According to Automotive News, Malibus sales are currently split 40 percent four-cylinder and 60 percent six-cylinder, but the new powertrain is expected to shift the mix to 30/70. Helping to achieve that mix, the new powertrain will retail for $1,200 less than a comparably equipped V6 Malibu.

Does that make sense to anyone? Adding a 6 speed auto is reducing the sales of the 4 cylinder?

So a transmission that improves mileage and is $1.2k cheaper than the v6 is supposed to lose 10% of the sales? wtf

yeah ,dude ,is totally ****ed up. Doesn’t make sense/

they probably meant 30% v6/ 70% I-4

I wonder what this transmission will do in the mild Hybrid version.

another LLN typo I reckon.

This straight from Automotive News:

“Meloeny said that among current customers, 60 percent want a four-cylinder engine and 40 percent the V-6. Once this powertrain is available, he expects that to shift to a 70/30 mix.”

C’mon LLN, check yourself once in a while…you have too many errors lately.

Consumer Reports is sooooooo nervous.

More garbage from GM

The Malibu isn’t a bad sedan, but the endless hype is out of proportion to the car’s significance. There is nothing groundbreaking about this vehicle. Given GM’s formidable resources, the question should be: what took so long?

Jon Luc – and why is that?

I don’t care how many f*cking gears they give the 4 cylinder. Offer either engine (preferably the 6) with a 6 spd manual and then they would really be on par with the top models in this class.

johnny, we are witnessing “shock to the system” reaction in my country. Gas more then doubled in the past 4 years and will go higher. The days of 6 cylinder cars for the masses are gone. We are also heading into recession or already there. The kids who post on the site and state their preference for good old muscle cars drive their parents old wheels and probably pay for gas but live with parents and have no worries, except genital herpes.
American middle class makes 70-100K and Europeans make more. Asians are getting richer by selling us all of our goods, including Chevy motors. They will drive cars and their level of living will go up. Not ours, not in US, and my guess not in Canada. Canada already has large number of small inexpensive cars from all over the world (I recall seeing Lada in Montreal). It is coming to US and it is shocking for those who don’t remember 80’s.

autonut: unless something’s been going on that I don’t know about there hasn’t been a new Lada imported into Canada in close to 20 years. Truth be told however, I was close to buying a Niva at one point just for a laugh.

I do share your point of view from the economic perspective and it is the younger people such as our children that I worry about. Even with the upper middle class lifestyle and salaries my wife and I currently enjoy if we had to venture into the current Vancouver/Lower Mainland real estate market we certainly wouldn’t have near the spark plug count we have now just for starters.

All thing’s cycle through however, and the one piece of advice I give my children is don’t be scared to take the plunge. There are always bargains in any economic climate and if something seems unobtainable give it a shot anyways. Everyone’s been shot down in flames a few times in their life. It’s called adulthood.

Jon Luc: the only garbage I see around here is your worthless comment.

For Chevy’s sake I hope the MPG claims actually pan out. My mother in-law bought a 2LT Malibu in January…she does mostly city driving (8 mile commute to work) and has been averaging only 18 MPG per tank (4-banger w/ 4 speed auto). Needless to say my in-laws aren’t too pleased with these results. They bought this car to help support an American company and are getting burnt for it (old car was a 99 Buick Century V6 which managed better mileage). Their second choice was an Altima but the sales guy was a jerk…I recommended an Accord or (gasp) even a Camry since she only needs a transportation appliance.

The Malibu could use slightly better fuel economy if they want to sell more of them

Nice engine/tranny package. Except… whoops… they can’t build any of the cars b/c of the AA strike.

Autonut, your off-the-cuff analysis is spot-on. Things are looking bad in North America, and I don’t see people swallowing an extra $200 a month in gas expenses when a 1% rise in mortgage rates is causing some of them to foreclose.

The solution is going to be smaller cars with stickshift. Montreal is loaded with little cars – everywhere you go you see Golfs, Mazda3s, Civics, Yarises, etc. Even though the population up here is slowly accrueing wealth (don’t ask me how, that’s the eternal mystery in Montreal) I don’t see a significantly higher ratio of big, expensive, inefficient cars. It’s probably the price of gas to blame.

Manual transmissions can save another 2 MPG, and cost less to buy, but most Americans are too lazy to shift for themselves, too ignorant to know about the fuel economy benefits of manuals, and too lazy to even try to learn how to drive a manual.

Hey Snork, they may want to wait until they hit 1,200 miles or so on the car to break in the engine/transimission. It may take them a while going 16 miles a day.

Deanster, one of the reasons they are accruing wealth is that they are not so focused on blowing everything they have on frivolous crap like large expensive inefficient cars. Americans are conditioned and steered toward blowing all they earn on every piece of garbage imaginable to alleviate an inferiority complex, which is why for the past year or two our net national private savings rate has been negative – even with all the basic price rises people don’t know how to cut back much on frivolous garbage. It’s pretty simple: if people extend themselves too damn much they take it in the shorts when there is a downtick, which invariably happens.

