26th Jan 2008, 20:36
I have a 99' Chevy Malibu and it is a total crap.. I have owned it for about 5 years.. bought it with about 70K miles on it. I have had to replace brake pads numerous times, suspension is crap, ABS light was always on... and it mysteriously went off recently. Now the Airbag light has been on constantly. For those of you who are lucky with these cars perhaps you will experience this in a few years because I do all the required maintenance in the car, but it's still acting up.
11th Feb 2008, 10:21
I have owned my 1999 Malibu since 2000 when I bought it with 30,000mi. 8 years later I still have it and it just now sprang the infamous coolant leak from the water pump. I don't know if it is worth it to fix, because the value on these cars is pretty low, but other than that I only replaced the brakes once, and the alternator once, I also had to replace the starter, but it was my fault it went bad. I don't think that is too bad for a car I have had for 7-8 years. There was a comment I read that said people may be driving their cars to hard. I agree.
31st May 2008, 02:43
I own a 1999 Malibu that has about 150,000 miles on it. I got it about a year ago with around 95,000 miles on it. I've put some serious mileage on it due to the fact that I travel quite a bit for work. I have had no serious problems with my car, and I absolutely love it.
There are some minor problems with it, such as the fuel gauge spontaneously dropping to empty when it gets down to around 1/4 of a tank, and for some reason, once in a while the driver's side power window will stop working for a day or so, but then magically fix itself. Still haven't figured that one out, but I haven't looked real hard either.
Also, my CD player stopped working recently, but my kids may have been the culprits there.
I have really been lacking as far as oil changes, tire rotation, etc, but after reading some horror stories here, I will be changing my oil and hugging my car first thing in the morning.
I don't know what to say for the people who have had nothing but problems with their Malibu. Maybe some ARE driving them too hard, or maybe some of it comes down to the cars just being assembled at different times by different people. Maybe the third shift guys on the assembly line did their jobs better than the first shift guys. I don't know, I'm not a doctor. I just wanted to let you all know how fortunate I feel after reading some of these comments, and I will not take my Malibu for granted as I have. I had just always assumed they were dependable vehicles based only on my own experience with mine.
It might also be worth noting that my Malibu is a salvage car. Who knows, the time and care taken to rebuild it may have made the difference. But like I said before, I'm not a doctor.
1st Aug 2008, 22:59
My son has a 99 Chevy Malibu. This car is a piece of crap!!!
Way to go GM. I wonder why they are having to lay off 1000's of American workers. Wake up and start building cars like they used to.
11th Aug 2008, 01:26
I just bought a 99 malibu, I am saying my prayers after reading this. It has some of the problems listed, ac control only works on 3 or above, rust around gas filler door but over all it seems like a decent car. 180,000 miles for $800, I'll drive it till the wheels fall off. I agree that GM could have done better though.
24th Sep 2008, 16:19
I have Chevrolet Malibu LS 1999, and I hate this car. It's the worst car that I have ever driven, and I will never buy any Chevrolet.
4th Nov 2008, 15:44
It was humorous reading all the comments. I have a 1999 Malibu and a 1993 Camry. I have spent more time driving the Camry and less time fixing it. I spend more time fixing the Malibu and less time driving it... and the Camry has 6 years and 80K miles more than the Malibu (it's crossed 200K). Can't blame driving habits here. Some of the repeated problems that everyone else seems to have:
1. Water filled tail lights.
2. #1 and 2 on the blower didn't work.
3. A/C has its own mind about when it wants to turn off.
4. Intake manifold gasket needed to be fixed (anyone who has coolant disappearing may have to do this, as it could be catastrophic to the car if coolant gets into the engine) - Switch to the GREEN STUFF at your next flush.
5. Paint flew off the hood (probably the same spot it does on all other Malibu's).
6. Rear spring broke.
7. Rust around lower edge of all four doors (at least give it to GM for being consistent, they didn't get 2 or 3, they got all 4 doors!!).
8. Fuel gauge must have talked with the A/C control, as that drops to "E" when it feels like it.
9. Alternator died - Bless his soul, but being built by GM, he didn't stand a chance
10. Knobs on the stereo just broke, and those are the ones I don't use (Balance and Fade). I could understand if it was Vol control.
They say automotive jobs generate a lot of other jobs. Yes... GM does generate a lot, because all those other people are fixing the cars that GM has built!!
6th Dec 2007, 10:37
My 1999 Malibu (4 cylinder) now has 145,000 miles on it and still runs great.
Other than replacing the driver's side window control switch once (which is very easy to replace yourself), all I have done is perform regular maintenance on it and it keeps going... and going...and going.
I have read many "horror stories" others have had, but in my case I have had a very good experience with this car.
As for a couple of the other comments saying they believe anyone with a positive experience must be either a GM dealer or a "paid" reviewer; that is wrong. Just because many people have problems with a vehicle does not mean everyone who purchased that vehicle ends up with the same problems.
I also have a 2003 Ford Powerstroke 6.0 Diesel and many people have had problems with theirs, but so far NO problems with that one either (and many others also have reported they have no problems). I understand why people would be upset with vehicle problems, but I have also read reviews where people had something like 80,000 (or more) miles on their Malibu's and expected the tires, brakes, etc to never need replaced when those are general maintenance items needing replaced on EVERY car.
Someone can complain about a lot of things, but please do not include general maintenance items in the complaints because nothing lasts forever. I guess as another person already stated "I must have gotten a good one".