Chevy Malibu rental...yuck!

[Vipergrün]

Do people actually say to themselves "I want to buy a Chevy Malibu"? Not a 1966, but a 2012. Boring, lame excuse for a car. No guts, no handling, no personality. Guess that's why rental companies buy them. Uggghh. Gonna have it for at least a week.

[JavaBrewer]

I hear they are really fun to off-road rally with. But then every rental car is fun in that regard. Not that I or my acquaintances advocate that sort of behavior...

[gassy]

Originally Posted by Vipergrün

Do people actually say to themselves "I want to buy a Chevy Malibu"? Not a 1966, but a 2012. Boring, lame excuse for a car. No guts, no handling, no personality. Guess that's why rental companies buy them. Uggghh. Gonna have it for at least a week.

That's funny. My business partner just last week had a Malibu rental and hated it too. Said the only thing good was the air conditioning.

[kaisen]

It all depends on what you're used to. In its class, it's certainly competitive

[imcarthur]

I can only agree. Malibus really suck. I drove one for 700 miles a few months back. Very uncomfortable seats. This week I have a Hyundai Genesis & I am very impressed.

Ian

[HardDrive]

I recently drove a Chrysler 200. What a horrible little car.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

I can only agree. Malibus really suck. I drove one for 700 miles a few months back. Very uncomfortable seats. This week I have a Hyundai Genesis & I am very impressed.

Malibu = $23K

Genesis = $35K

It's nicer? No kidding

[herr_oberst]

Drive it like a rental!

[onewhippedpuppy]

The Dodge Journey performs well on Jeep trails, and it jumps surprisingly well. Not that I know from experience.....

[Z-man]

Only thing worse than renting a Chevy Malibu is renting a Toyota Camry. But that's like saying Siberia is warmer than Antarctica...

-Z-man

[Noah930]

I rented (not intentionally) one of those station-wagony, must-have-been-styled-by-a-blind-man Malibu Maxx's about 7 years ago when I went on an interview in a city in another state. I combined the work trip into my search for a first P-car. I remember pulling up to the house of the previous owner of the car I currently own. He took one look at my rental and asked, "What's that?" It didn't sound very complimentary.

At the same time, I love driving so it was still fun to sling that thing around the corners on the mountain highway between Sacramento and Reno, and back. You can always find ways to have fun in a rental car.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Noah930

You can always find ways to have fun in a rental car.

Lock the e-brake, put it in first, traction control off, you get the idea. I've taken a number of work trips with my former fighter pilot co-workers, rental cars don't fare well with us.

There's a good many rental cars that I've asked myself, "why the hell would someone buy this?". A Malibu is one of them, but not the worst. On the other hand, I bought a new F150 Supercrew after having one for two weeks as a rental. So I guess it goes both ways.

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by Z-man

Only thing worse than renting a Chevy Malibu is renting a Toyota Camry. But that's like saying Siberia is warmer than Antarctica...

-Z-man

Malibu is a perfectly acceptable rental car appliance. After getting stuck with a Chevy Aveo one time though, let me tell you that is one car that no one in my family will EVER own. Absolutely miserable little **** bucket.

angela

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Rental car agent kept trying to push me into the malibu for my two week rental. I left with the Ford Fusion SEL. Good amount of pep (NOT a speed demon, just more than adequate), 36+ on the highway, ~25-28 in Detroit traffic.

It was confortable, the leather seats did not shove my head too far forward, the lumbar was good, ride was nice, cooling more than adequate, and it sat five adults without too may issues, four full grown me with ease. Radio drowned out the nasty crap posing as music in other vehicles. One of the nicest rental cars I have ever driven.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Vipergrün

Do people actually say to themselves "I want to buy a Chevy Malibu"? Not a 1966, but a 2012. Boring, lame excuse for a car. No guts, no handling, no personality. Guess that's why rental companies buy them. Uggghh. Gonna have it for at least a week.

I heard the bottom end of the malibu motors are bullet-proof

[BernieP]

The Malibu is a decent commuter car. Not one I'd want on a long trip but for a commute in traffic it's OK.

Bernie P

[bell]

I got a speeding ticket in an aveo rental once lol

[BlueSkyJaunte]

We got a brand-new Dodge Charger as a rental a few weeks ago. I hated the transmission (the shifter, specifically) but the rest of the car was pretty impressive. Enough HP to get out of its own way, and lots of nifty features including remote start and a pretty comprehensive in-dash GUI. Not especially bad-looking, either.

Oh, yeah, and I got 37 mpg on the highway!

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Noah930

. You can always find ways to have fun in a rental car.

The fastest car is a rental car.

--P.J.O'Rourke

[vash]

really? we have one in our office fleet. maybe our fleet sucks, but this car is our shining star.

quiet, relatively nimble, ice cold AC...good mpg. i was going along at 90mph, and a CHP officer pulled up next to me..i saw him and slowed waaaaay down. to this day, i am not sure how the speed got away from me...the car, our car is super smooth.