My God. This car is just plain awful. One problem after another. The brakes would just start braking for no reason while driving. As soon as you'd leave your foot off of the accelerator, the car would automatically brake. The brakes would smoke and the engine would overheat. But it was very intermittent. I took it into the mechanic at least 5 different times (had it towed) and he said nothing was wrong with it because the car wouldn't do the breaking thing while he was driving it. Like I said, it was very intermittent. It could go days and it would be fine. Then, all of the sudden, one day the breaking problem caused me a wreck and $900.00 plus $3,000.00 (covered by insurance) in damage. This time, the Chevy mechanic had to manually troubleshoot the problem and found out that a compressor had to be replaced. This car is NOT recommended! It is a piece of junk. Never buy a Malibu under any circumstances.

I have had this brake problem and no one can diagnose it because it will not happen for the mechanic. It always happens at highway speed, and it will start feeling sluggish, the brakes will get tight, the steering starts shaking like a flat tire and the rpm's will rush up. When you take your foot off the gas it slows down like you are braking. If you try to accelerate it makes the rpm's go up and feels like it can't go or is out of gas. I pull over to the side of the road and check eveything. I can smell an electical burning smell. If I let it rest about 5 minutes I can go again and it could be a couple of days before it happens again. It is scary cause whatever it is might go completely out and I could wreck or cause a wreck. I have had it hooked up to the computer and it checks out fine. It has happened about 5 times this week.

They finally replaced the master cylinder and calipers, and that fixed it. Luckily I had bought an extended warranty so that covered it.