jbm2k6

Hi everyone,

I'm having some problems with my car and I was wondering if others are having similar issues. I'm at almost 58,000 miles, and, I bought this car new off of the showroom floor.

A history of what’s happened since new:

- Car had the Service Air Bag warning come on. Dealer had it for several days, which I was okay with since they had to order parts…What I wasn’t okay with was never being offered a loaner car to commute back and forth to work with.
-Brake Switch Recall. I found that I was unable to cancel the cruise control with the brakes without slamming on the pedal or hitting the Cruise On/Off Switch and I was getting Service Traction/Service ESC. The dealer was booked solid for three weeks until I could get it in there and they said it was okay to drive. The car was okay for a little while, but, now, the Service ESC and Traction warnings are back intermittently and I don’t always have brake lights, I can’t always get it out of Park, and, now, when it’s acting up, the brake pedal sinks after you’ve placed your foot on the brake. Not to mention it usually acts up at the worst time (on the highway, then drives extremely poorly when it exhibits these gremlins). The dealer called me and told me they were having problems with it when I had it in for the recall…offered to drive me to Enterprise so I could rent a car in case they couldn’t get it buttoned up the same day…
-Wobble. I went back and forth with the dealer on this…they kept saying they couldn’t duplicate it. Finally, I got them to adjust the motor mounts as per the TSB on these cars for low-speed wobble. It got worse. They swapped the axles and it still does it, on occasion. I had new tires put on and had the wheels balanced just to ensure that wasn’t the problem. It’s not.
-Drivetrain Noise. Every time I pull a way, there is something that makes a dragging/rattling noise. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is, but, I’ve heard other Malibus/G6s with the 2.4 making this noise.
-Transmission. I’ve had this car since new and the transmission has always had a bit of an attitude problem. It slips, it shifts harsh, and sometimes I get an occasional shift that’s spot on. I had the transmission serviced at 30,000 and the fluid came out black. I had it done at 40k to clean it out, and as I had expected, it came out blackish-red. At 50k, it still didn’t look that great, but, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was at 30k. This car is not a city car, and, I don’t spend much time at stoplights, so, needless to say, I was a bit shocked when I found black fluid. Recently on a trip, I was changing lanes and it slipped on downshift and slipped again while accelerating and then slammed into the next gear when it finally upshifted. Is there some sort of shifting program that’s way out of spec?
-Instrument cluster. The temperature gauge will drop down to cold and back up to normal while driving. I’ve caught it doing it numerous times since new.

-Seats. The foam has disappeared from the passenger’s seat. I drive this car 95% of the time without anyone else travelling with me. The driver’s seat is banging and making all sorts of cracking and popping noises as well as moving back and forth on its track while driving.

-Acceleration. When coming to stop, sometimes I have to stand on the brakes harder because the engine stays at ~1500RPM which makes it feel like you have feet on both pedals.

The thing is, I like this car, but, I feel as though I’m having problems that exceed what a car of its age and mileage should be experiencing. Any thoughts on what I should do with some of these problems? I can't afford to keep trudging back to the dealer any paying $200 a pop for diagnostics for problems they can't "duplicate".

Thanks!

Mountain Hiker

I have the same car. They are junk, I've owned GM products since my 1st 1971 Chevelle. I've been fairly happy with them after all these years but this Malibu is garbage. GM has decided to ignore their customers complaints and not stand behind their products. Mine just came back from the dealer with a steering issue. Also had the wobble issue, leaky transmission and so on. Look up the steering problem and you'll find this is common in several of their models. They're telling me I need a new rack & pinion unit and steering shaft. This car has 50,000 miles. I told them to not touch a thing. The service manager is even disgusted with GM because he has to take the brunt of the complaints over their unresolved issues. The worst part is the dealers know these problems exist but GM ignores them unless someone gets killed.
I'm getting rid of this car immediately and will never buy another GM product.
The bottom line is all vehicles have problems but I expect manufactures to stand behind them and take care of their customer not hit them with huge repair bills on new vehicles.