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In the city the 2.5L feels peppy and eager to go and once you get to cruising speed on the highway it is quiet when locked into the sixth gear. The only time the engine feels a little weak is when accelerating onto the highway or headed up hills.
Which brings me to the transmission and engine working together; the transmission is programmed to shift early and as a result often. It tends to hunt a little in any hilly terrain as it switches to sixth gear and realizes the engine isn’t powerful enough to maintain speed in that gear.
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Thankfully the shifts are mostly smooth, you just notice the extra engine sound. The Malibu also coasts for a long time, getting off the highway turning off the cruise and letting the car coast to the stop sign results in an impressive ability to maintain speed.
Conversely, when you leave the cruise control on, the car will tend to slow down considerably down hills to ensure you do not accelerate — I prefer the car let me gain a little free momentum, but that’s a minor quibble.
The start/stop system is really smooth on the Malibu and never does the car feel like it is stalling or not starting fast enough. GM has employed two batteries in the Malibu as well as an electric pump in the transmission to keep it primed and ready to go when you release the brake and it works well.
The Malibu is a good size externally and internally and this translates to easy parking and maneuverability. The back-up camera works awesome although the perspective is a little odd as the camera is above the license plate. The blind-spot detection and cross-traffic alert system ensure you stay safe in holiday parking lot bumper-car wars.
