While foreign manufacturers have captured a significant market share for midsized cars, the Chevrolet Malibu has made inroads against such market heavyweights as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Mazda6. It was named North American Car of the Year for 2008 and added Bluetooth capability for 2009 and standard six-speed automatic transmission for the top two models.

Whether General Motors’ struggles will affect Malibu’s continued ascent is unknown. What is known: Malibu is a good-looking, smooth handling five-seater that gets excellent mileage with the six-speed automatic transmission paired with a four-cylinder engine – a market exclusive.

Our test drive was the top-of-the- line Malibu LTZ with spiffy two-tone leather seats, deeply cowled gauges backlit in blue, leather-wrapped steering wheel and chrome-accented, covered dashboard tray. On the outside, wheels are pushed into the corners blending handling with appearance. Smooth contours without character lines or chrome accents, a longish nose and sharply sloped windshield provide a nice, if undistinctive, profile. Twin round red taillights are reminiscent of a Corvette and the LTZ comes with front fog lights and clear LED taillights.

Malibu shares its basic underbody design with other GM products, such as the Saab 9-3, Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura. Our 2.4-liter Ecotec engine, paired with the smooth-shifting automatic transmission with manual option, averaged more than 400 miles a tankful in mixed city/highway driving or $32 a fill-up at $2 a gallon. That’s green and economical. Using the manual option, acceleration was sufficient to handle merge onramps and mingle with fast moving highway traffic.

Handling was excellent with StabiliTrak adding extra braking power automatically when panic braking is detected. The four-wheel independent suspension system uses MacPherson struts in front and multi-link suspension in the rear. LTZ comes with 18-inch aluminum wheels, while the LS and 1LT models use 17-inch wheels.
Road and engine noise were seriously muted, giving extra listening pleasure with an eight-speaker, 210-watt sound system. Seats were firm but the 8-way power driver seat positioning was somewhat hindered due to limited steering wheel adjustment and no pedal extenders. There is a much-needed armrest.

Malibu earned top crash safety marks for driver and passenger in frontal crashes and in side impact crashes for front and rear seats. The federal rollover safety rating
was four out of five stars. Malibu’s are assembled in Kansas City.