By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
I'm starting to see an occasional Malibu around these parts. As for the Lincoln Mark Z, is the new one even officially available yet? My buddy with the '78 Mark V likes them. Doesn't really do anything for me, though. Not bad in black, but then most cars do look good in black. At least, until about five minutes after you've finished washing and waxing them! :P
Shame about your Dad's Impreza. What does he hate about it?
Equinox has a very wide spread in pricing. I've seen them scary-close to $40k, but I doubt many are made that way. At that price, they feel cheap.
But...if you get a model under $30k, I'd argue they're just about par for the course. Hard plastics are the norm in that class.
Unfortunately, hard plastics are the norm in many classes these days. At the DC auto show, I remember being disappointed in how much hard plastic there was in the Acuras these days, and thinking that's one thing that keeps them from being viewed in the same light as Lexus.
Alas, then we went to the Lexus display, and I was disappointed to find them a lot more plasticky than you'd expect at this price point.
One thing I'll give them credit for though...in general, they are making the hard plastics look a bit more tasteful these days, even with cheaper cars. The interior of my 2012 Ram is mostly hard plastic, except for the armrests and inserts on the door panels. I don't think anything at all on the dash is soft to the touch. But, at its price point, I think it's still fairly presentable.
Priced vs. the Accord, they're a couple grand cheaper, street price.
Malibu will offer similar value, but I think Altima will be compared more with Camry/Accord, and it's the cheapest of the 3. Also, CR fuel economy beat even the Eco model of the Chevy.
Last month it outsold the Camry, though the totals include the previous gen Altima coupe.
Something that irks me about Lexus materials is the base single stitched leather - it looks and feels pretty basic, really no better than a pleather IMO.
Of course Nissan sold about that many Altimas last month.
Are you really comparing the Malibu to the Camry? That's like comparing Dan Quayle to Jack Kennedy.
Seriously, the Camry is a bastion for reliability, while GM is a symbol of mediocrity leading to bankruptcy and massive bailouts.
They might do that for unimportant decisions, but with cars, people will go with what is safe, reliable, and cost effective. I believe the Malibu and Dart fail in cost effectiveness, they should both be 10K cheaper.
No misinformation from me, I just keep it real!
I have to keep the PRO GM forces in check. All of the Big 3 are equally guilty of my Chrysler experience, because they all had and still have models of similarly terrible quality.
Until they stop getting black dots and scores under 50 in CR, I'll continue to KEEP IT REAL!
Also, if you drive like a slug, you might be able to get better than the EPA numbers.
Lastly, if you go around town trying to match the published 0-60 times in magazines, then you won't get the EPA mileage.
Pass me some of that stuff, will ya?
Sorry but not in my experience. I have owned and driven many GM, Ford and one or two Chrysler vehicles personally and through business over the last several years.(probably around 15 cars, trucks and vans) and all without exception were pretty reliable. Probably just lucky.
Oh and I have a CR car issue from 2012 and I see quite a few black dots in the Audi section....
Yes Chrysler lags and Ford is about average. Buick > Honda and Acura.
Chevy > Audi, Subaru, Nissan Infinity and VW.
But the take away is ALL vehicles have been and are becoming more reliable year by year, and the differences between brands is lessening to a point where it should almost be a non-issue.
I think that you will find that The domestics have better scores than you think, and the black dots are apparently relative, all cars are so much better nowadays that the dots are almost ,earning less.
BTW I am not pro domestic, I have actually only owned one domestic out of about 15 cars, it was okay, but was as Andre169 said a GM car that ran badly longer, it was a 99 GrandAm with the Quad 4 ( I forget what they were calling it at aghast point). It worked fine as long as I kept putting oil in it. It didn't have anything fancy electric so none of that broke, it was good for what it was, but wasn't anything special. Besides that car I have owned European and Japanese, they have all had some problems, but have all been basically reliable, the European cars were generally more solid, and fun, the Japanese cars reliable, and because I have generally picked ones in the sportier side fun as wel ( the most fun car I have had was a Subaru 3 door coupe from 86, it only had about 98 hp but it could corner extremely well, and was light and just fun to drive in general). Anyway everyone has their own experiences to base their decisions on, you had a bad Chrysler and a god Audi, other people have had experiences with Audi closer to your experience with the neon so their opinions of Audi are like yours of Chrysler... just don't expect everyone to agree with you is all.
Hope you continue to enjoy trouble free motoring with your Audi, and I am sure if you don't we will hear about it ( and at least it will still be more enjoyable to drive even if it does start having more issues).
Those VW family members generally has some problems through the years.
Still recall our friend's Jetta with windows falling down and a perpetual service engine light. Worse was that the dealer really didn't know how to fix things.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
VW pretty much gave up reliablity when they went from air cooled to water cooled in the '70's. They've almost always had cars that tested well (especially in the late '90s/early '00s), but take very spotty reliablity with a dealer network that generally has poor service at high prices, and you have a problem.
