at least, from all appearances. Too early to be making any guesses on how it will all play out.
Seems nowadays it's the behavior du jour, with many companies making inflated claims about how important the customer is and at the same time throwing them under the bus when any real costs in dollars are concerned.
Who knows? Maybe GM will go in a different direction and act responsibly. I can't think of anything that would help create a better image of the "new" GM in the market's viewpoint. It would probably be far more effective that $$$ spent on advertising, and maybe cheaper, too, in the long run...
@busiris said:
So far, GM it seems most "critics" agree GM is attempting to do right, at least, from all appearances. Too early to be making any guesses on how it will all play out.
Seems nowadays it's the behavior du jour, with many companies making inflated claims about how important the customer is and at the same time throwing them under the bus when any real costs in dollars are concerned.
Who knows? Maybe GM will go in a different direction and act responsibly. I can't think of anything that would help create a better image of the "new" GM in the market's viewpoint. It would probably be far more effective that $$$ spent on advertising, and maybe cheaper, too, in the long run...
Not too many surprises there but a few---what's up with the Touareg? I know the complaint on the F250 is the diesel engine, that's what's dragging that model down; I didn't know the Fiesta was particularly troublesome.
the rest of the cars on the list generally don't have a good rep, that's true.
Don't forget to check for rust and paint problems on only the four-cylinder version of the earlier Fusions. Really--this month's issue says that.
Even I wouldn't buy a 1.8 Cruze...that's only in the rental-grade LS. The 1LT has the 1.4 turbo.
Three years of below-average reliability in a row on the current iteration of the Optima Turbo, which is not "Recommended".
I would say that most people would say, "Huh", about the BMW and Toureg.
All I know is that I paid far-less in repairs on my old Uplander than my friend's same-year Odyssey.
It was just a reskin, essentially, of their '97-model-year vans. I owned '99, '02, and '05 Chevy vans, and drove the Uplander for the most miles (94K). We traded because of good new-car prices and that my wife was tired of driving a van.
A new Impala would be my first choice in a new vehicle now, but of course, the previous Impalas on this list share only the same name with the '14.
Congratulations, imidazol--"The Bible" recommends the '14 Malibu.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
GM should be worried now! Seems the disease in the operations still lingers.
**At GM, the company has admitted knowing about the ignition-switch problem for more than a decade, yet it failed to recall 1.6 million small cars until last month. During the wait, at least a dozen people died in crashes because the faulty switches moved out of the run position, disabling power steering and brakes. Air bags also didn't inflate.
"We now see what GM may be facing," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a former Justice Department prosecutor. "If you have comparable conduct inside the company, the government is going to come down hard."
The Toyota payment changes the model for regulating auto safety in the U.S. Before Wednesday, safety issues had been almost the exclusive domain of NHTSA. Now, the government has raised the stakes with criminal actions, Henning said.
"GM has to be concerned what kind of a hit there is going to be to the bottom line," said Henning, who predicted that GM's penalty could rise toward $2 billion because its recall delays lasted longer than Toyota's.**
Yes, Toyota fine is $1.2 billion per today's news. I know you talked about what it probably would be the day before, but the actual amount seems to have been exorcised from the article you quoted from, above.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
IMO, its about time that the "regulatory" agencies get serious about safety and start burning companies that knowingly withhold safety-related information from the public for years.
In addition, I'd like to see some changes in our legal system that would reward proactive stances taken by manufacturers that might make it better for them to come forward immediately with problems .vs. sitting on them for years and years, hoping they'll escape detection by the public.
Once a defect has been identified, it's never going to fix itself. Its time to speed the problem resolution up from decades to months.
The two best pieces of advice I ever got from bosses are these:
1) If someone asks you a question via email or phone, get with them before you go home, to at least say, "I'm working on it".
2) "Bad news doesn't get better with age".
My guess is the revolving door of GM CEO's the past several years probably exacerbated this issue. I don't think that was Toyota's issue at all, but who knows.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
A new Impala would be my first choice in a new vehicle now, but of course, the previous Impalas on this list share only the same name with the '14.
