I dont have any links, but It was on the news.

How lovely, they ramp up hype on a vehicle that was only 1/2 Hybrid compared to the competition (I drove the Aura version), only to cancel it! How long till the 2nd gen Hybrid system comes out? A REAL Hybrid system that can actually move the car under battery power?

What a waste of engineering! I remember when I was a Saturn Rep and the greenline Vue came out, all us sales guys knew we were going to have it tough against a vehicle like the Escape Hybrid. I also remember a customer trading in her regular 4cyl vue for a Hybrid one and getting the same mileage.

 

2009 Malibu 2.4L gets 22/33
2009 Malibu hybrid gets 26/34

If the 2010 Malibu gets DI like the Equinox it will probably get 1-2mpg boost in city and hwy. I think the 41mpg Fusion put the final nail in the coffin for the Malibu hybrid.

 

Yup. "What's the point" comes to mind.

 

It was a bad idea from the very beginning. GM has said that producing hybrids was more about marketing and bragging rights than it was any real world benefit, so what do they do? Put out a half-assed design that doesn't get any real world benefits, doesn't give them bragging rights, and only makes them looks like technological laggards. It just gave people more reason to say how inferior GM was to the Japanese.

 

The GM two-mode system in the big trucks is nothing to sneeze at. Who wouldn't love a Tahoe that gets 20+ mpg in the city? They did it right here.

Then they come up with the "mild hybrid" idea in cars, and it was always a joke. For once, I agree with Z28x - when your cross-town rival comes out with an honest, impressive hybrid effort in their midsize offering, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

 

It's not selling well & it's too mild of a hybrid. Not enough MPG savings to justify the cost. And the Volt will be coming out soon.

 

It didn't get much above the 4cyl/A6 combo. It has poor sales and the trim levels available aren't that good. Canceling it makes sense. GM did something right by canceling it.

 

Fair enough, but to be clear, the mild / BAS (belt alternator starter) hybrid concept was out well before the two mode. I'm sure it is much easier to translate the BAS powertrain from the Vue where it started to the Aura and Malibu. The two mode system is far more complex.

That said, the Malibu does need a full hybrid to go against Fusion (and Camry).

 

hopefully the old GM think of putting whatever they can into metal and fooling consumers is totally and completely gone. this hybrid was the most idiotic hybrid ever conceived in the history of time. perhaps only more idiotic is supplying the dual mode system in only the most fully loaded tahoes and silverados, for ~$45k, thereby keeping them out of reach of average consumers, and prohibiting word of mouth, the most important form of advertising. Dumb GM, dumb. hopefully the kinds of people that ran on that kind of arrogance living in a dream world where GM still sells 1 million units of one model are long long gone. dumb arrogant fools

 

Good!

The Hybrid Malibu wasn't. It was a 36v system with no direct-drive motors, only inline electric motors. Not a true hybrid, more of an "electric assist" option, if you want to call it that.

IMHO, it was a waste of money and a "cheap" and shadowy way to lure buyers who were looking for an actual hybrid vehicle. The real world results spoke for themselves--everyone else doing real hybrid systems was getting much better results.

 

Another half-*** attempt of GM to follow the pack and even failing at the following part.

 

I'm not against the idea of BAS - it actually works well in my wife's VUE, but I agree that electric assist or start/stop is a more accurate description than "Hybrid" in this case.

BAS offers some meaningful gain in fuel economy on the Vue. I've never fully understood the point for the extremely minimal gains on Aura and Malibu. And it makes even less sense with the addition of the 6-Speed 2.4 combo to their lineups.

 

The second-gen BAS system will debut in the 2011 models.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/11/g...-2010-model-y/

 

Stupid GM. Just plain stupid.

 

Putting the 4cyl/A6 combo in the Malibu pretty much killed the Malibu Hybrid. If GM had mated up an A6 to the Hybrid instead of the A4, it may have put out better numbers distancing it from its 4cyl/A6 cousin. I'm cautiously watching what happens with the Cruze and Volt. If the 1.4L turbo Ecotec in the Cruze puts out close to what the Volt does in fuel efficiency, I'd tend to lean toward the Cruze... even if the Volt does outweigh it in techo-cool geek-factor.

I still say (and will continue to say) Chevrolet needs a 3-door "hot hatch" if its going to capture the young first time buyer enthusiast crowd.