About two and half weeks ago started noticing the hesitation in gear shifts from 1st to 2nd after accelerating from a complete stop. At first I thought it was after pumping gas with water from a station I filled up at and put HEET in my gas tank. My engine flooded in the middle of traffic and I had restarted my vehicle with no problem surprisingly. A couple days afterward after coming up a steep hill in my neighborhood my transmission started showing hesitation from 1st gear. Last Friday until today (May 7th, 2018) the transmission is worse and is currently being serviced at the dealership. Sometimes after accelerating from a stop the RPMs kick to 4,000 to the redline (while driving 30Mph and over) and stay that way until a stop or the vehicle shuts off. Saturday night I took a chance and drove ALL the way home (9 miles) from a friend's house to mine and the RPMs and engine were so loud you could hear the engine over the radio being turned up all the way. I figure it might be the transmission fluid needs to be changed and I'm hoping that's the case. There is no way to indicate how to check the fluid because it wasn't equipped with one originally. There's a single bolt under the transmission that drains the fluid out and it is difficult to reach so a jack is recommended to reach up under. This car is 8 years old has 117,000 miles and all of the original parts, keys, key fobs, and accessories that came with this vehicle. My dad says GM doesn't make cars like they used to back in the day because all they care about now is production and money. What happened to good quality American made vehicles?

Update from May 25, 2018: Went to local Chevrolet Dealership. A technician said there was an internal fault in the transmission and quoted me $3,727.21 (LABOR/PARTS Included) for a new transmission. Ridiculous. I went around and found a reliable mechanic that found a 6T70 CVT Transmission for my Malibu and he quoted me $1600. Got it replaced and got my car back within 6 days. This was the most stressful thing i've ever had to deal with car-wise. Once I reach 150,000+ miles i'm trading this piece of junk in for a Toyota or Nissan. Don't invest your money in Domestic Brand cars because times have changed and all they care about is production. Also it's funny that every transmission issue of 2009-2011 Malibu owners had the issues occurred after 100k miles on the tranny... EXTEND YOUR POWERTRAIN WARRANTIES AND CHEVY NEEDS TO HONOR EVERY EXPENSE OVER $1,000 FREE OF CHARGE.

on many occasions I would be at a stop/ yield sign. I go to accelerate and my car would be at a stand still. I even tried to shift in reverse (nothing). Finally it takes off it feels like some has rear ended me. I called dealer was told to bring in for transmission service. took car in got trans service and they told me ohh we see your problem your trans lines to the coolant have holes in and need to be replaced. I paid for service and three weeks later car is doing exact same thing. I almost got rear ended took back to dearlership they checked said trans fluids are good claim they drove my car 6.5 miles no problem found. and stated problem couldn't be identified.

The car has done it for quite some time. I can't remember the official date I noticed it for the first time. It happens every day. The car now has 59,000 on it. It seems the transmission is not shifting into the right gear when I slow or come to a near stop and then try to accelerate. It hesitates like it's in neutral, then when I give it a little more throttle it will go into gear and take off just fine. It makes me kind of nervous sometimes thinking if you pull out onto a busy highway and it hesitates, it could cause you to get hit if you're not able to get out of the way. When this happens, I try not to give it too much throttle because I don't want the transmission to "slam" into gear. I try to ease on the throttle just enough to get it to shift. I have owned the car since October 2012. It had 48,000 miles on it when I bought it.