Due to another COAL writer doing a write-up on one in the not too distant past, I’m skimming over my 2004 Nissan Quest which we had from the fall of 2004 to summer 2006. Briefly, we had some family adversity and my wife was laid off, so we decided to cut some expenses and sell it. The day before I was to do the sell transaction, I became very sick, with flu-like symptoms. There was no way I was letting the deal go sideways, the Quest had to go. I doggedly drove cross town on a Friday afternoon to finish the deal at the buyers bank. Through it all, I was a light-headed, queasy, feverish and sweaty mess. Little did I know, but at the ER a few hours later they discovered I had salmonella and food poisoning. My five word review on our Quest: minivans make sense for families.
After getting better over the weekend, it was back to the car situation. I wasn’t super excited about leasing again but there is a time and a place for everything. I didn’t much like much of GM’s lineup at the time, but end of summer, there were deals to had on new Malibu leases and we were payment shoppers. At first glance, it was a bit of a dullard and although you wouldn’t catch yourself looking back at it as you walked away, reviews in the press were fairly positive about the car praising it as a much more solid mid-size car that GM had for some time.
Along with the sedan, GM offered a weird sort of derivative hatch/wagon looking body that was unique and a bit weird for it’s class called the Malibu Maxx. The wheelbase was stretched about 6” from the sedan version of the Malibu. It looked to have plenty of room for our young boys and I thought it would be great for us. Off to a Chevy dealer in Dearborn , with whom we’d just done a sizeable amount of business with. With my brothers GM family discount pin in hand, there was zero negotiation, thus an easy transaction. For just the first payment due at signing, and $205 a month for 24 months, 15,000 miles a year…well, you really couldn’t beat that, so we did the deal. Mrs. C would be driving this one primarily, I’d have our Prizm as my daily driver.
The 1997 Opel Signum Concept and 2006 Opel Signum
The Maxx borrowed heavily from it’s European cousin, the Opel Signum (above, top) , part of the Opel Vectra C family, all built on the new front wheel drive Epsilon platform. Without hesitation, I’d say the Signum version was a far more handsome package, and I prefer the rounder back-end, simply because it looks roomier. The Signum idea had been kicking around since a concept was presented at the Geneva Auto show in 1997, then again in 2001 at Frankfurt before being green lighted for production. Not sure where they were going with this. Opel had the Corsa and Astra hatchback, as well as station wagon/estate variants of the Astra and Vectra. What niche did essentially a full-size hatchback fill?
The interior in the Maxx was interesting in that the back seat was fore and aft adjustable and slid on rails. And with young kids who didn’t need a lot of leg room, you could move back seats all the way forward allowing for a very spacious rear compartment for storage. We still had a need for a stroller at this time, and it had room for that and then some. There was a non-retractable glass panel above the rear seats with a sun visor, also very unique. I thought all in all, it was a very interesting package, though I can’t say it made a big splash sales wise. It was widely thought American consumers didn’t like hatchbacks, a trend which was upended some years later. They even made a Malibu Maxx SS, with a 240HP V-6. I have only seen a couple of those in the wild, but they are very interesting.
2006 Opel Vectra- High Trim Level
The 2004-2007 Malibu came at a time when GM finally decided to retrench and try to get serious about making a class competitive mid-size car in North America. The global Epsilon platform gave the Malibu and Maxx a very modern and stout foundation. The Maxx or Malibu didn’t get any of the Euro powertrains, no turbo’s, diesels of course nor high feature DOHC V-6’s. The U.S. Chevy Epsilon’s most popular engine was a revamped overhead valve pushrod V-6, the 3.5 liter “High Value” LX-9. It made a respectable 200 HP and 200 lb-ft torque. The 6 speed automatic didn’t make it over from Opel either, GM soldiered on with the 4 speed automatic while the competition had 5 and 6 speed autos. The interior, while not a copy of the much nicer Opel’s, was a big improvement over the previous GM mid-sizers in fit and finish, quality of materials and overall feel. In Europe the Vectra was a very class competitive mid-sizer, and ultimately morphed into the Opel Insignia in 2010, which we know as the Buick Regal.
