2016 Chevrolet Malibu

A new generation will not see in Europe

The American brand has used the start of the New York International Auto Show to present its new Malibu. The average sedan Chevrolet has already reached its ninth generation, which is unacceptable as it presents a complete redesign, a range of more efficient engines (including a new hybrid version) and greater equipment safety and comfort.

The new Malibu inherits the aesthetic sense of its big brother, the Impala, with which it shares its elegant sedan and discreet profile modernity of its front; although the Malibu stands out slightly from that to change the height of the two grids (thinner top and bottom thicker, unlike the Impala), placing including the brand logo.

Although the new model maintains the same width as the previous one, its length has grown by 5.8 cm to reach a respectable 4.92 m. More important is the increased wheelbase by 9.1 cm, resulting in a larger space for the interior, especially in the rear seats. Furthermore, the use of lighter structural materials has been reduced by up to 136 kg total weight on the scale.

While retaining the division between the front seats as usual in the brand, the driving position has changed significantly.

The equipment of comfort and active safety can be quite extensive. Available options include alert for pedestrians, automatic braking at risk of collision, assistant maintenance and lane change, Blind Spot Assist, Intelligent Cruise Control, cross traffic alert, park assist and automatic lights road .

It also provides, for the most responsible parents, Teen Driver feature, similar to the Ford MyKey way to limit the possibilities of handling of the car when we left the key to our children. For example, disabling the audio equipment unless the belts are buckled, sending notices to exceed a certain speed and even offering a summary of driving done. A perfect anti-bottle system.

Against "American style", the engine range has followed the trend of lowering displacements. For now, only available mechanical fuel will (remember that Chevrolet has decided to abandon this year the European market), where you can choose between a 1.5 Ecotec turbo 160 hp and a 2.0 turbo interesting 250 hp; the latter associated with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The family is a hybrid version incorporates technologies derived adopting the new Chevrolet Volt, with a gasoline engine 1.8-liter. Difference is that while the Volt is an electric car that has a thermal thruster as a generator, the Malibu works as a conventional hybrid, with the electric motor to assist the gasoline acceleration phases. In any case, we can drive the car in pure electric mode up to 88 km / h, provided that we have booking battery pack 1.5 kWh. The Malibu Hybrid approved consumption of 5.2 l / 100 km.

The new Chevrolet Malibu will be assembled at General Motors plant in Kansas City (USA), with an onset of marketing scheduled for the last quarter of this year.