The Chevrolet Malibu has been a pretty good car overall, but the plastic on the driver's seat near the door is cracking. It seems to be made of very cheap and hard plastic.
Also, the seat belt does not retract well when exiting the vehicle and gets jammed up in the door, if it's not placed inside the car by hand.
Also, the tilt steering column does not tilt up far enough, and I am normal-sized. I doubt if a person over 6 feet tall would like this vehicle, as the headroom is also not very high at all. It's like this vehicle was designed for smaller people than average.
Chevrolet is using cheap, hard plastic that breaks easily. This driver's seat plastic side cracking seems to be a very common problem with Chevrolet vehicles these days. Overall, the Malibu has been a good car, and gets very good gas mileage. The only other real beef is that the tilt steering column just does not go up very high at all.
Dealer replaced 3 times under warranty. Now I'm replacing it for $100.00 out of pocket. With 50000 miles on it this should not be a problem with a new car. Dealer said it was big people doing it me and my wife weighs 150 pounds. We are the only drivers. I'm disappointed with Chevy and the way this is being handled.
I purchased this car brand new in December 2015 and for the most part my wife has enjoyed driving it. One day, within two years of purchase, I was washing it and when I opened the driver's side door to clean the inside. I was mortified to find that the pleather on the side of the driver's seat was cracked in several places and the plastic frame around the base of the seat was broken. When I asked my wife about it, she said the damage had been there for about three months. I called the service manager at Superior Chevrolet (where I purchased it) and he practically laughed when I asked him if this type of damage was covered in any way.
Conversely, I have a 2013 Nissan Altima with over 100,000 miles and there are no signs of wear or damage anywhere.
Needless to say, I won't be buying Chevrolet anymore.
OK the plastic seat part had cracked in November 2016, I had it replaced. I noticed recently the new piece is completely broken again, and this time I would have to replace it because the car is past the 36000 mile warranty,,, I am thinking that this piece is defective and is not suitable for this car,
- Meek M.,
Savannah, GA, US
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
My son and I purchased a brand New 2015 Malibu six months apart inot 2015. We're both experiencing cracking of the sits. We're both disappointed. This shouldn't be happening when his car was a year old in June, and mines will be a year in November.
Update from Oct 20, 2016: Update Josh O.: I apologized for the picture. I don't know how it happened, but It's UPSIDE DOWN. Please turn the picture over. The defect is in the plastic seat trimming .... look very closely. I do have another picture when you apply pressure to the seat you can see it (seating down). It's really bad in at least two places.... However, I took it to the local dealership and they had to order the part. They fixed it at no charge, because it was still under warranty. It has to be a defected in the car seat, because my sons car is doing the same thing.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
The Chevrolet Malibu has been a pretty good car overall, but the plastic on the driver's seat near the door is cracking. It seems to be made of very cheap and hard plastic.
Also, the seat belt does not retract well when exiting the vehicle and gets jammed up in the door, if it's not placed inside the car by hand.
Also, the tilt steering column does not tilt up far enough, and I am normal-sized. I doubt if a person over 6 feet tall would like this vehicle, as the headroom is also not very high at all. It's like this vehicle was designed for smaller people than average.
- Tom B., Sacramento, CA, US