My first two COAL posts focused on recent “collector” cars and, as I thought about my next post, I started to review old digital pictures from cars past. It was then that I saw pictures of this car and realized I had completely forgotten I had ever owned it. Which pretty much explains my experience with the utterly generic 1997 Chevrolet Malibu that served as our family’s second/commuter car during the early 2000’s.
Why write about this car now? Two reasons – my first post focused on a vehicle that many (myself included) consider one of the pinnacles of GM’s mass market car building – the late 70’s through 90’s B-body full size car. When introduced, GM was ahead of the curve, showing automakers both domestic and foreign that it could marshal its engineering resources to lead the market. Twenty years later, GM came out with the Malibu – a car clearly derivative in style, engineering and performance and so thoroughly average that you wouldn’t notice it on a street corner. The swagger was gone.
My second reason is related to my second post – the rise of Japanese car makers in the 80’s and 90’s that led to market leadership by Honda and Toyota (as well as Nissan and Mazda to a lesser extent) at the expense of the Big Three (formerly Four) American automakers. It’s not that American automakers couldn’t build competitive family cars. (For example, the original Ford Taurus was a home run.) Rather, it’s that the companies setting the goal posts were no longer domestic. As a result, by 1997, American car manufacturers kept trying to chase the elusive formula for widespread market success. And that is how you get the Malibu – designed to be inoffensive in the extreme.
This particular Malibu, in a shade of maroon red that still managed to fade into the background, was originally purchased new by my in-laws in Wisconsin. By 2001, my wife and I had relocated to the Twin Cities and had a toddler son. Both of us needed to commute by car to work and handle day care pick ups and drop offs. At the time, we had a 2000 VW Passat wagon (another COAL to come) and needed a second commuter car. My in-laws sold us their Malibu and bought a Toyota Sienna for the growing cadre of grandchildren.
Now, I need to be clear. The Malibu was not a bad car. As has been observed on these pages already, the Malibu was competent for what it was designed to do – carry 4 people in relative comfort at relatively low cost. Yes, the benchmark probably was the 1992-96 Toyota Camry and, in comparison, the Malibu wasn’t that far off the mark. Except the interior wasn’t of such high quality, the 3.1 V6 was both old tech and made more noise than power, and the front end had a bad habit of going out of alignment and eating tires.
We owned this car for 5 years and, I have to say, I can’t remember much that I ever did with it that was memorable. I know we drove our sons in it on occasional trips around town. I know I took some work related drives across Minnesota with it. And I know I had to replace the back window when someone came through our neighborhood breaking car windows one evening. But truly, I can’t think of a single really noteworthy thing that happened involving the car.
Did the car drive well? Well enough. I mean, it handled and rode like a car. Did it get decent mileage? I never remember being impressed either way. Did it have enough space? Again, I don’t recall ever having a problem fitting people in it. It’s just that the whole five year experience of owning this car was pretty much not memorable. Mind you, this was during the early years of my sons’ lives, so maybe I was just too sleep deprived to realize it.
All I do remember was that, when I sold it in 2006, the value of the car was about $2500. After 9 years, it was worth less than half of comparable Camry or Accord. So, while I don’t regret owning the Malibu, I have to say, the whole experience made me kind of sad. It would be the last modern American car I would ever own for daily driving. And as it drove away, I couldn’t muster up any emotions. And thus the Malibu passed from our home and my consciousness until I wrote this.
Much has been written about GM’s (and Ford and Chrysler) deadly sins. But for many of us who came of age in the “malaise” era, the sins committed weren’t always about building bad cars. Rather, so much of what went wrong during that time were sins of omission like the Malibu – phoned in efforts at competing with better designed vehicles. Which can be just as deadly in the long term.
The equivalent Camry sold new for about $3K more than the Malibu and kept that premium all the way through the Malibu life cycle. No shame in that.
Was the generic rental, lost in the car park Malibu as good?. Properly not in build quality?. Toyota was worth that extra 3g. Looks like a Camry/Corrolla live child with a Dodge Neon dash.
In hindsight I am willing to give GM more credit on this car than I once would have. Look at the crosstown competition – the Ford Contour got all kinds of raves about its driving experience but those cars aged horribly. I would wager that had your inlaws bought a new Contour your ownership experience would have been a lot more memorable.
The Malibu may have been like the big gallon container of the store-brand vanilla ice cream, but it at least did its job (if not luxuriously or memorably).
