2007 Malibu SS...WHY?

[MinisterofDOOM]

Why did this car exist? Why did PEOPLE ACTUALLY BUY THEM????????



You take the most sub-par of blandiferous appliancemobiles, tack on some gaudy Pep-Boys fog lights and oversized wheels, add an outdated and gutless 3.9 liter V6 (240hp!!!!!!) and add a strut tower brace and call it an SS????

More shocking than its sheer existence is the fact that PEOPLE. PAID. MONEY. For these cars. Think about that. That means that this barely rental-worthy excuse for a toaster actually attracted buyers who CARED ABOUT PERFORMANCE. What the Hell were they thinking?!?!?!??!!! There are exactly INFINITY other options out there that would so ALL THINGS EVER better than the Malibu SS!!! It DID NOT handle well. It wasn't fast. Those fog lights are ridiculous. It's still a 6th gen Malibu. The styling still looks like a cardboard standee of a real car.

I don't understand. It's like buying a Camry GT Edition or something. That car was NEVER going to be a performer. If that's what you want from a car, you're looking in the wrong damn place.

[AZhitman]

...because UAW.

[nissangirl74]

...because UAW.

/thread

[PapaSmurf2k3]

In GM's defense, that photographer tried his damndest to make that thing look appetizing. Kudos to him/her!

[Jesda]

I forgot about this car. You are a d!ck for reminding me of it.

[stm37s]

I forgot about this car. You are a d*** for reminding me of it.

to funny, LOL

[krash]

Probably one of those things where a buyer goes in wanting to buy a family sedan and the salesman talks them into getting the one with all the bells and whistles.

That car does look pretty decent in that picture though...

[MinisterofDOOM]

I forgot about this car. You are a d*** for reminding me of it.

That's what I felt like saying to the woman in the blue one who stopped across from me at an intersection yesterday.

In GM's defense, that photographer tried his damndest to make that thing look appetizing. Kudos to him/her!

It's a Cardomain shot.

[Loki]

People bought this? I thought I was fairly well-versed in cars, yet I have never seen nor heard of a Malibu SS. I see Cobalt SS models fairly often, and I really hate Chevy for thinking such an iconic badge belongs on a FWD car.

I see trophy wives and other people who are on the far other spectrum of a car enthusiast driving things like BMW M5, or Mercedes ML63 AMG and they always struck me as the sort of person that said, "I want a car to fill this function, and then I want the most expensive, top of the line version of that car!" That's the sort of person I see buying a Malibu SS.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I see Cobalt SS models fairly often, and I really hate Chevy for thinking such an iconic badge belongs on a FWD car.

The later Cobalt SS was actually a pretty decent little car. Unlike the Malibu SS, it actually had lots of genuine performance upgrades. Early models had a less powerful S/C 2.0 (and before that, a N/A 2.4), but later ones got a 2.0 turbo that evolved into the engine found in tons of Chevy, Buick, and even Cadillac models today. They also had a decent 5M/T with LSD, and suspension was reworked as much as was possible for the basic econobox setup. Much more deserving of the SS badging than the "upgraded" Malibu.

W-body Impalas were yet another front-driver to get the SS badge. It traded the standard 3.9 V6 (the same engine that was an upgrade in the Malibu SS) for the 5.3 liter LS4 V8. All aluminum and OVH, so it was very light and compact. Unfortunately the chassis wasn't up to the task of DOING much with the meager 303hp the engine made. Ironically, for the last couple years of W-body production, the car dropped ALL previous powertrain options in exchange for the new LFX V6 across the board...so a 2012 base model makes as much power as a 2009 top-end SS.

[Jesda]

The W-body Impala SS suffered badly from oil consumption (something about variable cylinder displacement) and transmission failure. I'm baffled by why it took so many years for the 3.6 to find its way into the rest of GM's lineup.

[Bubba1]

Why did this car exist?


Because the manufacturer subscribes to the PT Barnum theory that a sucker is born every minute.



Why did PEOPLE ACTUALLY BUY THEM????????

Because it's true. Hardly surprising. Next thing you know, a Japanese manufacturer might offer a soft riding , overstyled, FWD, cvt-only family sedan, slap a tiny deck lid spoiler on it and pathetically market it as a "4 door sports car"...

[AZhitman]

I see Cobalt SS models fairly often, and I really hate Chevy for thinking such an iconic badge belongs on a FWD car.

The later Cobalt SS was actually a pretty decent little car.

Possibly, but they didn't last long. Granted, they may have been destroyed by all the chump ricers that bought them up, but I haven't seen one on the roads in a LONG time.

[Bubba1]

I see two non-ricey ones regularly at VIR, one of them belonging to an instructor friend. Those little Turbo SS's are a well kept secret. Just when you want to condemn GM for offering us a POS like the Malibu SS, they build something great like the Cobalt turbo SS or Corvette.

The Cobalt Turbo SS belonging to my friend has had an interesting life. It began its life as a test subject for Jesda's beloved ( )Consumer Reports, and later a test mule for their tire tests. It was then purchased by my friend who happens to be an exec at the National Corvette Museum . The car ended up doing additional time as a test mule by corvette engineers in Bowling Green. Yes, it's wrong wheel drive and cheaply built, and looks like any other boring cobalt, but It's an insanely competent and quick track car that most folks wouldn't even look twice at. That's the definition of a sleeper, folks. Though it's street legal and he likes driving it for errands, he uses the car primarily as a track day fun car.
He told me he loves that Cobalt not only because it's quick, nimble and fun, but the cost to track the car is ridiculously cheap compared to the Z06's he had been tracking.

The other one belongs to a former beginner student, who is now an intermediate. I spent some time in it during his first time excercises (skid pad, slalom, etc) and I was duly impressed by the car. GM is capable of building some great vehicles, its just annoying that they don't build them all that way.

[elwesso]

GM is capable of building some great vehicles, its just annoying that they don't build them all that way.

I think that in the last 25 years, any car that GM has built that's been truly great has been an accident (or at least not intentional)... Other examples of this that come to mind are the 1st gen CTS-V, 5th gen Seville's, and some other's I'm sure. Overall the only car that GM has consistently been good over the last 25 years has been the corvette, and there were even some iffy times for that car in that range.

The Malibu SS however is in the same boat as the Envoy XUV, IMO.