2002 Chevrolet Malibu review from North America

The brakes are an absolute disaster on this car! I usually get 40,000 miles out of brakes on a vehicle, and with the Malibu I had brake issues at 18,000 miles. Got a whole lot of BS from the dealership that it must be the way I drive. Later I find out it's a known issue.

My car has started to idle funny and now I'm told by mechanics (GM says nothing is wrong) I may need the plugs changed which is pricey.

The electrical system started going on the fritz and my radio blew and it took out the instrumentation lights. GM (car is still under warranty) tried to say it's probably squirrel damage. After quite an argument with the dealership, they replaced the radio/CD player under warranty. It took 3 days. All of a sudden my instrumentation lights went back on, so they gave me the car back. A week later the instrumentation lights flickered, but did not go out permanently.

Car is a gas pig. The V6, although small only gets me 17mpg around town. All my former Camry's had equivalent or more pep with a 4 cylinder engine and much better gas mileage.

Guess what? I've had it. Before this "under warranty" car (which GM and dealership tries not to cover under warranty) costs me one more penny or loss of use issue I decided to take a $5,000 negative equity hit (the car will never be worth close to what one pays) and traded it in yesterday on a Toyota Matrix. Taking delivery today. I'm so happy to get out of this car I could scream.

Overall the car had good room, good heating system, good pickup and was a fine "average" sedan, although prone to a lot of road noise.

It's all GM's quality issues with the car and which they try not to acknowledge, plus the fact that this car has such heavy depreciation that made me feel compelled to "cut my losses" now.