I am interested in how you were fine with the driving experience. I wonder – had you spent a reasonable amount of time in GM cars up to that point? I can’t say just when it happened, but somewhere along the line the FWD GM driving experience began to smack me as a major irritant. But then I had spent a lot of time in Hondas by then. I think it was the Malibu Maxx I got as a rental around 2007 that both Mrs JPC and I couldn’t stand.
FWIW, my brother bought a customer’s perfectly running, well maintained ’96 Mystique GS (2.0L, manual) with 225k miles after the guy couldn’t even get $500 for it on craigslist. First owner was a real car nut: nothing but synthetic oil from new (back when synthetic was still kind of an expensive novelty). He’s run it up to 255k over the last 3 years, cross country trips etc, it’s been a gem and truly a great driving car on twisty PA backroads. He did have to replace a cracked rear subframe (rust). Other than that maintenance stuff. IMO it was the weak automatics that sent most of these to an early grave, and just overall death by neglect.
Had a 97 Contour my inlaws bought new. 4cyl auto. Pretty normal mid level car. It had a great chassis but that engine transmission combo made more noise then thrust. The transmission worked fine for the 2-3 years we had it, but my in laws had a lot of trouble with the transmission including it being replaced once at under 60k miles, and having had major components changed before that around 30k miles.
How did they get on with life in the slow lane?. I recall that Canada’s ” Lemon Guide” mentioned these as so slow you took your life in your hands joining the highway . Yes they mentioned the same with the automatic transmission. Same agee and the same mileage. Never much of as problem in Europe as drivers didnt buy automatics. Same with the Focus Dual Clutch .Dont think I’ve ever seen one.
My mother had a ’99 Contour LX with the 4 cylinder and the slushbox. I’ve seen Rascal scooters that had more get up and go. She also thought she was developing back problems until she replaced it with a Toyota and discovered it was just the terrible seats in the Contour that were making her back hurt. She utterly hated that car and regretted ever buying it.
The Focus DCT was my demon, but that’s a story for another day.
Owned my sister-in-law’s ’95(?) Contour for about three years, really liked the car. Absolute base model: 2.0 Zetec, 5-speed, A/C and base stereo/cassette was everything that car had.
I liked it a lot, enjoyed the handling, performance was reasonable, comfort was decent. Once again, made the mistake of selling it (to a 20-something kid who’d had one previously, had gotten it hit and totaled) when I thought I had too many cars sitting in the driveway, only to discover two years later that the wife could have really used it for her job so as not to put ridiculous mileage on her good car.
Definitely a Ford with good memories.
I had a few GM rentals in the same timeframe, JP, and had much the same reaction you did.
I know it wasn’t a Honda, but what didn’t you and your wife care for about the Maxx?
For awhile (13-14 years ago) the Malibu Maxx was on my radar, I’m a big hatchback fan (though some called the Maxx a wagon), and really like midsized ones. Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to buy, and as usual, the car was discontinued in the next generation. Seems to happen to me a lot, they discontinue a car I’m interested in which comes out between my (admittedly log) buying cycle.
But I’m a bit of a contrarian, don’t want to be forced to go SUV, as prior wagon owners were first forced to mini-vans (which I’m a fan of, but never owned, as I’m a single person) then SUVs. Hatchbacks seem to be going the same route, as if SUVs are the “answer” to anything resembling them. I don’t care for them as I don’t like the space compromise (I’d buy a 2WD, don’t like idea of 4WD adapted to 2WD) and am kind of a reverse snob about the image, I don’t want people to think I could drive it off road if I have no intentions of doing so.
Funny thing is, these “boring” cars are kind of my thing these days, just wish more were hatches rather than sedans. Something inobtrusive that does its job daily getting me where I want to go with minimum fuss is really appreciated (more so than in my younger years when novel design was impressive to me).
Don’t need a tachometer (got one in my toolbox should need arise) with automatic, take the savings not spent and upgrade the other parts of the car to make it rmore durable (don’t care about trim or finish much). Problem is that you can’t sell this to people, they can’t relate well to it, and would prefer more flash to stuff they can’t see. Probably started when they made AM radio standard in cars, they started trading off other things to keep the price the same but attract customers making comparisons.
Of course I’m also the same guy who has a generic phone, watch, etc…I’d rather have clothing made with a good grade of fabric than buy some label.