The obvious question is why GM just didn’t make the Vectra C the next 2004 Malibu, saving a tons of engineering, tooling and development money. The answer is quite simple. At the time GM still had to feed Saturn, Chevrolet and Pontiac new product. The Vectra’s DNA and architecture made it here in the form of the Saab 9-3, Malibu, Pontiac G6 and the Saturn Aura. The Aura borrowed most heavily from the Vectra’s design language and cribbed the front clip almost intact.
Over the road, it was taut, quiet and was a nice driver with ample power that delivered near 30 MPG on the highway. It was a far, far better car than its predecessor GM mid-sizers. This generation of ‘Bu failed to win over Japanese car customers as intended. It certainly wasn’t a home run or a base hit for GM. At best, perhaps it was a bunt single. It did however, set the stage for GM for the far better and truly class competitive 2008 Malibu which would come out two years later.
Our time with the Maxx was uneventful and not very memorable 12 years on, but relatively speaking, it was a good thing. It was a great car for us at the time. We were plenty busy with 2 kids under the age of 5, and time flew. Things worked out with my wife’s job by the way and she had a new one in about 6 week, and it gave her time to see our oldest boy off to kindergarten while she was at home. I’m afraid some of my COAL’s will be more interesting than others and this one is probably ho-hum. But a lease meant we’d be out shopping again in 2 short years, and when you have young kids, two years can feel like 2 weeks.
Did you see the Top Gear test drive of the Signum where Jeremy Clarkson tries to drive it from the back seat?
He emphasizes your point about what exactly the point was.
Yes. He is very vocal about his absolute hatred for GM products, but grudgingly admitted he had a soft spot for C-6 and C-7 Corvettes.
Clarkson’s irrational hatred of most of the American auto industry put me off his entire program for a long time. But my opinion softened once I saw he hates most things, as ridicule and ranting is the fuel for his programs.
True. But when he picks on ‘your team’, you tend to take it personally.
Clarkson is an ass, but the episode where he drove a Corvette from California to the Bonneviile salt flats was classic…..He started out hating the Corvette but by the end of the episode he loved it. The same for James May with his Cadillac CTS-V….Hated it iin the beginning and loved it at the end….My favorite episode of Top Gear
Harley Earle must have spun over in his grave because of the styling of this car
When I first saw it i couldn’t believe how plain it was
While not ugly,the front end ,with its giant headlights was so homely
This from a company that gave us timeless styling
I recall reading somewhere that GM kept the tooling budget for these very tight as they were determined that the Malibu would be profitable. Thus, the dies for the sheet metal stampings had to be simple and relatively inexpensive. And, body manufacturing had to be relatively foolproof and inexpensive too. While this produced a plain looking car it did contribute to much improve quality which GM was struggling with at the time.
These weren’t lookers, or the world-beater GM pushed them as. Too small as a 4-door, very awkard styling. But they were very comfortable to ride in, were the first mass market car I can remember with remote start, and the upper-end versions had some interesting features (like the DIC in the radio, tire pressure monitor, faux-suede seat trim).
The Maxx version was practical above all else. The room issue, at least for passengers, was mostly solved. I always liked these. I remember most having rear wipers, though the pictures here don’t show any. That would be a handful with the rear aerodynamics of a hatch.
Yes, they were very comfortable cars. I owned an ’04 Malibu LT. It had everything but a sunroof. I bought it because at the time it was really the only car in that price range with side curtain airbags, ABS and traction control. The leather seats were very comfortable (from France, I was told), and the remote start coupled with the automatic climate control made freezing mornings and hot afternoons more bearable.
The only fly in the ointment was the electric power steering. The steering column was replaced twice, but it really never felt right.
Ah yes. The EPS was another pretty forward-thinking component. The systems haven’t aged that well. But when we test drove a brand new ’04 LTZ sedan, the salesman waxed on about the finger-light EPS.
I didn’t think the Maxx was a bad-looking car, but the concept was somewhat curious. However it would have had its uses…
1. A taxi.
2. An Uber car.
3. A car for a family with extremely tall children.
4. A limo for those without much money or who want to travel in complete anonymity.
I rode in a Maxx taxi. I recall quite a bit of road noise being transferred to the cabin. The spacious backseat helped offset the limitations of the design. I doubt they lasted long in severe service.
You know what they say about GM cars – they run longer badly than most cars run, period.
