Faults:

My thermostat went out.

I needed both motor mounts and a belt tensioner.

And now my radiator coolant is leaking from a hose or my thermostat.

General Comments:

The car is a excellent car once its up and running. I have drove that car twice to Virginia, once to Florida, and about six times to Atlanta. The car is 9 years old and it runs great.

Faults:

Engine had to be replaced. Within 6 months the window motor has to be replaced. The shop tells me that the injectors have gone bad. With labor this will cost over $750.00. The struts have gone bad and that "mysterious electrical problem remains a mystery. The car is running at the present time, but the mechanic can't tell me how he got it started and I was charged $250.00 for the diagnostics. I am told I need to bring it in and have further diagnostics done in order to find the problem. Anyone, who owns this car and hasn't had all these problems is lucky indeed.

Faults:

Currently the car is sitting in our drive way waiting for a part to arrive and then it will be fixed, our fuel pump finally went out. We'd had problems with it since about 6 months after I bought it in the spring of 99, we had it into the shop and they did a test on it and discovered that the relay was bad we replaced it and continued to replace them till the fuel pump completely died. Our drivers window will no longer go down when its in the shop I'm going to have them look into fixing that. We've also had a bunch of problems with the Anti-theft system, we recently installed an alarm and hopefully that will keep the problem at bay. Oh and the tires on mine are rather pricey. I don't know if its because we have the Gold package on ours and the rims are maybe different of if everyone is like this. I'm glad that I'm no loner single and that my husband can help me get my next car and not get stuck with a LEMON...

General Comments:

The car is a blast to drive I love how it handles.

Faults:

At 115,000 the whole braking system went bad. Calipers, master cylinder, everything. Cost about $350 to fix.

Soon after, the windshield wiper motor went bad. Sounds minor huh? No, it was a $200 fix.

At 117,000, the gas tank went bad and started to leak small amounts of gasoline. I still haven't fixed it, but I can't fill my tank up.

When it was time for New York State inspection, the OBED system had so many problems that I can't list. In the end, I spent about $500 fixing it just to pass the emissions inspection. It never passed, so I finally took the car to a friend who owned a garage and he helped it to pass with the addition of another $150.

At 122,000 the passenger side steering arm went bad. $150 fix.

Now at 128,000 the car doesn't accelerate smoothly, leaks anti-freeze, also gasoline, the engine quivers like a cold animal and the suspension makes all kinds of weird noises.

General Comments:

One good thing about the Malibu is the powerful 3.1 Liter engine. It's quick and fast and fun to drive when operating correctly.

However, that is few and far in between so it ends up just being very expensive to maintain and overall not worth it. I once owned a 91 Cavalier, and it was a good runner. I thought the Chevy name could compete after that, but this Malibu has definitely made me think twice about owning another Chevy. Don't buy any Malibu before 2001!