I bought a 2004 Chevy Malibu five months ago, highly anticipating a newer, "reliable" car. Well, the hype has been destroyed. It had been giving me nothing but problems when I had it. I realized the other week that I had slowly been having the dreaded intake manifold gasket leak that the older Malibu's are so notorious for. At 58,000 miles. And the bad thing is, is that GM was supposed to have fixed this exact problem with the 3.5L engines. Well, they didn't. I can't believe this. It was $800.00 a pop to fix this. Not to mention that the mechanic told me that the intake gasket leak was the cause of my many other problems (gas not filling up all the way, certain electric failures, rough idling, etc.).
I noticed that each month the Malibu would slightly inch its way up on the temperature gauge. I figured there must have been a leak somewhere. Sure enough, it was the intake manifold gasket. When is GM going to learn that this problem is still haunting them???? So what have I done in response? I'm not giving this as advice, but I voluntarily had my Malibu repossessed and went straight to a Buy Here, Pay Here dealership and got an old junker. So far, so good. The very day after I got my Malibu, I was having major problems (brakes would lock up, rough idling) with it. I've had this piece-of-junk truck for two weeks and no problems yet; and it has 200,000+ miles on it! There is no reason why a newer car with 58,000 miles on it should have so many serious problems with it.
The Malibu is a piece of junk...period. Do NOT get this vehicle! You will pay for it -- literally -- later on. You will spend nothing but money on this vehicle. It's one problem after another. And it only strengthens my current mentality to NOT buy a vehicle made by Chevy ever again!
I bought a 2004 Chevy Malibu five months ago, highly anticipating a newer, "reliable" car. Well, the hype has been destroyed. It had been giving me nothing but problems when I had it. I realized the other week that I had slowly been having the dreaded intake manifold gasket leak that the older Malibu's are so notorious for. At 58,000 miles. And the bad thing is, is that GM was supposed to have fixed this exact problem with the 3.5L engines. Well, they didn't. I can't believe this. It was $800.00 a pop to fix this. Not to mention that the mechanic told me that the intake gasket leak was the cause of my many other problems (gas not filling up all the way, certain electric failures, rough idling, etc.).
I noticed that each month the Malibu would slightly inch its way up on the temperature gauge. I figured there must have been a leak somewhere. Sure enough, it was the intake manifold gasket. When is GM going to learn that this problem is still haunting them???? So what have I done in response? I'm not giving this as advice, but I voluntarily had my Malibu repossessed and went straight to a Buy Here, Pay Here dealership and got an old junker. So far, so good. The very day after I got my Malibu, I was having major problems (brakes would lock up, rough idling) with it. I've had this piece-of-junk truck for two weeks and no problems yet; and it has 200,000+ miles on it! There is no reason why a newer car with 58,000 miles on it should have so many serious problems with it.
The Malibu is a piece of junk...period. Do NOT get this vehicle! You will pay for it -- literally -- later on. You will spend nothing but money on this vehicle. It's one problem after another. And it only strengthens my current mentality to NOT buy a vehicle made by Chevy ever again!
- Dr T., Hendersonville, TN, US