I don't recall the old Impala as being particularly troublesome in Consumer Reports' reliability surveys...unless they took a bad turn in more recent years? My biggest beef with them was that I didn't like the interior or cramped back seat of the 2000-2005 model. I thought the interior, as well as fit and finish, improved greatly for 2006, but somehow they made the back seat feel even more cramped. Back when I bought my 2000 Intrepid, the dealer had a few '00 Impalas on the lot, but they were all fairly loaded-up models stickering for around $25-26K or more. Coupling that with the fact that I just wasn't a fan of the car, the $20K Intrepid just seemed like a better fit for me, even though it was just a base model. But, a few months later, that same dealer had a couple of fairly stripper Impalas on the lot, but with the 3.8 engine, and they had a markdown price of around $18K or so (forget what MSRP was), and I'll admit seeing them did make me second-guess the Intrepid a bit. Sure, I would have been stuck with an interior I didn't like, and a cramped back seat, but I think the cost savings would have been worth it. I don't use the back seat all that often, and I'd probably get used to the interior after awhile.
The last time I looked at a Consumer Reports was back in July, I think. My uncle bought one just before he bought his '13 Camry. I remember looking up my Ram, and I think it was listed as "Average". IIRC, the Charger, which is high on my list, was actually rated "Much Worse Than Average". I don't think that would stop me from buying one, though. I just wouldn't get an older, miled-up one.
I agree--the backseat of the previous Impala was way too small for the size of the car. I actually thought the styling aged pretty well...I'd have gotten whatever model left the spoiler off, but gave you those razor-sharp-looking polished aluminum wheels that were on upper-end models earlier on but migrated down in later years. I'd have considered a '12 or '13 with 3.6 and column-shift.
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When my Intrepid got totaled back in late 2009, I thought enough of the Impala to at least look up a few online as possible replacement cars. So I guess that's a sign that, eve though I'm not enamored with the car, I figure I could still be happy with it, at the right price. I even briefly considered one of those SS models with the 5.3 V-8! I never got a chance to drive any of them though, because I ended up stumbling across this 2000 Park Ave that was for sale at the Cadillac dealer just a few miles up the road. Went and looked at it, and talked myself into it.
Every once in awhile, I'll still troll the used car websites for used Lucernes.
I always liked the looks of Lucernes...looks like a large car should look IMHO!...but I'd have to have whatever trim gets you the chrome strip at the bottom of the decklid. I don't like the rear view without that!
2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
Actually I did find a V-8 Lucerne when I did my trolling. I'd have to go dig up the details on it though. I think it was a 2007, something like 94,000 miles, and around $6500. No sunroof IIRC. I'm kinda tempted, just because, to me at least, it's a bit of an oddball. And in some ways a better car than my Park Ave...newer, a few less miles, probably better shape. But I'd miss the sunroof a bit I think. But then, I could see myself getting it, and then getting bored, and then seeing something I like better a few months later.
Plus, I'm holding out for May 2nd, for the Park Ave. Last year, it went through a bad spell where I had to sink about $1000-1100 every 3 months into it (October 2012, February 2013, and May 2, 2013). Once the May 2 repair drops off, suddenly the car's 12-month maintenance/repair history doesn't look so bad. Just $133 for a battery (taken out when the tensioner sprayed shrapnel, which was the May 2 repair), $400 for brake work in July, and an oil change or two.
Comments
I'm sure Wagoner is enjoying his $millions from the golden parachute.
He'd probably still be there except for the 30-year-old 'auto czar' at the time calling the shots.
It's amazing the ridicule that any GM recalls have wrought on this board. That's especially compared to the mitigation that will be mentioned for other problems, with or without recalls, in other brands.
To parallel: the key cylinder and lock were from a supplier. It's their fault. Or it's the owner's fault for having the oversized mats, errr I mean keys, in the car. Or we should just have NASA check this out and see if they can find anything. :grin
And this after a point not to discuss recalls when some other brands were having recalls in the news because "discussion recalls takes away from the point of the topic" to paraphrase.
That's enough. I need to go polish my '14 Malibu in the garage. I think I saw some dust on it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Good for you! I've decided I like the front-end on the '14 a good bit better than the '13. Of course, your purchase decision will be met with ridicule (it won't now that I've said that! LOL). Good for you! What model did you get, in what color?
