She has been driving this as a daily since early Sept. Things are going well. It's nice to have factory BT for the phone and music. First car in the fleet with a backup camera. Also first car in the fleet with direct injection.
Did my first service and inspection on the car yesterday. One thing I was worried about was whether my extra long Quick Jacks would fit between the wheelbase. Good news: it does, but not by much. That means this is about the shortest wheelbase car you can jack up on the Quick Jack. This is convenient since it's about the shortest wheelbase car I'd ever want to own (108"). I just used the rubber blocks on what looked like a good section of floor. I have to say - the whole pinch weld jacking situation is really dumb and I do not like it.
Some pics and then the inspection report.
Brake report
Fronts are probably 70% remaining and rears more like 90%. This is good.
Rust report
Mostly good. It has coated brake lines. I applied about half a can of CRC Corrosion Inhibitor (Cosmoline) to the front and rear subframes, and some key areas of suspension and body. I'm satisfied with that for now. Looking like it does now suggests that we should be able to get 200k out of this from a rust perspective with zero issues, especially since I've treated a few select areas. Kind of a relief, though I'll probably want to do an annual inspection and follow-up as we go here.
General design report
This Epsilon II seems like a premium platform, which I guess I already knew. Front and rear lower control arms are aluminum, and it uses aluminum knuckles front AND rear which is even more surprising. The front uses 12" long plastic stabilizer bar end links which is kind of funny, because the rears are super stubby. The rear has provisions for AWD as you'd expect (never was done on the Malibu to my knowledge but was done on some of the more expensive Epsilon II vehicles). I like the rear shock design. The bottom bolt is very accessible and the top of the shock mounts to this aluminum bracket that is just bolted to the body. Looks ridiculously easy to swap those out. Which it will probably never need. The steering and handling is very pleasing on this vehicle. It's not quite sporty but it has what I would say is the perfect ride/handling mix for a car like this. Stable, secure, confident, and there is definitely enough athleticism that you can toss it around without issue. Brakes respond nicely, as well.
I smell a small coolant leak and it was down a bit on coolant when we received the vehicle. I have topped it off and will keep my eye on it. I do have a pressurizing tool so I could check that out when I do the first oil change, which it won't need for some time. Actually I should probably figure out what mileage I SHOULD do the first oil change. And what oil I want to use...
