Tuesday, October 21, 2008

North Carolina and the Chevy Malibu


I headed to NC with a solid two days and approximately 600 miles of driving, and right off the bat I was a bit worried. At the rental car place, the guy told me I could take any vehicle I wanted from the entire row...which at first was a little exciting. My excitement quickly vanished when the row in question went Minivan-HHR-Minivan-HHR and so on. There was only one vehicle in the row that was different- a 2009 Chevy Malibu.

I was literally the first one to rent this vehicle, as it had a grand total of 2 miles on the odometer. And as far as rental cars go, it was fine. It had four wheels, a seat and when you stepped on the gas pedal it went. However, if you are looking at one of these to purchase, let me tell you why you shouldn't

1. For the first 200 miles, I thought the car was on fire. I literally had to pull over and pop the hood and make sure I wasn't about to die. There must have been some sort of protective coating sprayed around the engine somewhere that was burning off.

2. The interior sucks. Everything is made of plastic, and the fitment isn't the best. (Note to GM: Texturing plastic to look like leather grain isn't fooling anyone. We still know it's plastic). Plus all the Delco electronics that the domestics use just look dated. I mean, the displays are the same light blue color they were in the 80s. Even though they work great and have a bunch of pretty cool features, they just seem really dated.

3. The cruise control sucks. On level ground it works just fine, but going down hill it bucks like crazy trying to maintain the speed. I actually thought the engine was having issues until I played with it a bit.

4. The rear window is almost useless. It's very short and the rear seats have gigantic headrests that block half of it. Not to mention that when it rains, water sheets over the back window and you literally can't see a thing out of it. And the Malibu isn't fast enough to not need to see behind you.

5. The turn signal is the most annoying thing in a car I have ever experienced. Instead of subtle "click click", there is a tone that sounds like someone slowed down a German Techno backbeat. It literally sounds like it's from a Casio keyboard! Not too mention it's loud enough for Aunt Mable to hear even if the battery in her hearing aid goes. I used it once and that was it. If I got pulled over for not signalling, I would simply demonstrate the noise pollution created by the unholiest device ever- knowing that there would be no way he could give me a ticket and still sleep at night.

So in short, don't buy one.

2 comments:

gayle said...

I can attest to the scurge that the blinker is in this car.

Eddie decided he was not the only one to have to suffer, and lovingly sent me a video message of the blinker.

It only took about an hour for my ears to stop bleeding after hearing it.

gayle said...

I can attest to the scurge that the blinker is in this car.

Eddie decided he was not the only one to have to suffer, and lovingly sent me a video message of the blinker.

It only took about an hour for my ears to stop bleeding after hearing it.