After many car visits and test drives, I liked the Malibu and test drove it more.
It really is agile and holds its own on rougher roads.
2.5 L engine in the 2LT in the Granite Black optional color with Cocoa leather for the heated seats. The Electronics package with Pioneer speakers and amp, rear camera, and other trim items. Then add on the Safety package with forward warning, lane wander alerts, blind spot monitor lights in the mirrors, and the one I wanted most, the side alert warning for someone approaching while backing out of a parking space in a grocery, e.g.. The 2LT includes the RS package somewhere in those options.
Hard to find car. I was assured they could find one 99% of time for dealer trade. They did. I was expecting to try to order to get exactly what I wanted.
We went through my wife's liking the Atlantis blue (medium blue), then the Champagne Silver with Cocoa interior, and of course the Crystal Red. But we've had two red leSabres. So the black was it after she looked at more sitting on the lot. We likely would have bought the Champagne Silver but the one in stock had the 2.0 T.
On the interstate portion driving I70 to Columbus to have lunch with son at OSU it gave 42 on way over and 36 on return. There was about a 10 mph west wind and I drove 63 approx. I'm very happy with it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Did you test drive the 2.0T ?
Congrats, Imidazol97! Didn't even know you were looking.
Our '11 is black granite. I said I'd never pay extra for a color but that's what the wife wanted. She initally wanted whatever they called their navy blue that year, but changed her mind after I had the dealer do a search! Ours turned over 40K miles a week or so ago.
Let's be thankful he's long gone.
Well, ultimately supplier issues are still the manufacturer issues. In the case of the Toyota truck frames, they had to replace them. In the case of the lock cylinders, the same. The difference is the length of time and the deaths and the lack of rapid response. Similarly to Toyota's shameful bungling of the UA situation.
When done proactively I don't see a huge issue with recalls. With the complexity in today's vehicles, there's no way ANY make is going to avoid having some problems.
Thanks. I've been looking for 3 years. Thought I'd end up with a used car and didn't know what I wanted. But decided that a fleet or rental Malibu didn't have the kind of options we wanted. I hadn't put any maintenance into the 98 leSabre for years. It needed new strut, muffler, sway bar bushings in front. Hey, at 200,000 mi it owed me nothing. But with a little maintenance on the parts the engine and trans would have gone 300,000 mi. But my wife would have divorced me over keeping it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
So that's why you posted that 200k odometer reading the other day. I hit 196,000 today so maybe I'm too far behind you.
Well, it looks to me like it's going to be very sad the way this washes out.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Imidazo was being sarcastic. There used to be a regular poster here who always said about any current foreign car recall, that since a supplier provided the part, it was their fault. I used to basically say, "you gotta be kidding", because ultimately the manufacturer is responsible for what goes in their cars.
My son's '98 LeSabre is getting to the point of replacement soon. It's starting to require more and more to keep it running well. Don't know yet what he'll replace it with. Is the Malibu as big as a LeSabre? He's 6'3".
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
That's right. The company owns the choice of parts. But failures do happen in supplied parts that don't meet the requirements. With a switch and lock cylinder like that, wear would not be expected to leave it vulnerable. Something like the metal going into parts made in the plant for a Delco AC compressor can be quality tested with samples from each lot shipped into a plant. But the moving parts in an ignition switch would wear over time with the unexpectedly heavy key rings a few folks use. Dust and dirt in the environment may get into the friction points and speed the wear. A lubricant used may break down speeding the wear.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Not as wide for 3 across, but comfortable. I like the entry and the range of seating. The interior is roomy for us coming from the two leSabres. The Cruze and Verano were slightly smaller, but the driver position still had lots of leg room for us. The power seat in this model is 8-way w/ lumbar. I am 5'7" however.
I kept expecting to find a fleet/rental/lease previous generation Malibu at the local dealer that would have the upscale options. The dealer runs a lot of those cars through their lot. But none had heated seats in the earlier Malibu with the 2.4 L 4-cylinder engine that I wanted for the great mileage they give. If I wanted a 3.6 L V6, they had those.
