When you're surrounded and the enemy is steadily advancing into your home territory, there's only one thing to do: Attack! With the all-new '97 Malibu, Chevrolet mounted a massive counterstrike on the Japanese models consistently winning skirmishes in the lucrative family sedan segment. Chevy instilled the attributes that make Americans flock to Accords and Camrys: a generous interior surrounded by a svelte exterior, confidence-inspiring ride and handling, taut steering feel, firm seats, well-placed controls with rewarding switchgear feel, a plethora of thoughtful features, potent acceleration, and a fun-to-drive attitude. After testing solidly constructed preproduction cars, our editors were convinced Chevy had produced a worthy four-door warrior. As one said, "The Malibu offers interior room, performance, and features to rival a Toyota Camry, but at a sticker price closer to a Corolla." The rest of the staff heartily agreed, and we named the Malibu the '97 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
Our long-termer was a '97 Malibu LS that boasted a base price of $18,190. The only option was a $200 sound system upgrade that featured both CD and cassette players. California emissions and the destination charge moved the bottom line to $19,076. For comparison, the surveyed owners paid an average of $18,246. Using Kelley Blue Book data to determine wholesale price, we calculated that our year with the Malibu cost us $4606, or 26.9 per mile. Our lead-footed staff recorded 21.9 mpg, while owners reported a 25.0-mpg figure. Top cruising range-recorded by an editor notorious for being unafraid to drive well past "E"-was right at 300 miles.
The survey owners averaged 47.6 years old, though the largest single group-18 percent-was 65 or older. Two-thirds of the principal drivers were female, and 46 percent reported household income of $60,000 or more. More than three-quarters of the surveyed owners listed the Malibu's fresh, clean styling as a major influence in the buying decision with 21 percent saying it was the primary reason they chose the car. "Value" and "prior Chevrolet ownership" ranked second and third at 14 and 13 percent, respectively. Strangely, several said they bought the car because they had owned a previous-generation Malibu, a rear-driver with nothing but its name in common with the new model.
Owners' comments indicated that several didn't thoroughly test drive-or perhaps even sit in-the car before their purchase. These complained about stiff ride, heavy steering, difficult entry, seats that were too hard or too soft, and not enough front legroom. One of these, a 39-year-old secretary from Texas, said he bought the Malibu on a whim ("in five minutes") after taking his Pontiac Bonneville to the dealership for an oil change.
The Malibu fared well in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash testing, scoring four (out of five) stars in frontal impact for both driver and passenger. It did less well in side impact: one star for front seaters, three for those in back.
With a bit more than 8000 miles showing on its odometer, we ran the long-term Malibu through our full battery of instrumented performance tests. Its potent but raucous 3.1-liter/155-horse OHV V-6 pushed it 0-60 mph in a quick 8.2 seconds, a notable 0.8 second better than the last factory-fresh Malibu we tested. It covered the quarter mile in 16.2 seconds-a full second quicker than the last model-at 85.0 mph. Stopping distance from 60 mph was 132 feet-4 feet shorter than the previous car. At a quick 64.6 mph, our long-termer was a massive 2.1 mph better in the slalom than the last car. Only the 0.75g skidpad figure matched on both cars. Some things do get better with age.
Take a peek at the notes our editors made in the Malibu's logbook:
"The car's best component-its four-speed automatic transmission-is so good it's rarely noticed."
"The excellent switchgear feel is a definite step up for GM."