Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you heard that General Motors plans to kill the Chevrolet Malibu. We kid you not, the popular model that accounted for over 10 million sales worldwide and stayed in production for nine generations, from 1963 to 2024, is going away in just a few months.
Production will end this November (2024), and this is not a report or rumor, as the bowtie brand recently confirmed the big news. What does this mean for the automotive world? That the mid-size sedan class is losing yet another member in favor of electric crossovers, as that is Chevy's focus right now, alongside retooling the Kansas City factory after the model’s demise.
The Malibu is Chevrolet's only traditional passenger car that is still on sale in the United States. It is in the 2024 model year, with the lineup kicking off from $26,195, excluding destination. The RS, 1LT, and 2LT follow the base LS with respective MSRPs of $27,095, $29,195, and $32,595 for the 2024 model year, and all pack the same 1.5L four-pot, rated at 163 hp (165 ps/122 kW) and 184 pound-feet (250 Nm) of torque.
Given the imminent death of the Malibu, we expect Chevrolet to celebrate it one last time with a special edition, built in limited numbers. Mind you, that's just our two cents, as the automaker hasn't announced such a model. And if it were up to us, we'd give it a punchy motor, a few exterior add-ons, some tweaks in the cockpit, uprated brakes, a retuned chassis, and a few other bits and bobs to differentiate it from the lesser grades.
Photo: Chevrolet
Others would probably go the extra mile. Jlord8, for instance, would pick a station wagon version as the model's swansong, giving it the Maxx suffix, just like other long-roof variants from the Chevrolet Malibu's past. The rendering artist put his skills to work and came up with such a vehicle in Fantasy Land, which looks rather good, doesn't it?
The biggest change compared to the sedan is the extended roofline that is a bit arched at the rear. The car also sports redesigned rear side windows, larger rear three-quarter windows, bigger rear fenders, and even if the back end is not entirely visible, we'd also bet on fresh taillamps. The tailgate replacing the trunk lid now opens into a superior cargo area, and the ride also features a few other fresh touches here and there.
Since crossovers and SUVs have almost buried low-slung mid-size cars (and not only), a Maxx version of the Chevrolet Malibu is an impossible task from a financial standpoint. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean we wouldn't like to see one, even in limited numbers. Would you?
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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