Some 13 Malibus from rentals had shown up at a nearby Chevy dealer at good prices if they had the options you wanted.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
What do guys think about an 08 Pontiac G6 GT coupe? I was at my Chrysler dealer getting the oil changed on my Ram and I saw the G6. It's clean, fairly well loaded, has 65k miles on it. Dealer is asking 11,900. If I could get them to under $10k I might bite. Though it might be a decent extra car for my daughter to drive when she gets her license this summer. It has the 3.5/4speed.
Congrats! You got your money's worth out of that LeSabre. My uncle has a 98 LeSabre that is starting to accumulate miles - but he really likes the car, and doesn't want to spend what newer cars cost to replace it. He's kept up on the wear and tear maintenance.
What you found is a problem with rental Malibus of this generation, most of them aren't highly equipped. It seems nicely equipped Impalas are a lot more common.
Well, congrats on the new car. It was good you went for a more upscale trim than a rental would have provided. You keep cars a long time and will live with this for a while - you should be enjoying it! Good luck with the new ride.
I'm also 6'3". I wasn't able to get a very good feel for the '14 Malibus at the auto show this year because the power was disconnected, so I couldn't put the seat where I would want it. However, I remember sitting in the '13's last year, and the front seat felt okay to me. Legroom was good, and the seat seemed fairly thickly padded. The back seat, however, was extremely cramped. They've changed the '14 a little bit...hollowing out the front seatback, and doing something with the back seat cushions, to give a little more legroom back there.
As long as he doesn't need use of the back seat on a regular basis, I think your son should be fine with a Malibu. If your son wants something a bit more comparable to that LeSabre though, maybe he should hold out for a 2014 Impala. I trolled cars.com the other day, and noticed used ones are starting to pop up already. Those are some very roomy cars, both front and back. I found the 2013 and earlier Impala to be roomy up front as well, but it still had a cramped back seat. The '08-12 Malibu also fit me pretty well up front. It was a little tight in back, but I could fit back there better than the '13 Malibu, or even the '13 and earlier Impalas.
Thanks!
The engine and transmission were great shape at 200K.
My problem has been a doing a dual search for a replacement. I thought about an older mid-size or small car for a high fuel mileage around town driving car. Used car prices were high. But rarely did they show up at reputable dealers. I refuse to do Craig's list after a neighbor's experience with an AC contractor stealing his heat pump when he was supposed to be replacing the outside unit.
My other search was a new vehicle with a good clearance price at the end of model year or end of month.
I didn't know which I wanted. I did find a 2010 Cobalt 2LT with 60K and $13000 price tag at local dealer. It was a local car and well serviced at that . After they had it 2 months they might have taken much less. But it was an unsaleable color, for me, a dark gray green with blue tones. It had been owned by a lady in my area. OTOH nearby dealers had 4-cyl Malibus in the previous design with 14K and $16999 for a lower model but mostly lower plain models.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Best of Luck with your new '14 'Bu, Imidazol97!
General Motors CEO Mary Barra gave her most critical statement yet on the automakers' handling of a flawed ignition switch, calling it a tragic situation in which "terrible things happened."
"After all, something went wrong with our process in this instance and terrible things happened," she said. "As a member of the GM family and as a mom with a family of my own, this really hits home for me."
Barra said because of the problems, GM is changing the way it decides and manages recalls in the future. She also said that the company has dedicated 50 employees in a customer call center to do nothing but handle phone calls about the recall.
In addition to details about the ignition switch, Barra mentioned new recalls Monday totaling about 1.5 million vehicles.
The recalls involve problems with the air bags in some crossover SUVs, the brakes of a Cadillac sedan and the instrument panel of a full-size van, and are unrelated to the ignition switch recall. But she said it's an example of GM demonstrating to customers that it now moving quickly to solve vehicle problems when discovered.
"The bottom line is we will be better because of this tragic situation if we seize the opportunity. And I believe we will do just that," she said.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/17/news/companies/gm-recall-barra/index.html?iid=HP_LN
http://www.usatoday.com/story/driveon/2014/03/17/hyundai-sonata-gas-mileage/6534359/
Hyundai has taken the unusual step of having to restate its estimated gas mileage figures on a major model -- again.
