2010 Chevy Malibu LT

[Robert Hall]

Picked up my rental Sat. morning at Oakland airport, a gold Malibu LT w/ black and gray cloth interior. Put 100 or so miles on it around the Bay area, driving from Oakland airport up to the hotel in Vallejo and over to the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma for Indy Car race yesterday, and up to Sonoma and Napa for some sight-seeing. I had wanted a Charger, but for a free rental, I wasn't going to complain.

It was a pleasant and quiet car to drive, the interior materials pretty nice overall (soft touch on some parts of the dash), controls worked well and were intuitive, dash layout easy on the eyes and easy to use, car felt solid and well put together..doors shut w/ a nice solid thunk. It compared quite favorably to the 2 '10 Fusions and '10 Taurus I've driven this year so far. Visibility out was fine. Really the only nit to pick was the headrests, they seemed a bit too firm and lacking in padding. It drove well on a variety of roads, from dirt washboard back roads in the Sonoma area, to winding twisty roads, freeways and the broken, rough freeways of Oakland (parts of 880 were very rough).

All in all, a decent rental and more appealing IMO than the last mid or large FWD GM rentals I've driven ('05 Grand Prix and '06 Impala).