Photos: 2008 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ
The 2008 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ isn't a driver's car, but offers a comfortable cabin for the daily commute or shopping trips. Its cabin tech is largely unremarkable.
Chevrolet's newly redesigned Malibu employs new styling and engine choices. It can be had in three trim levels, LS, LT, and LTZ. The top-trimmed LTZ, seen here, offers many features standard.
The front of the new Malibu uses a very modern design, with a well-integrated grille and fog lights. The hood sits like a cap over the engine, fully inboard of the fenders.
Our test car had a newly available option for the LTZ trim, a 2.4-liter four cylinder engine. The LTZ can also be had with a 3.6-liter V-6.
As a medium-sized four door sedan, the Malibu competes with the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, and the Honda Accord.
The Malibu isn't particularly exciting to drive. It's a front-wheel-drive car and the four cylinder engine in our tester wasn't powerful.
The trunk of the Malibu isn't huge, limiting its usefulness for family road trips. But it would hold luggage for two just fine.
Although we didn't care for the two-tone beige and brown interior, it is nicely designed. The wood trim strip running across the dashboard is a little over the top.
Chevrolet puts cruise control, trip computer, and audio buttons on two spokes of the steering wheel. We weren't impressed with the handling, as the steering wasn't very responsive.
We were surprised to see paddle shifters on the steering wheel. With the six speed automatic, you can put the car into manual mode, choosing your gears with the paddles.
The speedometer is front and center, with the tach off to the left, giving an indication of this car's purpose.
You pull the shifter down to the M position to put the transmission in manual mode, where the paddle shifters become active.
We've seen this interface on multiple GM cars. It is functional, if not pretty. We particularly like that there are six sets of presets, and you can mix AM, FM, and satellite radio together.
The interface lets you choose which information to show for XM satellite radio tracks.
The LTZ comes with an eight speaker audio system using two subwoofers and a 210 watt amp. In practice, we weren't all that impressed with the audio quality. These presets are available to quickly adjust the audio quality.
The three band graphic equalizer lets you make custom audio settings, and has a nice graphic representation off to the side.
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