The company said Monday it overstated the gas mileage of its revamped Sonata sedan in publicity material recently distributed to reporters in its home country of South Korea, the Associated Press reports. That would make a 6% improvement for the next version of the midsize sedan, which is also sold in the U.S.
Not so fast. The South Korean government put the gas mileage of the Sonata at 28.4 miles per gallon, not 29.6 mpg as Hyundai had estimated two weeks ago. The new version is reportedly heavier than the outgoing one, so eye-popping gas mileage stats are harder to achieve. The new Sonata is to have its debut at the New York Auto Show next month.
GM Recalls
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/03/17/gm--recalls-chevrolet-traverse-cadillac-xts/6521011/
Well, as a NASA employee, I think we contractors outnumber the government workers something like 3 to 1. So if our findings were wrong, it would still get blamed on a contractor/supplier!
Congratulations on the new ride! Hope it gives you years of faithful service! You should post some pictures when you get a chance.
I find it refreshing that Mary is being upfront about issues. This IMHO is a good sign for her leadership and focus on improving GM as a company. Give her a few years of leadership and I would expect major changes. She may be able to turn GM's reputation much more positive to a larger audience.
I find it refreshing that Mary is being upfront about issues. This IMHO is a good sign for her leadership and focus on improving GM as a company. Give her a few years of leadership and I would expect major changes.
There's nothing like good open conversation about a negative. The sad thing is there are people who may have been injured beyond normal because the air bags were turned off by the ignition switch. But there's nothing like sunshine on a problem and she opened the blinds wide with the additional minor recalls yesterday.
The worse thing is there are people who are gleefully gloating over the problem and over that there may have been unnecessary deaths. That's sick. I read a story in business week yesterday about the recall citing a fellow in Cincinnati area, Green Township, and his son had been killed in a T-bone while the Cobalt was turning. The claim is the airbag should have gone off. I don't know the parameters for the airbags in a slow left turn situation. The car is still in the sheriff department's lot. But the father is already talking about the side airbags as well. To my memory many cars only had side airbags on the higher models. I haven't found a listing for his 2007 Cobalt if I remember the right year.
But that father will never let go of the idea that the airbags should have gone off and it's all GM's fault. A problem is that the car was turning so the ignition was still on or the driver could not have made the turn. So that accident is not related to the ignition switch at all.
The grief for parents especially will be more common here than it was in the toyota expose of the unexplained acceleration, despite floor mats and sticky accelerator position sensors.Many Cobalts are driven by younger people. Many of the toyota deaths were of older people. When a youngster dies, the parents never are the same. My brother died in the Battle of the Bulge in WWII and my parents never were the same my siblings told me. So the news media senses blood here with stories to make Nancy Grace (Muckraker) proud. Even if all the facts don't line up as in the Cincinnati example.
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/news/residents-wants-answers-on-gm-recall/nfDLT/
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Excellent post, imidazol. I spent a weekend as a guest of a guest of a bunch of Battle of the Bulge veterans in SE PA in 2008; we slept in barracks and there were reenactments to watch and a lot of era-proper vehicles there. The fellows were fascinating to listen to. They called it 'shellshock' instead of 'PTSD', but described much of the same things. Many could remember exactly how many days they went without a shower. No political-correctness among those guys! I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Met a fellow who showed a '65 Buick Skylark at Hershey each year. He told me he had a '55 Studebaker President folder--pretty rare--and he did in fact send it to me. I wrote him that I'd see him at Hershey. When I didn't hear back, and saw that he wasn't in the program for Hershey that year when I went, I feared the worst, and his nephew confirmed it a couple months later in responding to my letter.
Incidentally, my '08 strippo Cobalt has side airbags. I was thinking '08 was the first year, but I am not sure.
I'm in total agreement. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and it does seem that the new leadership at GM is moving to distinguish itself from the old regime.
Very true. My wife's 2002 Civic had the passenger airbag serviced under warranty. The company that makes the explosive charges did not store them properly, causing some to activate improperly if they went off in an accident; there were some serious injuries reported. Honda didn't make them, and the company who did is paying for the replacements. But of course it is still a "Honda" recall...