My brother owned a 2000ish Malibu and when he blew up the engine it was decided that he would buy this generation of Malibu to replace his old car. He didn’t get the Maxx, but did have a very loaded V6 LT sedan. He seemed to like it, especially the higher powered V6 as he drove his cars like he was always in a hurry to get somewhere. I rode in his car once or twice and what I most remember about these cars was that dashboard that looked like it was 1 giant piece of plastic. In particular, I didn’t care for the slots at the top of the dash, they made me think of a cheese grater.
But aside from all that, a pretty decent car, well built, and for my brother it proved ALMOST indestructible, until the night he hit a deer.
Since my brother always bought used cars, after 2 different Chevys he went back to Fords buying an AWD Fusion to replace the 2006 Malibu.
I was a fan of the original Uglibu I (2004-2007) and as noted below had a 2006 Maxx. I’m currently driving an Uglibu II (2013-2016). As my daughter and I were driving back home from Cleveland yesterday, I was passed by a person in an absolutely mint V6 LS Uglibu doing about 90 MPH on I-80/90.
I still see very many Uglibu I’s on the roads. I’m not ready to call them “Cockroaches of the Roads” as they never seemed to gain the critical mass of them on the roads as a Camry for example. But now, 15 years later, they’re still around, still plodding down the roads…
I got one of these as a rental for a few days in the fall of 1997, Courtesy of the Honda dealer that did a deep disassembly on my Fit searching for what turned out to be a rolling walnut.
My most vivid memory of the car was the way Mrs. JPC absolutely despised it. I had brought home plenty of stray cars and she had driven them all, and she was mostly indifferent to them. But for reasons I could never figure out, she simply *hated* driving that Maxx. For that matter, the 06 Lacrosse didn’t fare much higher on her scale.
I liked the concept and didn’t find the styling horrible. But there was something about the cars of the late-pre-bankruptcy GM that I found very unsatisfying. Those used to GM cars may have found them fine, but we had spent the prior 15 years in Hondas and Fords so we were the people they were (in theory) trying to impress. If that was the mission, they failed.
I don’t disagree with your assessment of GM cars in this era. As I alluded to at that juncture, they still had far too many brands and models to be able to make any of them really noteworthy, much less class leaders.
JPC: My Father often told me (outside of my Mother’s hearing range): “Feminine Logic is a contradiction of terms, don’t try to figure it out, it’ll just give you headache.”
I did look at the Malibu Maxx from the corner of my right eye. At least it was my dominant eye. I noticed some shared ideas with the Pontiac Vibe and the Aztec. Open the hatch on any of these and you see a flat plastic floor for the luggage and adaptability of that luggage area for various uses. What kept me from further investigation were a relatively high fuel consumption when fuel prices were very high, horror stories about the electric power steering, and the styling of the hatch area. It made me scream “make up your mind! Be a sedan or a wagon!”
Funny you mention the Aztec. A good friends of ours had one for 10 years and 180,000 miles. She was a single mom down on her luck, but it was surprisingly handy and roomy, and it kept going and going until better times for her allowed her a replacement. Would love to see someone’s COAL on an Aztec. Her replacement ended up being a gently used Dodge Journey, and as much as everybody dogs FCA products, it’s at 160K miles, though getting tired with a long list of minor issues to address. All of this here in Michigan with our terrible roads and inhospitable weather
Richard Bennett wrote a CC on the Aztec.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-2001-pontiac-aztek-a-face-only-a-mother-could-love/
The first time I saw a Journey I thought: Aztek 2.0. As a 2.0 version, they changed a lot of the “issues” the Aztek had, mostly related to styling and practicality. The squared off profile of the roofline really increased utility and the rest of the car looked something like the rest of the Dodge family. By then, Aztek had broken the mold, so the Journey wasn’t so noticeable and in addition, S/CUVs were way more mainstream.
I think it’s just great sport to complain about FCA products, but the transition and improvements from Cerberus to FCA was immense and welcome. The Journey is still on sale here in the States and in other world markets as the Fiat Freemont. If you would have asked me all those years ago if the Journey/Freemont would still be around for 2019, I would have laughed…
In this era my employer, our favorite Uncle, graced my office with several of these Malibu cars, one of them a Maxx Model.
I found them tolerable vehicles; a HUGE improvement over the 4 cylinder Chevy Celebrity models they replaced.