I wanted to like these when they first came out in late 1996 as 1997s, and actually went out of my way to rent them when I could (I was driving a boxy Dodge Spirit ES at the time and saw this as a potential successor). Like Stevemar, I have a hard time recalling much about it, but what did stand out was what felt like an unnaturally low driver’s seat with minimal support. Driving long distances wasn’t particularly comfortable.
I always wanted to try its twin, the Oldsmobile Cutlass, but I’m sure it would have been no different. No question paying the $3k premium for a Camry (or buying a used Camry) would have been a smarter proposition for me, but I wound up entering my minivan years.
Where I live, anyway, the ground is still thick with Accords and Camrys of this era and even earlier. The Malibus are long gone.
The Cutlass would have been no different. Just a badge swap, is all.
My one brush with these was in 2004ish, we got a final year fleet-only (?) “Chevy Classic” in this same maroon color, with the Ecotec motor. Transported 4 people from Ithaca NY to JFK in NYC just fine, but the motor was kind of rough and thrashy climbing hills, the whole car gave the sense of “okay, yeah, all the stuff that makes up a car is here” but absolutely nothing about it was done with any sense of pleasure or giving the driver/passenger a little something to enjoy.
Same here; the one “Classic” rental I had was absolutely blah, and perhaps the worst-finished car I’ve ever seen. Flashings left on plastic trim, the cheapest possible interior in general. You could tell GM had given up.
I remember when these came out, I felt GM finally had an alternative for people who wanted an “American” alternative to the Camry/Accord.
I didn’t think the interior was that bad. It was better than a Lumina or Cavalier or Grand Am. But in general, I’d say the car wasn’t as good in 1997 as a 1992 Camry or Accord.
It was an N-car (FWD Grand Am) under the skin. Built to a price, but a much more effective integration of mediocre (or cheap) systems and components than the Grand Am ever was. It was a practical small/mid-sized sedan. At the time, I thought it was about 5 years late to the market.
Even in 1992, the pushrod 3.1 V6 was obsolete compared to the Japanese. It’s successor 3.5 would be even more so in 2005….
I totally relate to the mediocrity–my father impulsively bought a new 96 Grand Am with the 3.1 V6. I thought the car was ho-hum, just like SteveMar. I never really liked driving it. Yet, as much as I disliked it, as if the car wanted to tell me “go ahead, hate me, but I will soldier on”, it was mechanically perfect during its 4 years or so with my dad–and the ho-hum 3.1 V6 was surprisingly thrifty, averaging around 25 mpg, lo/mid-30s on trips.
It earned my grudging respect.
The next Malibu, 2003, was more competitive in that it closed the gap, but still, IMO, inferior to the Camry/Accord, with its bland styling–and it powertrains that remained inferior to the Japanese. The Pontiac equivalent, the G6, had, IMO, great styling, and excellent ride and handling–but again, sub-par drivetrains. I leased one with the 3.5 V6. It was noisier, slower, and also thirstier than the 98 Grand Prix 3800 it replaced.
Then, FINALLY, 25 years AFTER the Camry came to the US, GM got it right with the 2008-2012 Malibu. Not just the styling and room, but the ride and handling, and powertrains met or exceeded the Camry/Accord. Even the interior quality was good. I leased one and then bought it, and the car turned out to be as well-built as it was good–100k trouble-free miles, the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. If I was to write a COAL, that would be a good one.
Of course, GM being GM, they took a premature victory lap. The 2013 that replaced it–well, I didn’t car for the exterior styling with “Camaro cues”. The wheelbase was shorter, so the rear seat went from spacious to worst in class. I thought the interior took a step backward. And the base car featured 15′ wheels that looked awkward and lost.
My 2011 Malibu was “base”—the lowest cost available– but did not feel cheap. The 2013 did. GM tried to address some things, and the 2013 did handle very well, as it was a shorter-wheelbase 2008-12 underneath, but basically, the hard-won ‘gains’ of GM in the mid-size segment were squandered. I drove several rentals of this car–my experience varied. THe high end turbos were nice. The non-turbos felt like rental cars. The stop-start in later version–on one car is was unobtrusive, on the other it was very rough.
That brings us to the current Malibu, which replaced the 2013 in 2017 (I think). It looks good on the outside. Inside, again–if you want it to look better than ‘base’, you gotta buy a more expensive one.