Imid, sorry about your brother. We are so appreciative for his service to our country.
DETROIT (AP) -- The top executive of General Motors apologized for deaths linked to the delayed recall of 1.6 million small cars, saying the company took too long to tell owners to bring the cars in for repairs.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/barra-apologizes-deaths-tied-recalled-174407824.html
David Cole, the former head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the son of a former GM president, said it was the first time in his memory that a GM CEO has apologized for a safety problem. But the magnitude of the recall is also very rare, he said.
"I think Mary will be extremely forthright. She won't be blowing smoke at anybody. That's not her style," he said. "I think she is doing exactly the right thing."
The Justice Department is expected to announce Wednesday that Toyota will pay one of the largest penalties ever imposed against an automaker to settle a criminal probe of its handling of reports of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
Bloomberg News puts the settlement with federal prosecutors at $1.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal put it at $1 billion.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/03/19/toyota-settlement-unintended-acceleration
First Take: Toyota quagmire nears end as GM's begins
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/03/19/toyota-gm-quagmire/6596479//6595345/
The part that bothers me is that we've heard this before, both before and after the bankruptcy, and yet it sounds like the "rule by committee" (or maybe "don't act by committee) style of running GM is still alive and well. Maybe Barra actually knows how to do a Williamson turn.
So far, GM it seems most "critics" agree GM is attempting to do right, at least, from all appearances. Too early to be making any guesses on how it will all play out.
Seems nowadays it's the behavior du jour, with many companies making inflated claims about how important the customer is and at the same time throwing them under the bus when any real costs in dollars are concerned.
Who knows? Maybe GM will go in a different direction and act responsibly. I can't think of anything that would help create a better image of the "new" GM in the market's viewpoint. It would probably be far more effective that $$$ spent on advertising, and maybe cheaper, too, in the long run...
Very astute observations.
Here's a recent list of used vehicles to avoid according to our favorite rag to hate:
Not too many surprises there but a few---what's up with the Touareg? I know the complaint on the F250 is the diesel engine, that's what's dragging that model down; I didn't know the Fiesta was particularly troublesome.
the rest of the cars on the list generally don't have a good rep, that's true.
Don't forget to check for rust and paint problems on only the four-cylinder version of the earlier Fusions. Really--this month's issue says that.
Even I wouldn't buy a 1.8 Cruze...that's only in the rental-grade LS. The 1LT has the 1.4 turbo.
Three years of below-average reliability in a row on the current iteration of the Optima Turbo, which is not "Recommended".
I would say that most people would say, "Huh", about the BMW and Toureg.
All I know is that I paid far-less in repairs on my old Uplander than my friend's same-year Odyssey.
It was just a reskin, essentially, of their '97-model-year vans. I owned '99, '02, and '05 Chevy vans, and drove the Uplander for the most miles (94K). We traded because of good new-car prices and that my wife was tired of driving a van.
A new Impala would be my first choice in a new vehicle now, but of course, the previous Impalas on this list share only the same name with the '14.
Congratulations, imidazol--"The Bible" recommends the '14 Malibu.
GM should be worried now! Seems the disease in the operations still lingers.
**At GM, the company has admitted knowing about the ignition-switch problem for more than a decade, yet it failed to recall 1.6 million small cars until last month. During the wait, at least a dozen people died in crashes because the faulty switches moved out of the run position, disabling power steering and brakes. Air bags also didn't inflate.
"We now see what GM may be facing," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a former Justice Department prosecutor. "If you have comparable conduct inside the company, the government is going to come down hard."
The Toyota payment changes the model for regulating auto safety in the U.S. Before Wednesday, safety issues had been almost the exclusive domain of NHTSA. Now, the government has raised the stakes with criminal actions, Henning said.
"GM has to be concerned what kind of a hit there is going to be to the bottom line," said Henning, who predicted that GM's penalty could rise toward $2 billion because its recall delays lasted longer than Toyota's.**
Yes, Toyota fine is $1.2 billion per today's news. I know you talked about what it probably would be the day before, but the actual amount seems to have been exorcised from the article you quoted from, above.