Again, some brands have reliability history vastly different over MANY decades. Reason being bankruptcy from past failures to do what is FINALLY being done at the domestics. Chrysler still has a decade to go...
Guess then, so should all the other cars in that field that scored less than the Malibu in beloved CR, don't you say?
Not to be confused with the million-car recall of a day earlier.
If this 'laceration' recall has already been posted here, I apologize. I have not seen it.
No way I'd even look at VW/Audi family because of friend's experience. He tried having car working at a closer dealer who told hiim to go to the other dealer--they wouldn't work on it.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I'd be curious to see how a 4,000 lb car with 200 hp would perform nowadays, just to see how cars have (or have not) improved over the past 57 years.
One thing that's changed though, is perspective. In 1957, the DeSoto Firedome and Fireflites were about the quickest cars in their class. Quick enough that Consumer Reports whined about them being overpowered and "too" fast!
But nowadays, a two ton car with only 200 hp would probably be be about the worst in its class, and get nothing but complaints about being too slow.
My Dad gets screwed every time he buys a car because he has to think of my mother driving it. Therefore, he always gets something smaller and cheaper than he is comfortable with and Mom never ends up driving the car anyway. Dad is 74. I told him to get what he wants because it could be his last car. Grandpop went all out for his last ride - the ultimate loaded 1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Brougham LS. Thank God my wife's taste in cars pretty much mirrors mine.
Yeah, you might as well get what you like. As one of my former coworkers once said, "Life's too short to drive crap!" However, he was referring to my grandmother's '85 LeSabre when he said it! :mad:
Like many, he bought his last domestic over 20 years ago and likely will never buy another.
I'd gladly drive a VW that may have a few problems here or there over most domestic cars that likely could be trouble free, but are often lackluster in many other areas.
But then again, the domestic cars I've owned haven't been cheap to maintain either.
I remember the 2001.5 went through a period where it would often refuse to start. It turned out to be some kind of switch, but it took the dealer months to track the problem down. Other than that though, I think it was a pretty good car. I don't think the wagon has given him too many issues, either.
Non-issue until the repair bill comes to you at 4 figures. Put your money where your mouth is, and offer to pay for extended warranty repairs up to 5 years and 100,000 miles bumper to bumper for everyone that frequents these forums. All it takes is a contract from you stating you will pay for all their repairs if they buy a domestic product. Consideration for that contract won't be much from me; My '03 Honda cost $0.00 to get to 65K miles when I sold it. I see no reason to pay you more then that for this contract.
How many thousand under MSRP did you pay for your Malibu again???...???
And that was for a Malibu you consider superior to the current version!
Based on sales, I think the market agrees with my valuation more than GM's.
Even JD, who holds no water with me, shows a distinction that can only be explained by a serious effort from Audi, that VW chose to not follow for other models.
Bought new, 3 miles on the clock. Over 60k now. The dealer seems very good, my salesman called to check up on me recently.
Will I buy another VW? Yes, not the el cheapo ones they are giving us now (new Jetta, Passat), I'll get an Audi if VW keeps downgrading its cars, but after all, it is about sales.
I agree, the domestics are capable of pretty good scores, but they have some "dud" models on the books still, so their score range is strangely wider than I think you'll find with the foreign automakers for the most part.
Also, it seems the newer domestic models suffer from poorer reliability, as if it takes them 10 years to figure out how to make a reliable car, and then by that time it's outdated and no one wants it no matter how reliable it is (see all the new Buicks vs. the older ones).
My Audi's 7th birthday was the other day, and I crossed 98K miles. I'm now past the "goodwill extended warranty of 7 years or 120K miles" on 4 different parts (only 1 of which needed replacing so far), but I suppose you can't blame the manufacturer much for problems after 100K miles or 7 years. Too bad JD doesn't go back 7 years, only 3, so they basically only review brand new cars.
Audi scores better in CR in both points, and reliability by a large margin I would say as compared to Chrysler. The margin grows even wider if you use Honda or Toyota.
Sales in the last decade show a decline at Chrysler, and a rise at VW/Audi, excepting the post bailout #2 resurgence at Chrysler the last couple of years.
A good mechanic makes a huge difference I think, my A3 is maintained professionally and competently, I'm afraid not all Audi's on the road get the same treatment.
I'll never forget getting quoted "Multi-ATM Fluid" for my dual clutch gearbox that requires "DSG Oil" I suppose oil is a fluid, and fluid could be an oil, but I'm sure there are vast differences. The only reason I went to this other shop was to keep my mechanic's prices honest and "check him." After that incident, any price he asked would have been OK because I want the work done right the first time.