Wow, this takes me back – those Wellstone! bumper stickers used to be everywhere in MN, R.I.P.
Me too. I was in the Minnesota Daily newsroom (at the time, press run ~40,000) on Election Day 1990 when Wellstone’s unconventional Senate campaign paid off; that was sweet.
I’ve thought about putting one on my Forester, if only to complete the stereotype.
Haha!
Though I’m not sure how well that is holding up. I recently saw a new Legacy littered in Trump stickers. Subarus are built in Pence’s backyard of very conservative Indiana…
That last paragraph nailed gms long 30 year downfall. It wasnt the vega or citation but the fact that every car they bult in the 80s and 90s was half assed phoned in design or a design that was out of touch with the times. The never ending parade of bad interiors are the best example. Its why i (born in 79) dont really want to look at gm cars at all anymore.
Has GM changed? They are investing in a new Hummer as we speak. Instead of taking what they have learned and applying it to improve their current crop of vehicles (as many other manufacturers do), they are doing exactly what they have done for the longest time…..trying to do something “new” in a different direction because they think they are so smart at it.
I drove one of these for several days as – what else – a rental car. Despite frequent accusations of this car being generic, I recall its appearance better than that of many other cars in this class built since this time, and it wasn’t unpleasant. The most distinctive feature was inside the car – those strange air vents at the base of the A pillar (I wish I was a more eloquent writer that could find more evocative words to describe their bizarre alien-creature appearance). Everything else looked and felt like – the ideal fleet car, as if that was its intended market. The controls were all where you expected them to be and worked how you expected them to work. The driving experience didn’t stand out in any way. I don’t recall it being underpowered, nor powerful, nor noisy or rough, nor luxuriously smooth. It just was there.
There was also an Oldsmobile Cutlass – the last one – that was a badge-engineered version of the Malibu (except that the V6 was standard, although most Malibus including my rental car had it too). I can see Chevrolet wanting to offer a genericar, but it was all wrong for Oldsmobile and such a sad way for the Cutlass to go out. The official reason for its existence was to tide Olds over until the Alero was ready, but while its sheetmetal was prettier the interior and driving experience was equally generic.
My wife got one of these as a rental, when one of her vehicles was having body damage repaired. I drove it for about 5 minutes and JUMPED out of it. IMO, it was so sub par compared to the Accord I had then that I would not get in the Malibu again.
Using “last years” competition as a bench mark leads to this type of nothing-mobile.
My Hondas had “spoiled” me!!! DFO
It might not have been an Accord, but it was leaps and bounds better than a Cutlass Ciera. It was modern and mainstream, an Accord driver could’ve gotten in one and not found the controls baffling and backward. It was probably GM’s first new mainstream model that finally didn’t use a version of the Saginaw steering column that debuted with the ignition lock. It used a single double-sided key. No bench seat or column shift was available. The climate controls used three knobs rather than the sliders that GM deemed good enough for 30 years at that point. The headrests reached a useful height.
It might not have set the world on fire, but I’d argue that this was a big and necessary step out of the comfort zone for GM. It seemed like it was built with the understanding that there were cars made by other companies and it was competing against them rather than the other way around.
It was “modern and mainstream” if one had never driven a Camry or Accord.
The Malibu a “big step outside the comfort zone?”
It was utterly GM, with a GM power train that went back to 1980. Most of the car was identical to the Lumina it replaced.
I rented a number of these in the late 1990s and most provided adequate, if not particularly memorable, driving experiences. On the National lot, when given the choice of anything in Row X, I selected the Malibu/Cutlass over any Pontiac Grand Am, preferring boring simplicity over cheap, ugly and embarrassing plastic fantastic flash. Better yet, I would walk past anything GM and settle into a Chrysler Cirrus or the rare Accord or Camry to grace the lot at that time.
My last domestic car, and I had previously owned only GM vehicles. Purchased a 2002 in 2006 for about $7,000 (Canadian). Started rusting in 2007. A few electrical gremlins, and I had to install a switch to bypass the security system. Suspension and tire wear problems were there too. I bought it as cheap, generic family transportation, knowing they weren’t great cars. It was adequate for what it was, and we sold in 2011 for $400. But that was the end of disposable substandard cars for us. Bought a Mazda3 to replace it, with no regrets.
GM was trying to copy Honda/Toyota, and undercut them on price. It was the undercut on quality that killed it.
