[tgagneguam]

I don't think the Malibu will steel any sales from either the Accord or Camry. It is certainly a much improved vehicle,however, it has only managed to catch up, not leap ahead of the competition. The arrival of the 6-speed in the 4 cylinder will certainly help if it will be available in the base and LT models. The Malibu has been available for two months now and I am yet to see one on the road. New Accords are all over the place. What gives?

I'm not convinced this generation Malibu will, either. And as much as the Enclave and new CTS (and the GMT-900 FS SUV's and the Corvette) seem to sit at the head of their respective classes, the new Malibu doesn't seem to be superlative for its class. It's certainly good, and it certainly crushes the last generation 'Bu, but I'm not so certain it's class leading. It is refreshing that it can score so strongly against the traditional leaders of the family sedan market, though. Had this comparison been conducted just 12 months ago, the results would have been painfully different, with the then Malibu placing far at the back of the pack. What a difference on year makes. And hopefully the next generation Malibu will improve over this generation to the same degree that this generation improved over the last generation. Then, Chevrolet/GM will own the family sedan market again.

Oh don't worry , it already has and it will continue to do so...

How so? Honda moved 25.7% more Accords in 11/07 at 28,161 than 11/06, (the last month sales results are available), and sales at that point were up 10.4% at 360,976 for the YTD. For the same month using Camry figures, sales were best-ever November at 35,409 units, and for the year sales totalled 434,277 (+5.8%). By comparison, Malibu sales in November '07 were 7,210, which were off -12.5%, while YTD saw sales at that point off 23.8% to 116,140 units. Now, the Malibu may have been "gaining momentum" and "waiting for full production to take effect," but the sales results don't suggest that Malibu was stealing anyone's thunder: Accord and Camry were up, Malibu was down. Of course, that may change in the coming months-and hopefully it will-but as of 10:20 pm EST 01/02/08, there's insufficient evidence of that.

Let's pray that the sales fortunes of each car changes.

 

[tgagneguam]

Amongst other things (many) you need to bust out (for everybody) '07s vs. '08s .

That gets into proprietary issues - don't worry , sometime down the road it'll come up .

Today was a great day if you wanted to buy GM stock .

My above post nicely supports my point, though if you have privilege to information that Malibu is indeed stealing sales from the Accord or Camry, I'd love to see it. I think it's important that this car do just that: steal sales from those to whom GM handed the family sedan market. Thus far, it doesn't look like it's happening, despite your reassurances. Again, love to see it happening, but nothing I've read or seen suggests that's occuring-yet-in any appreciable fashion. I do hope that changes... soon.