I never could get over the awkward look of these. The curved detail on the rear door and quarter panel looks out of place on the regular sedan but the angled and squared off rear hatch on the Max just emphasized my impression that from the b pillar forward it was a different car than from the b pillar back. A neighbour across the street had the max. One day he backed into the drive way and my first though was he got a new car. The front end was visible between the houses for a change.
A co-worker got a Malibu sedan as a rental when his car was in for collision repairs. He was so impressed by how quick it was off the line that he just had to give me a ride in it. It surprised me too with how different it felt from the crapaliers of the time.
I got one once as a business rental in Boston. Seemed like an eminently practical car, wasted on solo trips between hotel and office. Most memorable use was a visit to Dunkin’ Donuts. I didn’t fill the back however.
I have friends who just retired a 2005 Maxx this year after a pretty incredible 500,000km(300000miles) for a Honda Odyssey.
I think she would have been happy to see the back of it a long time ago but he said it was the most useful car he’d ever owned and I think was disappointed when it finally came time.
The lengths that Detroit will go to to avoid making an actual station wagon boggles the mind including changing a donor wagon chassis to this…. While more useful than the sedan how is this in any way better than a wagon would have been? While the market seems to shun wagons this never lit the world on fire either, so….
That said it appears to have worked well for the author so there’s that. And yes, like the man sang, you can’t always get what you want but you’ll get what you need. At $200 per month on a short term lease this seems like a very good deal.
Nice post on a car unheard of here in Europe. Reading it reminded me to the numerous FIAT Croma I happily drove for almost 10 years. For sure they would deserve a COAL.
The Croma also originated from the Epsilon platform in 2005 during the FIAT-GM alliance along with the Saab and Opels you mentioned and it certainly is the more similar in concept to the Maxx.
Both sensible cars like the Toyota Venza but probably perceived as strange hybrids.
When entering the market FIAT didn’t want to risk a failure and played the crossover card. Retrospectively, it wasn’t a mistake as the car proved a practical and comfortable family car soon becaming pretty popular with fleets as well.
You could find the GM badge everywhere under the bonnet except of course on the Multijet Diesel engine.
Having experienced many US GM cars of the time the Croma felt more “H car” than Malibu to me; a Le sabre come to my mind: solid, plush, comfortable and understated.
Still much sought after here in italy in the used car market, they were eventually replaced by the Freemont, a rebadged Dodge Journey. A bit bulky for our roads but nonetheless a competent though short lived successor.
One friend had one as a rental when we went to a quick week end trip to Austin. I love hatchbacks but this one didn’t like it very much. I was impressed with the amounts of room in the rear seat. The sedans would be great for plain clothes police: no one would notice them.
“Awkward” is a great way to describe the Malibu Maxx. I wanted to like it but just couldn’t get past the non-cohesive styling. As others have mentioned, the sloping rear hatch and oversized headlights were the worst aspects. The hatch, in particular, had that goofy ledge that was de rigor at the time. It first appeared on the original Ford Escort years ago, then reared its ugly head once again on the hoary old Dodge Caliber. It was a feeble attempt to make a hatchback not look like a hatchback. Worse was how the design robbed rear cargo space for no good reason.
I think the whole point of the awkward roof (particularly with a mid-size like the Malibu) was to come up with a sort of cross-over station wagon that didn’t ‘look’ like a station wagon. That’s what I think of when I see the Maxx. With a more conventional roof, it would have looked better and been more practical, but it would have sold worse because of the dowdy station wagon stigma.
It’s too bad because, as the author points out, the Malibu Maxx wasn’t that bad of a car. With the GM employee discount, as well as the usual rebates and incentives, it really would have been a great choice for a young, growing family watching their dollars, and a superb pairing with a Prizm for reliable, if somewhat disengaged, transportation.
I bought a 2004 Maxx LT as my very first brand new car just for myself. I really wanted a car that I could put my Basset Hound in and not have him tear up the back seat. I seriously considered both a Mazda 3 hatch and a 6 wagon. Enjoyed them both but the deal on the Maxx was just too good to pass up, especially when I randomly received a letter from GM with a $500 coupon towards any new car purchase. It was a few thousand less than the 3 hatch if I remember correctly.
