Meet your future rental upgrade

[Jesda]

From this:


To this:






Likes:
Dashboard and center stack, borrowing from the elegant 2008 Malibu
Exterior styling
Size
303 hp

Dislikes:
Apparent ground clearance
Ugly Mercedes-inspired steering wheel
Long front overhang


It looks like the final production version got sharper creases to reduce visual height and give the impression of a longer, lower car. It looks sleeker than the Cadillac XTS and Buick Lacrosse.

The new 2013 Malibu, on the other hand, is a turd, likely neutered to give the Impala more breathing room.

[MinisterofDOOM]

The XTS always made more sense with a bowtie on the grille (or ANYTHING BUT the wreath and crest). This is far nicer looking, cleaner, and a less confused product as a whole than the XTS. The nose looks quite nice.
I don't like the Altima-inspired C-pillar and accompanying thick chrome swath. It looks out of place on a non-bizzare-looking American design. Nor do I like the Altima-style not-quite-Bangle-Butt trunk seam that doesn't really know what to do with itself and will look TERRIBLE on light-colored Impalas.
There's a lot of Sonata/Optima in that rear end, but it kind of sort of works and is certainly cleaner, sharper, and better realized than the too-busy Sonata.

Oh, and is it just me, or does that rear bench look 1870s flat? But, then, I guess you don't really need buckets if the most aggressive thing you're going to do in the car is parallel park.

SAYONARA W-BODY. You will NOT be missed.

I agree with your take on the new Malibu. What a failure. Especially disappointing after its predecessor did so many things right. GM will definitely regret its failure there. Rather than building on an improving reputation, they've bombed it. Aside from being generic and unimpressive feature-wise, it's fat, tall, and bloated, looking more like a giant Cobalt than a proper midsize sedan.

[gwoods]

Wait isnt' the XTS a Buick? Oh GM when will you stop cannibalizing yourself by offering the same car from 3 different brands?

[MinisterofDOOM]

The XTS is (appallingly) a Cadillac. A front-wheel-drive, V6-only Cadillac. With proportions like a dead whale. And styling to appeal to "young urban buyers" which means so much chrome there's a serious risk of blindness when approaching one head-on.

Just comparing pictures of the XTS and Impala side-by-side, the Impala's nose is WAY, WAY lower and longer looking than the XTS's, which looks like it's about 15 feet high and four inches long.

[frapjap]

Thats a pretty damned good looking car- especially on the interior.
I'm not a huge fan of the rear haunches. There is too much Charger in there (I abhor that line on the Charger) and the line doesn't make a clean transition from the chrome side sill and the front fender arch.

Otherwise, Jesda is right, I'm looking forwards to having one of those for a rental in the near future.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I like the Charger's haunches (though not the black plastic they used to fake the shape of the windows above them). In fact I think the redesigned Charger's lack of haunches makes it look a hundred times more generic and really ruins the car for me (or at least, finishes the job the factory body damage in the doors started)
I like the new Mustang's haunches as well.

The Impala's suck, though. Because they're not real haunches. They're way below the beltline, and don't add anything to the car's sillhouette. They're also a carbon-copy of some generic-with-a-trace-of-ugly car I can't quite manage to recall.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I agree with your take on the new Malibu. What a failure. Especially disappointing after its predecessor did so many things right. GM will definitely regret its failure there.

Hey, it wouldn't be GM without at least one absolute turd in the lineup.