Car Moon

The all-new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu has made its way to Australia landing in the hands of Holden’s engineering team, which was recruited by General Motors to assist in the calibration of the mid-size sedan for both the local and global markets outside of North America.

The Australian team is working on the Malibu at Holden’s Lang Lang Proving Ground in the State of Victoria while also evaluating the car on public roads. GM said Holden will continue development of Malibu until the end of 2012.

General Motors is quite serious about selling its upcoming 2013 Chevrolet Malibu on a global scale. So serious, in fact, that the Detroit automaker is making plans to built the mid-size model on several continents. Today, GM revealed that will build and sell the redesigned Malibu sedan in Korea. We’ll remind you that earlier this year, GM Korea announced it is replacing the Daewoo nameplate with the Chevrolet brand for the local market. Read more »

Along with the standard version of the all-new 2013 Malibu, Chevrolet also introduced the ECO-flavored variant of its mid-size sedan at the New York Auto Show. The Malibu ECO returns a fuel consumption of 38 mpg (6.19 liters/km) on the highway and 26 mpg (9 liters/100 km) in the city, with Chevrolet boasting that it’s the most fuel-efficient midsize sedan in the company's 100 year-long history.

The new version features GM’s eAssist “light electrification” technology, which is the company’s way of saying it is a micro-hybrid car. The eAssist uses a lithium-ion battery and an electric motor-generator to enable regenerative braking electric assist and start-stop functionality.

We’ve already brought you the first details and photos on the North American-spec 2013 Chevrolet Malibu ahead of its U.S. debut at the New York Auto Show, but for those of you wondering what GM has to offer buyers in other countries or how the firm’s new globally player looks in blue, we can answer some of your questions.

Starting from the engine range, GM revealed at the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show that the new Malibu will be offered with 10 different 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder units that run on gasoline, diesel or LPG fuel and will be linked to manual and automatic transmissions, depending on the market.

In China, GM said the new mid-size Chevy will be available at launch with two naturally-aspirated gasoline engine options, a 2.0-liter and a 2.4-liter, both linked to a 6-speed automatic transmission. The US automaker added that international versions of the Malibu will also get a 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline unit, details of which will be released at a later date.

In a simultaneous world premiere at the New York Auto Show in the States and the Shanghai Auto Show in China, General Motors will lift the curtain on its brand new 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, one of the firm’s most important models in years. The online debut of the brand’s new mid-size model comes on the same day that Chevrolet announced its best ever first-quarter results with 1.1 million sales worldwide.

What’s important about this generation of the Malibu is that Chevy’s mid-size saloon will become a global player, as GM plans to sell the car in nearly 100 countries across the world and build it in multiple locations, including China. The North American version will be manufactured at the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City, and at the Hamtramck factory in Detroit.

Redesigned from the ground up, the new Malibu sports a new exterior styling with lines and curves inspired from Chevy’s most recent models such as the Cruze up front and even the Camaro at the back with the LED dual-element taillamps.

“The exterior design of the all-new Malibu carries DNA from its sister vehicles, the Camaro and Corvette, to bring a sporty sensibility to the family sedan segment,” said Bryan Nesbitt, executive director for GM exterior design.

Driven by the new Cruze sedan and the globalization of the Chevrolet name, sales of GM’s brand in the first three months of the year reached 1.1 million vehicles worldwide, which is the best first-quarter results in the company’s history. Compared to the first quarter of 2010, Chevrolet recorded a 15 percent increase in sales this year.

Another day, another photo of General Motors’ 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. This time, GM’s China site published a three-quarter view of the local market version of Chevy’s mid-size sedan finished in a blue hue. Blame the angle the picture was taken, but the new Malibu looks less dynamic, more plain here than it did on the previous image of the US-spec model. Of course, that’s our two cents worth, so feel free to express your thoughts in the comments section below. Read more »

Speaking at a J.D. Power forum in Detroit, General Motors North American President Mark Reuss announced that Chevrolet will unveil two new models at the upcoming 2011 Chicago Auto Show, which kicks off on February 9. Mr. Reuss said one of the models will be a new vehicle based on the Camaro-platform, however, he declined to divulge further details about the car.

