2005 Chevrolet Malibu Reviews, Pricing & Specs

I've been driving this car since September of 2005, and it's December of 2008 now, and so far all I've done to or with it has been oil changes, lube jobs, check fluids, change wiper blades, etc. The car hasn't been in the shop at all for anything else yet. I like it and it gets better gas mileage than my Ford, which had a 4-cylinder engine, and this one has a 6-cylinder engine. The Ford did get 30 to 35 at times, on the highway, but the Chevy Malibu gets 35 most of the time, combination city/highway, and it has even shown 39.9 on most trips, with one time showing 42.2 Mpg, but I think that was during a tailwaind. The Chevy Malibu has plenty of power to get going from a dead stop, and in fact, a couple of times the tires even spun a bit when I barely touched the gas pedal, when I wasn't even trying to spin the tires. So far I haven't had any major problems with it, and in fact, the only minor problem I have had with it so far has been when I tried putting the parking brake on last Winter and pressed against the hood release by accident, breaking the handle off. I like the "style" of the rear tailights, and I like the way they look better than the newer models of the Malibu. The car had 8,000 or so miles on it when I bought it and it now has just turned over to 51,000 and no garage bills, other than the oil changes and when I needed to replace two of the tires, one of which hit a nail on the street and went flat on me, so I replaced it along with a second tire and sold the one tire that was still good yet. Sorry, the only pictures I have of the car right now are those taken after a snowstorm, so I uploaded a similar picture/image downloaded from the Internet that looks about the same as what I have, which is Charcoal Grey in color. Performance = Great, except a little hard to hold the road in a strong cross-wind, Quality = So far no squeeks, rattles or any repairs, Appearance = Great, especially the way the tailights look, and I don't know why that was changed in the newer than 2005 models, they don't look as nice to me than this 2005 does, as far as the brake light or tailight lens go, The cost of ownership was nice, except of course when gasoline was over $4.00 per gallon, then it cost over $60.00 to fill the tank, at least at a little less than $2.00 per gallon it's only around $40.00 to fill tha tank, but the gas mileage is nice, especially for a six-cylinder car and it does seem to be fun to drive. I know that the outside rearview mirrors could be slightly different, but that's only a minor thing. One thing though, and that is, I just remembered while typing this, The "lid" on the sun visor, where you open it to see the mirror, broke on the driver's side, also causing the light not to come on, and a short time later, the passenger side broke too, but it's a minor thing which I haven't fixed, just like the broken hood release, which I'll replace soon as I'm using a vise grip or pliers to "pop" open the hood.Dec 04, 2008