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"  Chevrolet is aiming high with the all-new 2008 Malibu\u2014very high. The Malibu is designed from the ground-up to be &amp;quot;best in class,&amp;quot; according to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. The previous model, Lutz himself will admit, had the simpler goal of basically &amp;quot;just participating in the class.&amp;quot; Chevrolet has made a significant design and engineering investment in the new Malibu and its platform mate, the Saturn Aura. So much so, Lutz told PM, that the folks at GM &amp;quot;don&amp;#039;t know how to do any better than this.&amp;quot;  Given such candid statements about Malibus past and present, this new one had better be good. And here&amp;#039;s the thing: It is. For starters, GM has obviously loosened the reins on its designers, allowing them to make the Malibu much more stylish than its predecessor. We trolled behind a convoy of the new Malibus during a portion of our test drive this weekend, and that gave us a chance to really digest the new sheetmetal. We saw Infiniti G35 in the taillights and a bit of Volkswagen Jetta in the decklid. The window line is narrow and high, and tapers at the very beginning of the C-pillar like a few luxury cars we know. In fact, the high-mounted rear fender reflector even mimics Acura&amp;#039;s TL\u2014and that&amp;#039;s a $40,000 car. Our take? It looks handsome from the rear. But if there&amp;#039;s a visual giveaway to the car&amp;#039;s $19,995 base price, it&amp;#039;s in the nose. The headlights and front grille (with triple openings) turn the Malibu into an animal with eyes on the side of its head and an extended snout\u2014not exactly sexy. It could benefit from a more purposeful stare and a shorter overhang.  Interior ergonomics and material quality are vastly improved over the previous Malibu. There&amp;#039;s finally a wraparound dashboard, which separates driver from passenger and has the fine-grained materials you&amp;#039;d expect to see in some luxury marques. The seats are supportive, but you&amp;#039;ll have to adjust rake manually, even in the top models. Gauges are now backlit by blue LED bulbs, which also provide ambient lighting in places such as the overhead console and the door-pull pockets. Nice touches. The &amp;quot;Black Tie&amp;quot; audio system is intuitive and easy to use. We like the ability to set presets that vary from FM to AM and satellite, all on the same row of buttons. And every model will come with OnStar and XM Satellite radio, though you&amp;#039;ll have to pay for the latter when your first three months run out. We still can&amp;#039;t figure out why Chevy hasn&amp;#039;t caught up to the competition and offered naviations, since talking to an operator to get turn-by-turn directions beamed to the car is pretty primitive these days. But that OnStar operator comes in loud and clear, thanks to laminated &amp;quot;quiet glass&amp;quot; and an absolute slew of sound-deadening material hidden in the cracks and crevices of the body structure. It&amp;#039;s safe to say that this car is quieter than both the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry. While we&amp;#039;re on the topic of noise, it&amp;#039;s worth mentioning that the Malibu&amp;#039;s 2.4-liter Ecotec inline-four is quieter than the competition, too; we were surprised to find that, by comparison, the Honda Accord sounded noisy during acceleration. The folks at GM say that this is due to nine &amp;quot;tuners&amp;quot; in the intake plumbing and manifold, which cancel out harsh resonanance. Step up to the $26,995 LTZ, and power comes from a big, 3.6-liter V6 with dual overhead cams and variable valve timing. But the real gem is the six-speed automatic that comes with the V6. When using TAPShift, GM&amp;#039;s counterintuitive take on paddle shifting, the &amp;#039;box bangs off shifts like a sequential manual transmission, and the accompanying soundtrack is as visceral as it is surprising\u2014it really sounds great. Better still, the transmission will actually hold the gear you&amp;#039;ve chosen\u2014even if it means deciding to hang the motor at redline for 15 minutes. As you may have guessed, the 252 hp and 251 lb-ft. of torque do make for some torque steer in the lower gears, but it still moves with authority. The 2.4-liter Ecotec four cylinder makes 169 hp and 160 lb.-ft. of torque, and the acceleration isn&amp;#039;t close to that of the V6. But you won&amp;#039;t find yourself at the gas station anywhere near as often, either. For now, four-cylinder cars get a four-speed automatic transmission, which returns 22/30-mpg city/highway fuel economy\u2014impressive for a car this size. The V6, meanwhile, returns 17 mpg city and 26 on the highway. In the spring, you&amp;#039;ll be able to buy a four-cylinder LTZ with a six-speed automatic transmission. Even in the prototype car that we sampled, it&amp;#039;s the model we&amp;#039;d pick. The two extra gears better exploit the limited torque band of the four, and on curvy roads it doesn&amp;#039;t feel as heavy on its feet as the 3649-pound V6 model does. And, of course, the six speed should improve mileage even further.  Chevy is quick to point out that they spent many hours fine-tuning the steering and suspension. The steering is quite a bit better in V6 models, which receive traditional hydraulic power steering, but it&amp;#039;s still a bit numb. The electric power steering in 2.4-liter models has a springy center that feels a little vague at highway speed. The suspension on either car is well damped. It&amp;#039;s only mildly floaty when approaching the limits of the tires and suspension. But we have to ask: When is a Malibu owner going to be bombing down country roads anyway? Is the Malibu the best in class? Only a true comparison test could reveal the answer. What we can say for certain is that Chevrolet has built a midsize sedan that, for the first time, deserves to be in the same ring as the Accord and Camry. And that&amp;#039;s a big step forward for GM. \u2014James Tate EARLIER: Chevy Unveils Malibu at Detroit Auto Show "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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