Preface
People asked that seeing that I was going to be putting my new Malibu Hybrid into duty as a long term rideshare program, (Uber, Lyft, Veyo, and various package and food deliveries programs), car that I should do a log as to how the car holds up. I am going to try to do that here. Now a few points, as of right now the car is only being used as a normal car because I am using to to care for my ex wife that is going through cancer treatments, so it will be a few weeks before it really starts getting punished.
Initial Review
In the first 100 miles of owning this car I can easily say that I like this car. I firmly believe that this is GMs best designed car in any segment that it competes in. The exterior of the car is very well thought out and is very easy on the eyes from any angle. Most car designs to just seem to forget about including the rear of the car in the overall design theme so it usually looks lost as to the rest of the car. The Mosaic Black Metallic paint looks elegant when clean and in bright sunlight, this is due to the non-silver metal flake that is in the paint, it give a brass/bronze reflection. The chrome accents look good without being overbearing and I am not a fan of chrome at all on newer designs. My only gripe to the exterior is that there was no option for a black or gunmetal painted wheels, the grey/silver painted wheels detract from the black paint of the car to a point that I am considering getting the stock wheels powder coated black.
The interior with the leather package is well thought out and has a good feel to the leather. The switchgear is logically placed and can mostly be operated with having to move your eyes from the road. The only major option that this car does not have is a sunroof and living in Phoenix AZ this is a good option to not have. Rear seat room is good even with the drivers seat positioned for a 6'2'' driver like myself and haveing 2 USB ports plus a 110V outlet in the back will give my passengers charging options during the ride to their destination. The Bose sound system while not audiophile quality sounds very good and having all the EQ options it can give everyone the ability to tune to your personal tastes.
Driving dynamics are what you would expect from a mid-sized family car. It accelerates well, has very good brakes, even better with regenerative braking engaged, and the chassis remains very well composed even over rough pavement. Cornering ability was a bit of a surprise for a car with so so tires set at 38psi, the car goes where you point it until you overpower the front wheels and then it goes into a mild oversteer condition that is still very managable. The only downside that I have found so far is that the driving aides work very well at speeds above 55mph, below that they seem to react at a much slower rate. Low speed automatic braking does not seem to be sensitive enough at lower speed and so for I do not trust it at all. Same goes for the lane deviation, at lower speeds it does not react like at highway speeds.
Mileage
So far according to the cars computer, I know it is not to be trusted, I have been hitting 41mpg while city driving. Full disclosure here, that is the cars rolling MPG for the last 50 miles, so I am somewhat impressed with how good the fuel economy is so far. I will be keeping a full logbook of all mileage once I fill up the car myself so once that happens I will see what the real fuel mileage is.
So, what else would you all like to see in my reporting of this long term torture test?
People asked that seeing that I was going to be putting my new Malibu Hybrid into duty as a long term rideshare program, (Uber, Lyft, Veyo, and various package and food deliveries programs), car that I should do a log as to how the car holds up. I am going to try to do that here. Now a few points, as of right now the car is only being used as a normal car because I am using to to care for my ex wife that is going through cancer treatments, so it will be a few weeks before it really starts getting punished.
Initial Review
In the first 100 miles of owning this car I can easily say that I like this car. I firmly believe that this is GMs best designed car in any segment that it competes in. The exterior of the car is very well thought out and is very easy on the eyes from any angle. Most car designs to just seem to forget about including the rear of the car in the overall design theme so it usually looks lost as to the rest of the car. The Mosaic Black Metallic paint looks elegant when clean and in bright sunlight, this is due to the non-silver metal flake that is in the paint, it give a brass/bronze reflection. The chrome accents look good without being overbearing and I am not a fan of chrome at all on newer designs. My only gripe to the exterior is that there was no option for a black or gunmetal painted wheels, the grey/silver painted wheels detract from the black paint of the car to a point that I am considering getting the stock wheels powder coated black.
The interior with the leather package is well thought out and has a good feel to the leather. The switchgear is logically placed and can mostly be operated with having to move your eyes from the road. The only major option that this car does not have is a sunroof and living in Phoenix AZ this is a good option to not have. Rear seat room is good even with the drivers seat positioned for a 6'2'' driver like myself and haveing 2 USB ports plus a 110V outlet in the back will give my passengers charging options during the ride to their destination. The Bose sound system while not audiophile quality sounds very good and having all the EQ options it can give everyone the ability to tune to your personal tastes.
Driving dynamics are what you would expect from a mid-sized family car. It accelerates well, has very good brakes, even better with regenerative braking engaged, and the chassis remains very well composed even over rough pavement. Cornering ability was a bit of a surprise for a car with so so tires set at 38psi, the car goes where you point it until you overpower the front wheels and then it goes into a mild oversteer condition that is still very managable. The only downside that I have found so far is that the driving aides work very well at speeds above 55mph, below that they seem to react at a much slower rate. Low speed automatic braking does not seem to be sensitive enough at lower speed and so for I do not trust it at all. Same goes for the lane deviation, at lower speeds it does not react like at highway speeds.
Mileage
So far according to the cars computer, I know it is not to be trusted, I have been hitting 41mpg while city driving. Full disclosure here, that is the cars rolling MPG for the last 50 miles, so I am somewhat impressed with how good the fuel economy is so far. I will be keeping a full logbook of all mileage once I fill up the car myself so once that happens I will see what the real fuel mileage is.
So, what else would you all like to see in my reporting of this long term torture test?
