The Poster Boy Materializes
This Tuesday, January 02, 2007, GM unveiled the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu. According to GM Vice-Chair "Maximum" Bob Lutz, "it's a poster boy for what we are trying to do." Those are bold words to describe the reborn Malibu that won't hit showrooms for a year.
The current Malibu is a favorite of rental fleets here in LA. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, retail sales of the Malibu are roughly 100,000 to 125,000 units a year -- far less that the Toyota Camry or Honda's Accord. Total sales of the Malibu for 2006 is around 200,000 units, so maybe 40% to 50% of all Malibu sales are to rental and corporate fleets.
GM doesn't seem to agree with the WSJ. GM puts the rental fleet sales of the 20006 Malibu at around 35% of production; however Mr. Lutz believes that the new '08 Malibu will be so
successful that fleet sales will drop to 25% of production. But this is where Maximum Bob really sticks his neck out. He believes that "done right" rental sales could help GM. He believes that by selling better looking cars without "gray rat's fur upholstery and dark gray plastic parts", renting a GM car will become a national demonstration program where people actually pay to drive a GM car and then they say "Holy smokes, it's fabulous". Big words and big predictions, Mr. Lutz!
I've read some of the blog remarks about the new Malibu and the general consensus is that it is "nice". Wow, I'm overwhelmed with the favorable reaction to the "poster boy". The most anyone could muster was "nice". The best description I saw was that the styling was deri
vative of several imports currently on the market. The reaction to the new interior was more positive. It certainly looks better than the outgoing Malibu and GM makes the most of parts sharing by using the "new" corporate look for the sound system, HVAC controls, steering wheel stalks and switchgear. According to Mr. Lutz, the interior dash is a direct lift of the "dual cockpit" look from the '58-59 Corvette interiors. Most bloggers thought it looked more like the last-generation Ford Mustang. Ouch.
The new Malibu interior reminds me of the new Saturn Aura.
I've been inside the Aura and it's good -- lots better than the Saturn Ion -- but
not a class-leader. I fear the same destiny for the '08 Malibu. In fact, GM doesn't appear to have plans to offer a navigation system option. The '07 Camry offers an excellent navigation system as does the current Honda Accord. And in order to compete with the new Camry, Honda has gone out of its way to show an artist's concept of the new Accord, which Honda is rushing to get to market in a year. By the time the Malibu hits showrooms, Honda will have an all-new Accord that will leapfrog the new Malibu by two generations as the current Accord already matches or exceeds the '08 Malibu. Here are two pictures of the '07 Accord -- judge for yourself.
Come on Bob; is this the best you've got for us? I sure hope the second-ge
neration CTS is the great. After all, you believe that the new CTS will go head-to-head with the BMW 3-Series -- and win! We'll look at the new CTS as soon as it's unveiled in Detroit next week. Even with coupe, wagon and high-performance (V-series) variants of the CTS, I'm not sure it's enough to lure younger customers to the Cadillac brand and make them throw away the BMW keys.
The 2008 Malibu has to live up to some pretty big promises as the "poster boy" for the "new" GM. But to LA, the Malibu will still be the one you get at the airport rental counter or as a temporary car when your import is in the shop.
