The most controversial car in the country right now is the new Chevrolet Malibu. Not because it's an 
Detroit hasn't produced many of these recently. There's a good Ford that too few people are aware of, since it was introduced with a small flurry as the Ford Five Hundred but then the marketing experts decided to rename it the Ford Taurus (wait, wasn't that the dreadful rental car?) and now we know it, if we do at all, as the "new Taurus."
We used to make sedans like the Malibu all the time. Every so many years, Dad went down to either the Chevy or Ford dealer, occasionally the Plymouth store, and bought the family a new Detroit sedan. Those were the days when Mercedes-Benzes were sold as a sideline by Studebaker, Jaguars and BMWs were imported by the hundreds, and "made in Japan" was a joke. Detroit made Cars. The rest of the world made Morrises, Opels, Renaults and Toyopets. Feh.
But why is the Malibu controversial?
Because it is so important a project to Chevrolet, and to General Motors as a whole, that car writers can't decide whether it's fabulous or forgettable. On the one hand it's already getting car-of-the-year awards and on the other hand, USA Today politely pans it. Car and Driverthetruthaboutcars.com insists that American automotive journalists are biased, all too ready to anoint Detroit's second coming. There's a huge advertising push, but it got into high gear before Chevy dealers had any Malibus to sell. loves the Malibu,
I drove two new Malibus a week ago -- the four-cylinder base model and the moderately more expensive V6 version -- and thought they were excellent cars, totally deserving of any economy-sedan buyer's consideration. The Malibu is handsomer and more stylish than any Chevrolet sedan since the iconic 1957 Bel Air. Particularly with the twin-cam, four-cylinder, 30-mpg base engine, it's an excellent value, with a variety of features standard (ABS, tire-pressure monitoring, electronic stability platform, panic-braking assist).
But economy-sedan buyers today automatically turn toward Toyota and Honda, to buy the Camrys and Accords that are the safe choice in this market segment. Which, as Chevy admits, is overwhelmingly skeptical of American manufacturers. Who wants to gamble with $20,000-plus? Detroit became almost entirely a truck manufacturer (SUVs and pickups) starting in 1990 and gave up the business of designing economical, reliable cars; there's not much profit in an economy sedan, but lots in a simple-to-build truck. The Japanese gladly accepted the gift of the economy-sedan market.
Any chance we can take it back? As good a car as the Malibu is, that's doubtful. Detroit lost an entire generation, maybe two, of car buyers who long ago decided that the domestic industry's reliability was awful, its dealers were miserable and its warranties unenforceable. That's all changing, but once the herd has stampeded, it's hard to turn it.
source:http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/perrinpost/2007/12/chevys-new-mali.html
