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>> When I heard we had a Chevy Malibu LTZ in the garage, I got all excited.
>> The 3.6 liter V6 Malibu. This is going to be a rowdy [assumed spelling] little performer, right? Then I got in it, and it's a pig. No power, no torque. Then I check the details. This is the new Malibu LTZ, available with the optional scrawny 2.4 liter inline four. So what happens when you get the skinny four cylinder, is you give up eighty-three horsepower. You get down to a 169 horse in this car, run through a mandatory six speed automatic, which by the way Chevy says is the first car with an inline 4 and a standard 6 speed auto. That's probably true, but it's no badge of honor, because the combination is just slushy as hell. Let me give you a graphic example of what I mean. Here I am on the freeway, notice how I am completely moving and flooring the accelerator, and it does almost nothing to the car, I promise, we're barely changing our speed. Now, of course the reason you select the skinny engine option on this car, it's to save money, both on purchase price and gas. The price of the car comes down by about twelve hundred dollars when you get the inline four. Here's what happens to the fuel economy though. You go to 22, 30 versus 1726. So there's several miles per gallon in there, a hand full of MPG. Now, even if you dumb down the engine on your LTZ, everything else stays the same at a high trim level. And in this car, you see we have the upgraded audio system as well that all LTZs have, two hundred and ten watt, eight speaker, two subwoofers. It's a good sounding system with a lot of [inaudible]. Now, in terms of cabin tech, this car gives you the completely history of the word instead. Instead of an iPod adapter, you got to live with an ox jack [assumed spelling]. Instead of HD radio, you got to satisfy yourself with XM. Instead of a navigation screen, you have to use OnStar's turn-by-turn directions. And instead of hand's free bluetooth, you got to go buy yourself a headset. Now, the power comes out of this scrawny, little motor into a, as I mentioned standard six speed automatic. The transmission does have what they call tap [assumed spelling] shift. So you put it in the M mode back here, and that activates the paddles up here. No matter whether you're driving in the automatic mode or driving in the tap shift with the paddles, it's just a transmission that's too tuned to smooth shifts as opposed to getting the power out there, and that's fine, except when you stick that LTZ badge out there and now I expect something gutsier. I know a lot of you know I'm a Ford guy, so just to prove I'm not bashing the Chevy because I'm into the Blue [inaudible], I like a lot of Chevy's products right now. The Impala, for example, I think is an outstanding car in its class, and this car as well in general. For example, look at the interior quality and design, really good on this vehicle, nice layout, good economic. Also, the ride on this car is button down, nothing's rattling, nothing's coming undone, and I believe the exterior lines are really nice. This is a handsome competitor to the Accord and the Camry. So Chevy's made a statement here, saying you can sell a high trim car with a low class engine. They've done it, the execution's not real exciting, but I think the policy is a good one. Twenty-six five is the base with destination charge.
>> Eight hundred bucks [inaudible] get you a glass power roof, I would definitely do that, beyond that, there aren't really any tech options to play with.
^M00:03:34
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