Faults:

Air conditioning failed on the first attempted use -- vehicle was purchased in Feb. of 2001. The front seal on the compressor had failed.

The car was in the shop 2 days later for air conditioning repair for a replacement of the evaporator coil inside the car.

At 4000 miles, the engine had developed a miss when driving 70mph at 2000 rpm's. After 5 visits to the dealer, I'm told that it is because of the transmission design relating to the converter lockup. The problem is worse when it rains.

The front brake rotors were warped after only 11,000 miles.

At 39,000 mile and only 17 months of use the door stand-off (holds the door open) failed and makes a loud cracking noise when the door is opened or closed.

At 41000 miles and 19 months of use the ignition switch anti-theft failed and caused a No-Start condition making the car in-operable.

This repair cost $390.00. I was informed by several mechanics that this is a constant problem with this vehicle.

General Comments:

The car has adequate room and power, but lacks quality for the money. I wish I had purchased the Toyota Camry V6 for about $1700- $2000 more.

Faults:

I had to have new rotors and brake pads at 15000 km, and have had to install new pads and rotors every 15-20000 km since then. I have installed new two new wheel bearings on the front and one on the back. The engine warning light keeps coming on and it costs me $80.00 every time to get it turned off and there is nothing wrong with the car.

General Comments:

GM really needs to improve the front end of these cars.

Faults:

Headlight assembly filled with water.

Taillights went out. I had to take the car to the dealership several times to them to correct all of the problems.

Extreme amount of rattles. The dealership had to address this issue also.

Brakes were grinding.

Engine was missing. It is in the shop for the second time for this.

General Comments:

While the people at the dealership are polite, they have not demonstrated any capacity to fix the car the first time I bring it in.

This car is only a year old and I took it to the shop for the 6th time today.

Faults:

After the first 2 days the car check engine light went on, it was a sensor in the exhaust that needed to be re-calibrated.

The back door on the driver's side keeps squeaking when we open or close it.

My check engine light went on again, this time it was because of a cracked head gasket at 25000 Kilometres.

I had to get new front brake pads for my car at 30000 Kilometres, and had to get the disks machined because they were very warped. The service rep at the dealer agreed with me that there was premature break ware on the Malibu. He also explained to me that when conceiving the Malibu, GM essentially took the same breaks as on the Cavalier and put them on the Malibu. They took small car breaks and put them on a bigger car.

General Comments:

We leased this car hoping GM had fixed the problems we had read about the previous model years on this site. They didn't. I have another 2 1/2 years of leasing with this car, not really knowing what will be the next thing to break of malfunction on the car.

In general, I'm satisfied of the way the car drives and also the performance. Also I find that it's a nice looking car, with a nice interior and well equipped base model.

It has plenty of leg and head space, that's why we went with the Malibu. Because I'm a big guy, I always hit my head on the roof as I was getting into all the other cars we test drove, and the Malibu didn't give me that problem.

I wonder if it was worth the headaches it has or hasn't given me!!!

GM sent me a survey to fill out after I had the brakes redone. I wasn't shy about what I had to say. I told them that I would never buy another GM, because of the crap they try to sell us.