"It will be fun," Mr. Reuss told reporters in regards to the Camaro-based model. "I'm not going to give you guys any product information other than what I gave (in the presentation.) I'd ruin the whole show."

Now, the inevitable question that arises is, what are the two models Chevy is planning to introduce in Chicago?

Marc Keinath is a very lucky man. Not only did he survive a horrific crash in his 2004 Malibu, but he also received a brand new replacement, courtesy of General Motors. Earlier this week, Mr. Keinath was driving along Interstate 75 in Genesee County, Michigan, when he was caught off-guard by a patch of black ice and spun out of control. While he eventually regained control of the car, unfortunately, a tractor-trailer hauling 20 tons of sugar smashed into the rear of the Malibu and then fell on top of it.

Now that Pontiac is officially gone, one way of keeping the heritage alive is to salvage whatever parts you can find. We don’t know if that’s what the owner of this 1979 Chevrolet Malibu thought, but, nevertheless, he did swap the original engine with a modern 5.7-liter LS1 V8, sourced from a wrecked GTO, while keeping the styling of the car pretty much stock.

In what may be a sign of the times, the Chrysler Group is using bloggers, and members of social media sites and forums to promote its newest models on film. Here we see the company's latest promotional clip showing off the restyled and upgraded Sebring sedan, which as most of you know, has been renamed to 200.

The video hosts a number of people from various websites as well as one of its own marketers, and compares the mid-size sedan with Chevrolet's soon-to-be-replaced Malibu (see the official drawings here) and the Ford Fusion. Being a Chrysler made / edited promotional video, we'd take everything said with plenty grains of salt. Follow the break to watch the short clip.

According to a report from Reuters, General Motors is preparing for try-the-competition test drives in Chicago, L.A., Philadelphia, and Miami.

The project, called "Test Drive Studio", goes something like this: when consumers walk into a participating dealership, they'll be offered test drives in the mid-size Malibu and the Equinox and Traverse crossovers.

After that, GM puts its (and the US taxpayers') money where its mouth is: they'll offer people the chance to go out in comparable Fords, Toyotas, and Hondas.

Fact: these official drawings of an unnamed Chevrolet sedan were filed with the U.S. patent office by General Motors. And well, that's where the facts end and the speculations start. Looking at the photos, we assume that this mystery Chevrolet four-door saloon with the Camaro-inspired rear-end design is either a mid- or full-size sedan.

And while we know for sure that General Motors is readying a redesign for its Camry-fighting Chevrolet Malibu, we're not at all certain that this is the car depicted here.

For all we know, it could be a replacement for the Impala or (less probably) maybe for the European market and Daewoo-based, Chevy Epica sedan.

Hit the jump to check out the rest of the drawings and tell us what you think in the comments section.

One of GM's most promising future models -some say maybe even more promising than the all-electric Volt, the new Chevrolet Cruze could be delayed until 2011, nearly a year after its original U.S. market launch date, according to a report from Businessweek citing sources within the company. Likewise, the next next-generation Chevy Malibu may also be delayed by six months, into 2013, the report said. While GM spokesperson Dee Allen would not confirm any specific product delays, he told the magazine that "the company will continue to review the portfolio and concentrate on what's most important," adding that that some new-car programs "are going to shift around a bit." -Continued

And the reason behind these delays at such a crucial time when GM needs to inject its portfolio with cars that people actually want to buy like the Cruze? What other than to save cash as the General is getting ready for an even more thornier year in 2009.

Yes, you heard right: 2009 is expected to be worse than 2008 which will see around 14 million vehicles being sold in the States compared to 16.2 million in 2007. According to Massachusetts research firm IHS Global Insight, vehicles sales in the U.S. are expected to drop further in 2009 to around 13.4 million units - not exactly the business environment everyone was hopping for.

"GM doesn't have a choice," told Businessweek IHS Global Insight analyst John Wolkonowicz. "They have to do whatever it takes to get through until the car market recovers. That won't happen until 2010."

Hopefully for all us, GM will manage to make it through to 2010 - with or without Chrysler LLC under its protective arms...

Via: Businessweek

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