• Year: 2006
• Make: Chevrolet
• Model: Malibu Maxx
• Trim: LT
• Body style: 5 Dr Hatchback
• Mileage: 70306
• Engine: 6 Cyl. 3.5
• Trans: Automatic
• Exterior Color: Sandstone Metallic
• Interior Color: Cashmere
• Stock: PG2298
• VIN: 1G1ZT63896F194965

Models with the four-cylinder engine come with front disc and rear drum brakes. V6 models get four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and traction control. ABS allows the driver to maintain steering control under hard braking, while traction control slows a spinning wheel as needed to restore grip. Technology aside, the firmness of the brake pedal impressed us and inspired confidence, as did the couple of times we felt the ABS step in to hasten our deceleration on wet roads. Along these lines, we're disappointed not to see any form of electronic stability control offered on the Malibu.

The Chevrolet Malibu has a solid driving personality, a nice ride, a quiet, and a comfortable cabin. The Malibu Maxx is an attractive alternative with its liftgate, adjustable rear seating and some of the versatility of a small SUV, all in a package no larger than a mid-size sedan. And the new, more powerful V6 in the SS is a welcome addition.

NewCarTestDrive.com correspondent Tom Lankard filed this report from Northern California.

Driving personality in a midsize sedan or Maxx.

Where the Malibu needs work is in the appearance department. Introduced as an all-new model for 2004, the Malibu is better looking than the plain-looking previous model, but it's no raving beauty. That silver band across the front is designed to clearly identify this as a Chevy, but it won't go down in history as a great design.

The Chevrolet Malibu certainly looked more contemporary than its predecessor when it first appeared in 2003, with more character and class. It also looked more substantial, giving the impression it's a more expensive car than it is. The sedan's freshness has faded, however, increasingly looking like a collection of styling cues and surface planes gathered from here and there but not all that well integrated. Meanwhile, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata have been replaced with new models.

The Maxx has held up better, with its longer wheelbase and chopped off, rather stubby, but somehow sporty back end that, perhaps thankfully, none of the others has felt compelled to emulate.

Equally thankfully, the front end of the Malibu has been relieved of the chrome bar spanning the full-width of the car. The chrome bar on the sedan was originally intended to establish a Chevrolet styling trademark to be carried across the brand, from the smallest Aveo to the lumbering Suburban. (It's not included on the new, 2007 Suburban, an indication of the extent to which it flopped.)

Both the sedan and the Maxx now wear an understated, monochromatic, single-piece fascia with almost generic lower air intake and grille, in which is centered the proper trademark, the Chevy bowtie. Angular headlights perch in the top corners of the fenders. Fog lamps, when present, occupy small, polished cutouts in the lower corners.

The rear of the sedan resembles the upright rears of European cars more than any of the Asian-branded competition. And indeed, the Malibu shares its structure with the highly successful German Opel Vectra and the Swedish Saab 9-3, which provides a solid platform with the vital added benefit of good economies of scale.

From the center post of its roof forward, the Maxx is identical to the sedan, including the updated front end. From there back, however, it's a different and more innovative vehicle, no larger than the sedan, but proportioned much differently.

While the sedan is built on a 106-inch wheelbase, the Maxx rides on a wheelbase that's six inches longer, stretching to 112 inches. Yet in overall length the Maxx is a half-inch shorter than the sedan. Maxx is also a half-inch taller than the sedan. Its roof is longer, its trunk shorter, increasing space for rear-seat passengers. Again, more European than Asian, or even U.S., in roots.

The Malibu looks as substantial inside as out. With 101 cubic feet of interior space, the sedan is extremely roomy front and rear. The seats are comfortable, although they could use a deeper seat bottom cushion with more thigh support. The front passenger seat cleverly folds flat in all but the SS models for carrying long objects such as skis. The rear seat splits and folds 60/40 for versatility when mixing cargo and passengers.

The interior, the visual and tactile elements of which are shared with the Maxx, is conservatively styled. There's an off switch for the daytime running lights, useful when parked with the engine running. Controls on the center dash are conveniently backlit for night driving. Heating and air conditioning controls are quite logical. The stereo and information system are a little less so, but still more readily understood than many others. We thought the wipers were a little loud. And the triangularly shaped outside mirrors are small, limiting rearward vision more than we liked.

Otherwise, it's a convenient interior. Lots of nooks and crannies are available for storage, including a center console with a roomy bin, four cupholders (though beware the two in the rear seat's fold-down center armrest, as it bounces enough over bumps to flip a cup of coffee into an unwary lap), a storage tray and a clip pad. Two 12-volt outlets provide power for whatever needs powering; the Maxx adds a third outlet in the cargo area.

Malibu Maxx offers slightly more total passenger space than the sedan, at 106 cubic feet. But more than that, Maxx offers increased versatility. Its rear seat is split 60/40 not only in the back, but in the cushion; and each unit slides fore and aft as much as seven inches to adjust between passenger and cargo room. Rear-seat passengers sit farther back in the Maxx and enjoy nearly identical room as the front-seat occupants and as much as the rear-seat riders in a full-size domestic sedan. Also, the rear seatbacks recline for improved comfort. In short, the back seats of the Maxx are a comfortable place for adults.

Standard in the Maxx are a pair of fixed skylights over the rear seating area, so rear-seat passengers can see clouds by day and stars by night. Or if it's sunny, they can close their individual sunshades.

Back in the cargo bay, Maxx provides 22.8 cubic feet of space, versus 15.4 for the trunk of the sedan. Fold down Maxx's back seats and the available space expands to 41 cubic feet. There's a 12-volt power outlet way in the back in addition to the two up front that it shares with the sedan. A four-position shelf in back can be configured for two-tier loading or, with a drop-down leg, as a table for roadside picnics. There are hooks for hanging plastic grocery bags. And of course the one-piece liftgate with remote power release allows you to load objects like appliances that would never squeeze through the sedan's conventional trunk opening.

The biggest problem with the Malibu's interior, whether sedan or Maxx, is its inconsistency. Some interior parts are made from high quality materials, such as the soft rubber door handles, which reminded us of Volkswagen, the benchmark for interiors. Yet other parts, such as the plastic surrounding the audio and climate controls, appear hard and cheap. The cover for the driver's seat-mounted, side-impact airbag left gaps around the edges. Several plastic pieces showed flash where the sides of the mold had clamped together. Although fit and finish was otherwise good, with decent tolerances between pieces, panels and fabrics, we didn't feel the interior generally measured up to the craftsmanship of a Honda, a Toyota or today, a Hyundai.

The remote starter is a questionable feature. Useful for starting the car from inside the house when it's very cold or very hot outside, it also contradicts what every carmaker's owner's manual and clean air agency urge people to do when starting a car. And that is, instead of letting the engine warm up unloaded at idle, to get in and drive the car as promptly as possible. This heats up the engine quicker, thereby lighting off the catalytic converter earlier, which minimizes exhaust emissions when they're at their dirtiest level. As convenient as it might be, we'd conveniently forget about it. Some of our other testers like it. If you're the type of person who runs outside on cold mornings, starts the car, then runs back inside while it warms up and defrosts, then you'll like the remote starter.

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