And for the doom- & gloomers, remember: this too shall pass. If you look at the past 100 years USA economic history, you have about 35 years good times, 40 years so-so times, and 25 years bad times (where the nation was going to economic hell). 25 years ago it was the Japanese who were going to take over the whole world, now it’s the Chinese except they have to deal with those pesky Indians. Impulsive rightfully points to the USD as a major source of our woes, and until our crappy federal reserve gets its act together and follows a moderate to stronger dollar policy, the necessary but also painful correction for the prior excesses will not occur. The fed keeps basically prescribing Advil to an economic cancer patient when chemo-therapy is necessary. Advil makes the pain seem less, but the problem only gets worse, and the American voting is too stupid to understand the reality of the problem, and our current governing bodies are too cowardly to deal with it effectively. As an import-dependent economy, we must have a stronger currency or radical inflation will eventually occur, which is precisely what we are seeing and will continue to see because the fed is determined to undermine the USD even more. These problems are not a result of the Chinese or even OPEC.

Cookie4me, I told them the same thing…we’re hoping for the some better MPGs once the engine gets fully broken in. My V6 Accord didn’t max fuel economy util about 10k miles, but for me that’s only about 4 months worth of driving, LOL.

Americans are what? Everyone hear lives in a fing bubble, mix it up people you sound like paranoid idiots. saying people in one place arent lazier then in another place because one buys more stick shifts. Really, while americans work more hours and out produce nearly everyone. While 25% of France, Spain, Italy and Belgium is on some sort of welfare. But no they arent lazy they shift for themselves.

howsmydriving, you said “The Malibu isn’t a bad sedan, but the endless hype is out of proportion to the car’s significance.”
The significance is that in the days when GM had a 50% market share Joe Public drove a GM car. Today, if GM has any hopes of gaining market share and becoming profitable it will have to be done via the conquest of Camry/Accord/Altima/Sonata owners. We seem to be at that turning point and I’m glad for GM. BTW, I drove an LTZ and it’s great! I have my eyes on an ‘09 2LT I4/6AT. I think it’s the best value for money right now.

Jon Luc – I agree its crap until proven otherwise

‘mayer’, BINGO!

The US dollar will drop to AT LEAST .52 USDX (it’s at .72 now) … if you think things are bad now, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. The Europeans should have shifted manufacturing to the US by now to take advantage of an ever-plummeting dollar. Gas prices are going much higher. Inflation rates, when the government finally has to be accountable, will skyrocket. American investment banks, as they now exist, will be no more. The financial sytem has failed … you are only seeing a coverup by using public money to keep all entities on life support … the billions in write-downs you are witnessing is nothing compared to what’s coming … derivatives are at fault and the only thing that has provided for ever-increasing bank profits … that time is up. The budget deficit will EXPLODE upwards. Tax revenues are plummeting … cities are borderline bankrupt.

I’ve written here before warning that things are getting much worse and have had some monkeys reply in opposition. Fools were proven wrong since and will be proven wrong again and again. I say buy gold as a guaranteed investment that will double in LESS than 3 years … get your money, ALL OF IT, out of 401k, any retirement accounts, GICs, anything long-term. You can thank me in 2011.

^ Agreed Impulsive. My buddies that work for Citigroup are telling me the same thing. It’s a ****ing disaster, and they’re financially bracing for some seriously black days ahead.

Deanster, Citigroup (or passionately ****y) was disaster since early 90’s when they were caught with pants down without working capital.
I am not promoting gloom. I don’t worry about my children’s future and their standard of living being worse then mine: their education will be better then what I could count on. As far as I am concerned others responsible for their own brood. Cars are only minor reasons for pollution and credit crisis: is it really necessary for all new houses in North East to be at least 3000-4000 sq. feet (300-400 sq. meters) for a family of 4? Those houses need to be heated and cooled – drag on environment, and payed for – drag on budget. It is nice that Gore promotes environment – his bungalow in Tennessee is 28,000 sq. feet. His apartment in Manhattan is over 4,000.
Impulsive, gold probably will go up but it also will go down – it always does. I hope you know when to get out – in commodities timing is everything. The oil is definitely will go only up in a long run. Everybody wants to drive.

‘Deanster’, the wealth management side of CITI and the other investment banks is not an issue. Unfortunately, job losses continue as there is no way out of what’s coming … Joe and Jane six pack have no idea.

‘autonut’, do you have any idea what their capital ratios are today? Essentially zero. That is why the Fed is “lending” 28 day money and will continue to “lend” it to avoid a global catastrophe … one which is unavoidable. Gold will not go down before 2011 and from I am reading there will NOT be a January 1980 peak resulting in a reverse course drop in price this time. Read up on a gold certificate ratio … gold will stay high as a backing of currency. Don’t be concerned with timing everything … commodities are in for many more years of rising … the Indias and Chinas will not stop growing in the next 20 years. You’ll see.

The only new powertrain that will be even remotely worth mentioning will be an electric fuel cell powertrain. Screw the Fed… screw the dollar… the one thing that will get America back on it’s feet is energy independence. If we’re going to blow massive amounts of money on something in this country, it should be on R&D of hydrogen fuel cells and the storage and distribution of hydrogen. We’re supposed to be the wealthiest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of the world… yet we can’t seem to get off our asses and do this… at least not while we have big oil sitting atop out government. Screw ethanol subsidies… we need to subsidize hydrogen research. It just shows the blind stupidity of the American energy/oil companies… because the first one’s to get it down are going to be the wealthiest people the world has ever seen.

And as a wise man once said… once that happens… it’s back to making carpets and riding camels for those in the middle east.

@ amgoff:
The only new powertrain that will be even remotely worth mentioning is the one borrowed from the Taurus or Fusion