In the 2000s, when they made cars that looked like Malibus but stuck the vaunted Impala name on them that I lost all respect for the general. Talk about phoned in design work.
I had a 2000 Malibu for several years, and my experience was pretty much the same. Everything worked reasonably well and nothing stood out as weird or offensive. Yes, it was bland and generic, devoid of any personality and hard to really fall in love with. But I’ll say one thing, this was the only car I’ve ever owned, Japanese or American, to never have had a single problem with it, not even a warning light on the dash. It was as reliable and boring as my refrigerator. Considering where GM quality had been, my Malibu was a revolution. After 7 years I replaced it with a 2006 Fusion, which was everything the Malibu was not – sharp eye-catching looks and an eager, fun to drive demeanor – and not entirely problem-free. So the Malibu served its purpose in the GM lineup – a trustworthy unassuming workhorse. In a way I’m missing it now because my current vehicles are demanding more of my attention (and money) than I’d like.
My grandmother had one of these, a 1998 white Malibu. It was her last car before she couldn’t drive anymore. She had a fondness for mid-sized Chevrolet 4-doors. She got one every 10 years after all the kids (my aunts and uncles) were out of the house.
1978 Malibu 4-door in maroon
1988 Celebrity CL 4-door in gray
1998 Malibu 4-door in white
I also rented one of these on a road trip from New Mexico to San Diego for a week long vacation. It was…. a car.
We saw lots of these when I was working as a GM service advisor.
The whole front end is as cheap as it could be to keep the car off the road. The strut mount bearings are the reason it was eating tires. To compound matters, the place were said struts were mounted wasn’t strong enough to keep them in proper alignment.
The brakes in these cars also sucked. They were too small for the car and wore out quickly. The rotors were so thin they had to be replaced every time.
Although not as bad as the 3.4, the 3.1 also suffered from intake manifold gasket failure the second the warranty was up. Was this an accident? Hmmm.
The interior is craptastic hard plastic. There was a rubber pad by the key so any key ring appendages wouldn’t clack against the dash. The seat material and carpets were off the cheap kind that gets dirty fast and is impossible to clean.
I am not a big fan of GM cars of the era because I know who badly they were built and how much of the car was absolutely archaic, especially the electrical system that send every single circuit to the ignition switch.
Sounds just like my old 96 Hyundai Accent but with out the 3.1 problem of course. Hyundai qualify for Mid range Chevy money.Bargain!.
Dad briefly had one of these as a company car. I distinctly remember how dirty and impossible to clean the seat fabric and carpet wore. Some sort of fuzz like material that just sucked in the dirt.
I truly despise these, I don’t like Roger Smith era GM and it’s sea of formal sheer look lookalikes but there weren’t products so cheap feeling or mechanically archaic like there was in the 90s. And there was no more blatant badge job in my recollection than the “Cutlass” version of this Malibu. Cheap cheap cheap. These and J bodies, curvy 90s bodies on the same 1985 era car, GM is still tainted to me to date from these Chevys.
The crazy thing about the Cutlass was it had a completely different dash that you really have to look at hard to realize it is, in fact, unique.
That kind of blew my mind. Nothing Olds or Chevy brand theme specific to either design, yet they actually did go through the trouble of making them extensively different!
I noticed that too. It was weird but not the first time GM had done something like this…
The J body actually went back to mid-1981.
Four and a half years ago, JPC asked this QOTD wondering what car we hated driving above all others. His choice was another generic Chevy, a ’62 Bel Air. For me, it was the subject car for today. My comment was one of 196 comments on that post, but I too felt that this car deserved the nod from me.
I had compared it to a ‘”out of control roller skate”. The one that I had rented, considering it was in 2002, was a Malibu of this generation, likely a 2002 or 2003 model.
At the time we rented this car for a business trip drive to Atlanta from Baltimore, I was driving the only GM FWD car I’d ever own, a ’97 Grand Prix GTP that I had bought 2 years prior to this trip. While I preferred RWD, at least the Grand Prix didn’t have many the bad handling characteristics of a FWD car. This Malibu had ALL of them.