It soon acquired the nickname of Malibootie because of it’s weird rear-end, but I loved that car. It never failed me mechanically and was always comfortable and super useful. We kept it through having our third child and only got rid of it because it needed all the maintenance items that come at 115,000 miles. I replaced it with a 2006 Avalon because that was one of the few cars I could find with a back seat as roomy as the Maxx. I don’t like the Avalon 1/10 as much as I liked the Maxx – there are so many things that GM designs in that Toyota either omits or does so differently. I find I am constantly annoyed by the way things work in the Avalon that I was under-appreciative of in the Maxx.
If I had space to just keep all my favorite cars, I would never have sold my Maxx!
It isn’t often I hear Chevy design preferred over Toyota. But it reminded me of how in many ways our ’05 Ford Taurus seems to do more with less than our ’03 Avalon. Buttons/locations, information displays, stuff like that. In the Ford, all the buttons are large and different sizes and shapes so you never have to take your eyes off the road. The Avalon is unnecessarily fancy with things, to the point of less functionality. But the rest of the car is better with the Toyota…
I acquired my one owner 88 Chevy Caprice Estate with 44,000 miles. The original owner, replaced it with a brand new Malibu Maxx for exactly the same reason you did, to transport her dogs.
I am jealous,JerseyFred. So few miles on a box-Chevy. Congrats!
Yeah, but…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1988-chevrolet-caprice-estate-whats-that-smell/
Oh geez, sorry, but not even if it was free. I wonder where the smell could have been coming from?
From jerseyfred’s COAL: ” The cloth interior was in excellent shape.”
Cloth is allowing any fluid to seep into the foam underneath. Even if there were no fluids involved the foam gets compressed when someone sits on it and it expands and thus sucks in air when that person gets out of the seat. That air contains dust and what not. Once a car is 10 years old the cushions of the cloth seats are saturated with dirt.
I looked at these briefly when they came out because they seemed practical. But the interior was a huge turn off. Acres of ugly grey plastics and ugly cheap grey materials. Just hideous. I didn’t think the outside was ugly but this was a terrible time period for gm and Chrysler interiors.
While it’s true that GM interior plastics of the Maxx’ time wasn’t the best, the absolute most recent nadir of cheap plastic, domestic interiors has to be the original Dodge Caliber. Hard, brittle plastic was freaking ‘everywhere’ in the Caliber’s interior. I can’t imagine the amount of squeaking and groaning that time and weather would create in those things.
Ironically, the Caliber also had the goofy hatchback with the rear window ‘ledge’ just like the Maxx, too.
I’ve always thought these were kind of – meh. But it seems like it was a great car!
My wife, for some reason, thinks they’re hideous, lol.
While these had practicality and some interesting ideas, they were crippled by the awful styling. Outside featured weird proportions, an awkward profile and a front end that looked like frog.
Inside was Rubbermaid, all the way.
It’s hard to imagine anyone seeing these as any sort of an aspirational vehicle.
I leased a 2006 Malibu Maxx LT after our disastrous 2004 Pontiac Aztek. As much as I love(d) Pontiacs, the Chevys I’ve had were the best GMs I’ve had. This Malibu proved no different. I’m also one of the folks who like the idea of mid-sized hatchback cars. The Maxx rang my bell in that aspect. I guess I’m not so easily put off by styling; I can say that after having owned multiple Pontiac Azteks and Yugo GVs.
I had gotten one as a rental, we used it on one of our usual soccer Saturdays back then. I loved the utility of the hatch and the sliding back seat. That was particularly handy as my one daughter was 5’2″ and the other 5’8″. We had plenty of room for kids, soccer bags and other gear. The car was equally capable when I started gigging again, as it was no sweat to load my five-piece drum kit in the back and still had plenty of room for my amps, monitors and mikes.
Our time with the Malibu was like a blink of an eye, the three year term seemed to fly by. If I’m honest, my wife didn’t like the car much, but she wanted another SUV. I eventually grew to like our Azteks, but few of the SUVs really appeal to me, either now or 10 years ago when we had to turn in the Maxx. We ended up in our current Pontiac G6 after the lease was up.
After I gave my Cavalier to my kids to drive, I was looking at a number of Malibu Maxxs because I would have liked to have another one. Like someone else further up the string mentioned, these were popular with people who had (big) dogs. I looked at several, a few of them were rather nice, but some you could tell had seen a lot of dog travel as the rearmost cargo areas were scratched very badly. I never did find one I could live with, so I ended up with another J body instead.