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Sedans Chevrolet Malibu Chevrolet Malibu vs. Toyota Camry vs. Honda Accord
655 messages, Last post on Dec 07, 2009 at 8:11 AM
You are in the Chevrolet Malibu Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: yury (Mar 13, 2007 7:37 am) The Vibe is based on the Toyota Corolla platform and powered with Toyota engine. Not a great car but you can see how the public is duped into thinking it's a fantastic car simply because it's made by Toyota. Depreciation rates arent always based on true quality, as some of us long term buyers who take advantage of those rates already know  More selling points for the Malibu for me is the fantastic fuel efficiency. Thats something GM has been know for. Also the use of galvanized sheet metal. I recall reading an article on how GM had excellent technology for making paint stick so well to galvanized metal. And dont forget power! That 3.5 good ol reliable but yet high tech pushrod engine has amazing low end torque. Thats where most people will feel and need the power most, not at ultra high rpm's. The Malibu to me feels more powerful than the Camry or Accord. I believe the 0-60 number is 7.8 seconds but thats going by memory so I could be wrong! It feels good and it sounds good 
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Replying to: shadow5599 (Mar 13, 2007 8:22 am) On the subject of efficiency...To be fair, the Vibe was better in the city, but obviously these 2 cars are so different. And yes that V6 drives so much better Vibe's 1.8 4 cyl was barely adequate, Malibu's V6 feels....liberating
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Replying to: shadow5599 (Mar 13, 2007 8:22 am) btw, supposedly G6 (GT, not GTP of course) is the same or only 0.1 sec less. G6 looks smaller to me and and has 220 hp as opposed to Malibu's 200. And, if memory serves, G6's max torgue comes on later rpm. And it's worse on gas. Sometimes I don't understand the car makers. Why not give both cars the same engine and be done with it ?
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Replying to: yury (Mar 13, 2007 8:46 am) For the 04-05 Malibu 3.5 I found 200 hp at 5,400 rpm and 220 lb-ft of torque at 3,200 rpm. This site says they're the same. http://www.canadiandriver.com/roadtest/05g6.htm You may be thinking of the 3.9 which is 240 hp, and both G6 and Malibu have that available now.
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Replying to: shadow5599 (Mar 13, 2007 9:39 am) and the 0-60 data was i an not even sure from what year, so scratch that
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Replying to: yury (Mar 13, 2007 9:55 am) Once leveled off in speed on the highway it runs 110Km/hr (about 70mph) at about 1700 rpm. Thats low in comparison to other cars I know. Maybe part of having good torque at the low end. |
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Replying to: shadow5599 (Mar 13, 2007 8:22 am) well, yes and no - pushrod engines will generally always have higher relative torque than the same size OHC engine - more reciprocating mass. Other the other hand, HP (which is the prime detriment of acceleration is a function of that torque applied over time - meaning that the more willingly and quickly the engine will gain rpm the more HP (and acceleration) it produces. The GM pushrods are antiquated and slow (and noisy) in this regard and therefore produce less HP and slower cars. Things like the Camry 3.5, Accord V6 or Altima 3.5 are all in the next county before a Malibu driver can even realize what's happening to him, a function of those great free revving engines they have. On the other hand, the higher torque available on the pushrod engine may 'feel' quick initially but flatten out substantially(acceleration-wise) during the time it takes the engine to gain rpms. The most 'current' GM engine the 3.6 soon I'm understanding to replace the multitude of pushroods currently in the GM arsenal - it's about time! 252HP or so in a Malibu, should get those 0-60 times down into the 6s and also improve FE much like it is already doing in the Aura XR. |
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i could never understand the how 0-60 numbers and max hp relates to real life. The pushrod has the torque at 3.5 thousand rpm. Camry's V6 is surely overall more powerful, but it's max torque only comes on at 4500 rpm, which is significantly higher. I mean, yes, if it revs up freely it's good, but you still have about 1000 rmp to go in comparission with the pushrod. Now...most of us need power NOW, i'e. as soon as possible...Hence the question, what's Camry's torgue at 3500 rpm (which seems pretty NOW to me , Malibu gets to that rpm real quick) ? If Camry's curve is beefy enough that would result in a better drivebility, if not, that engine will not be much more driveable that the pushrod....4500 rmp is too high for a comfy acceleration even in small 4 cyl engines. Now the max HP. It tends to be somewhere at the redline. The question: when you drive to work, how much time you spend at the redline ? Yes, 0%. So, another characteristic irrelevant to our daily life. 0-60. We don't do 0-60 often in a single burst. It's more like speed up to 30 mph, enter the ramp, go though it (a few deconds), go a bit faster towards the end of the ramp, and then only give it a quick burst of throttle to get to 60-70 mph. So it's like .... 40-70 accel that we do in a regular basis. Plus highway passing that is entirely different ball game. You know, one of the people I know got a diesel Beetle at some point. That thing has like....what 90 hp max ? But, the guy said he would smoke Civics all the time, and those are 110-120 hp. So, my point is numbers are nothing, the power/torque curve is everything. Say the upscale Civics they make now are rated at 200 hp. But...at the redline which is real high. Who drives at 7000 rpm ? It's only useful on a racetrack. So if someone says that this car feels faster that that car that,in my mind, is more valuable than numbers. Of course, that's subjective, so the ultimate thing is to go for a test drive....the difference in max values may be nullified or reduced greatly by all the other factors. That's not to say that Camry and Malibu are the same. Camry may very well be better in real world as it is better on paper...The question how much better. In other words, think about it....maybe the manufacturers are playing us a little bit ? An average person looks at the figures first, right ? And if the car is fast enough on the test drive the decision is made. But, is it as much better as the figures suggest or only a little better ?
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Replying to: yury (Mar 14, 2007 6:11 am) |
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Replying to: dtownfb (Mar 14, 2007 9:24 am) so, for the sake of discussion....anybody test drove both ?
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