Ok, for some reason, even after multiple edits, the “QOTD” that I tried to link above keeps changing back to some “no follow” code, and puts us back to this post. Here’s the link to JPC’s QOTD if anyone is interested. It’s worth a reread.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/qotd/qotd-what-was-the-one-car-you-have-hated-driving-above-all-others/
I’m surprised I didn’t comment back then, but I have the same pick in these. These were cars in the most rudimentary sense of the word, and unlike the 62 had zero cosmetic merits to boot. Oddly my Friend’s N-body Quad 4 Skylark he had in high school didn’t seem near as bad to drive to me, it wasnt a performance car but it certainly didn’t seem a generation behind this Malibu
My mother-in-law had one of these when my wife and I were married (in 2005). I drove it many times.
Her Malibu, however, wasn’t entirely forgettable. The steering wheel felt barely connected to the front suspension, and there was the infamous GM “clunk” that reared its head whenever the wheel was turned. The HVAC fan control switch failed.
She traded it at about 100,000 miles when the intake manifold gasket showed signs of failure.
I test drove a used one at a Toyota dealer 20 years ago. It looked clean and a nice dark green color with tan interior. It also had:
Floppy body.
Mushy handling.
Sloppy suspension.
Boring dash.
Thin seats.
Boring engine.
My daily driver was an ’05 Taurus SE.
Basic model with the Vulcan engine.
It was so much better on every level it was sad.
(Except for the thin seats. The Taurus base seats were crap)
I suppose the motors were comparable. The Vulcan never got much over 18 mpg in mixed driving even with a light foot.
I did not buy the Malibu.
I hadn’t driven a “modern” GM car in awhile and I was actually kind of shocked how completely mediocre it was. The kids would say it was “cringy”.
100,000 problem-free miles I just kind of expect nowadays. Our ’11 Escape has 170,000 now and still drives pretty much like new. Our ’03 Avalon doesn’t drive like new anymore but it still runs and shifts the same as always as it approaches 268,000 miles.
It has spoiled my expectations on how long a car should last, and contrary to popular opinion I think it has personality. Its got a lot more swag than a Camry, anyway.
The ’08-’12 Malibu made me proud for Chevy again. Then came its replacement, ugly as sin, and made GM go back to the bottom rung of the desirability ladder again.
As Toyotas have gotten as ugly or uglier than everything else now, I will have to keep buying old Avalons for the rest of my life. Whenever this one breaks.
Which it doesn’t.
I did have to replace a fog lamp bulb recently.
Oh the hassle…
Those old avalons (pre-05) are absolute tanks. Same basic car as my ’96 ES300. Bomb-proof, solid ride on bad roads.
I recall when these came out, my friends and I were baffled that the Malibu name was being re-used, our memories were not of anything worth remembering. So this Malibu was DOA, at least on the west coast and destined to be a rental car choice only, actual positive attributes of the car be damned. Judging by the rest of the anecdotes above, some got good service, some found the car to be terrible, most somehow rented one at one time or another which is not something you usually hear said of an Accord. Then again, the last time I bought a mid-size sedan I wasn’t willing to pay the upcharge for an Accord either. Glad it served you well enough to not form any lasting memories, a sure sign of a perfectly adequate car. And the fact that you actually took pictures of it is another positive mark.
During the lifetime of this generation of Malibu, I did a decent amount of traveling and renting cars. Yet I can’t actually remember a trip when I rented one. I guess these Malibu memories for me slipped through the cracks just like your own non-memories of driving the one that you owned.
Oh, and I like your Critical Habitat license plate too. As I recall, that was the first design of Minnesota’s Habitat plates, and in my opinion, the best-looking one yet.
We had the equivalent Cutlass version that they made for a year or two. Was bought from a low end used car lot and thrashed for many years. After it was regulated to the backyard it was resurrected with a fresh battery and suffered another year of abuse. The 3100 V6 put off clouds of white smoke from a blown head gasket and leaky intake. Yet it still ran enough to pull itself into the trailer when they hauled it off. I remember nothing special about the car. It was puke green in color.
I know it’s early in the morning (here), but I’m trying to get my mind around the concept of you having totally forgotten that you ever owned such a car, until you found the photos. From a non-car guy, I could understand that, but from a car guy?
That sure says something; I don’t know what, but it says something.
I felt this way about my 1997 Taurus. Did its duty and held up well, but resale was virtually nothing and I felt no emotions for it when it was gone. Was also my last modern American daily driver as well. I have had 2 Camrys and an Avalon since, and though they may be bland and conservative in their way, I found them to be more engaging and worth more in the end. Overall a more memorable experience overall.