2.4 ecotec. Very smooth. Had to open the hood and rub my eyes in disbelief at the 4-banger.
Throttle by wire. Junk! Has a mode where the car gets peppier for the same pedal input the faster it goes. Seems to cross thresholds at 25, 35, and 45 MPH. Once when I had the pedal steady in the middle it hit one of those thresholds and temporarily downshifted then re-upshifted! Also at wide open pedal I don't think I got wide open throttle until 25 MPH... was trying to get into traffic and not exactly thrilled. Wonder if I would have had better results with trac control off. Dry pavement but it might be how they cheat for the magazine performance tests.
Transmission was very nice, they use that aggravating TBW to do quick firm shifts with little jarring. IIRC it's a 5 speed and above 3rd gear or so I can't even mentally keep track of what gear it's in. Also they keep torque convertor lockup engaged most of the time. It's an automatic for the stick shift driver to get stuck with when renting.
At 12k miles the passenger power window fell off its track. I got it back in most of the way but it whistled.
Gas mileage was probably pretty good; I can't be sure I got it with a 100% full tank. I turned it in with 20 miles on the tank I filled and a previous person could have done the same. Figured out the trip odometer built into the radio much later as well.
I'm 6 foot, 34 inch inseam, and my torso is slightly too long for this car. Seems engineered for a very specific height driver. Has that fashionable narrow side window tank-like treatment. Tough to see out the back when reversing too.
The rear doors are very long in a wedge shape which interferes in the parking lot. The seatbacks are 8-10 useless inches forward of the rear part of the opening. Stupid!
Parked next to a saturn aura which would seem to be this thing's twin along with the new malibu. Have heard rave reviews on the other two. I will concede this thing handled wonderfully. I liked the firm suspension and lack of lean. Wonder if interior stuff will loosen up over 200,000 miles and rattle.
A stripped down stick shift version with a tamed or eliminated throttle by wire, height adjustable seat that could be lowered, crank 'em windows etc would be the only way to get one of these in my garage.
Throttle by wire. Junk! Has a mode where the car gets peppier for the same pedal input the faster it goes. Seems to cross thresholds at 25, 35, and 45 MPH. Once when I had the pedal steady in the middle it hit one of those thresholds and temporarily downshifted then re-upshifted! Also at wide open pedal I don't think I got wide open throttle until 25 MPH... was trying to get into traffic and not exactly thrilled. Wonder if I would have had better results with trac control off. Dry pavement but it might be how they cheat for the magazine performance tests.
Transmission was very nice, they use that aggravating TBW to do quick firm shifts with little jarring. IIRC it's a 5 speed and above 3rd gear or so I can't even mentally keep track of what gear it's in. Also they keep torque convertor lockup engaged most of the time. It's an automatic for the stick shift driver to get stuck with when renting.
At 12k miles the passenger power window fell off its track. I got it back in most of the way but it whistled.
Gas mileage was probably pretty good; I can't be sure I got it with a 100% full tank. I turned it in with 20 miles on the tank I filled and a previous person could have done the same. Figured out the trip odometer built into the radio much later as well.
I'm 6 foot, 34 inch inseam, and my torso is slightly too long for this car. Seems engineered for a very specific height driver. Has that fashionable narrow side window tank-like treatment. Tough to see out the back when reversing too.
The rear doors are very long in a wedge shape which interferes in the parking lot. The seatbacks are 8-10 useless inches forward of the rear part of the opening. Stupid!
Parked next to a saturn aura which would seem to be this thing's twin along with the new malibu. Have heard rave reviews on the other two. I will concede this thing handled wonderfully. I liked the firm suspension and lack of lean. Wonder if interior stuff will loosen up over 200,000 miles and rattle.
A stripped down stick shift version with a tamed or eliminated throttle by wire, height adjustable seat that could be lowered, crank 'em windows etc would be the only way to get one of these in my garage.