IMO, its about time that the "regulatory" agencies get serious about safety and start burning companies that knowingly withhold safety-related information from the public for years.
In addition, I'd like to see some changes in our legal system that would reward proactive stances taken by manufacturers that might make it better for them to come forward immediately with problems .vs. sitting on them for years and years, hoping they'll escape detection by the public.
Once a defect has been identified, it's never going to fix itself. Its time to speed the problem resolution up from decades to months.
The two best pieces of advice I ever got from bosses are these:
1) If someone asks you a question via email or phone, get with them before you go home, to at least say, "I'm working on it".
2) "Bad news doesn't get better with age".
My guess is the revolving door of GM CEO's the past several years probably exacerbated this issue. I don't think that was Toyota's issue at all, but who knows.
@uplanderguy said:
I don't recall the old Impala as being particularly troublesome in Consumer Reports' reliability surveys...unless they took a bad turn in more recent years? My biggest beef with them was that I didn't like the interior or cramped back seat of the 2000-2005 model. I thought the interior, as well as fit and finish, improved greatly for 2006, but somehow they made the back seat feel even more cramped. Back when I bought my 2000 Intrepid, the dealer had a few '00 Impalas on the lot, but they were all fairly loaded-up models stickering for around $25-26K or more. Coupling that with the fact that I just wasn't a fan of the car, the $20K Intrepid just seemed like a better fit for me, even though it was just a base model. But, a few months later, that same dealer had a couple of fairly stripper Impalas on the lot, but with the 3.8 engine, and they had a markdown price of around $18K or so (forget what MSRP was), and I'll admit seeing them did make me second-guess the Intrepid a bit. Sure, I would have been stuck with an interior I didn't like, and a cramped back seat, but I think the cost savings would have been worth it. I don't use the back seat all that often, and I'd probably get used to the interior after awhile.
The last time I looked at a Consumer Reports was back in July, I think. My uncle bought one just before he bought his '13 Camry. I remember looking up my Ram, and I think it was listed as "Average". IIRC, the Charger, which is high on my list, was actually rated "Much Worse Than Average". I don't think that would stop me from buying one, though. I just wouldn't get an older, miled-up one.
I agree--the backseat of the previous Impala was way too small for the size of the car. I actually thought the styling aged pretty well...I'd have gotten whatever model left the spoiler off, but gave you those razor-sharp-looking polished aluminum wheels that were on upper-end models earlier on but migrated down in later years. I'd have considered a '12 or '13 with 3.6 and column-shift.
When my Intrepid got totaled back in late 2009, I thought enough of the Impala to at least look up a few online as possible replacement cars. So I guess that's a sign that, eve though I'm not enamored with the car, I figure I could still be happy with it, at the right price. I even briefly considered one of those SS models with the 5.3 V-8! I never got a chance to drive any of them though, because I ended up stumbling across this 2000 Park Ave that was for sale at the Cadillac dealer just a few miles up the road. Went and looked at it, and talked myself into it.
Every once in awhile, I'll still troll the used car websites for used Lucernes.
I always liked the looks of Lucernes...looks like a large car should look IMHO!...but I'd have to have whatever trim gets you the chrome strip at the bottom of the decklid. I don't like the rear view without that!
Get a Lucerne Super, might as well go all the way
Actually I did find a V-8 Lucerne when I did my trolling. I'd have to go dig up the details on it though. I think it was a 2007, something like 94,000 miles, and around $6500. No sunroof IIRC. I'm kinda tempted, just because, to me at least, it's a bit of an oddball. And in some ways a better car than my Park Ave...newer, a few less miles, probably better shape. But I'd miss the sunroof a bit I think. But then, I could see myself getting it, and then getting bored, and then seeing something I like better a few months later.
Plus, I'm holding out for May 2nd, for the Park Ave. Last year, it went through a bad spell where I had to sink about $1000-1100 every 3 months into it (October 2012, February 2013, and May 2, 2013). Once the May 2 repair drops off, suddenly the car's 12-month maintenance/repair history doesn't look so bad. Just $133 for a battery (taken out when the tensioner sprayed shrapnel, which was the May 2 repair), $400 for brake work in July, and an oil change or two.