2003 Chevrolet Malibu - You Can't Ask For More Than That

Back at the end of February, down at Ohio University where our younger son goes to school, the Camaro in the foreground was demolished when a woman suffered a seizure, lost control of what she was driving and crashed into a Toyota Sequoia that was parked in front of it. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. 

The force of the collision pushed the Sequoia into and up onto the front end of the Camaro. To make matters worse, the Camaro was pushed into the vehicle behind it causing damage to the rear end. Suffice to say, our Camaro, the first of the two 1996 Camaro's I had bought for my boys, was totaled. While it was a fitting end to a car that gave us nothing but trouble, the silver lining was that the woman's insurance company paid us over six thousand dollars for our loss and inconvenience. Hot damn. Seriously, my wife and I couldn't have asked for a better end to that car. By the way, we've heard the woman who had the seizure is fine. Godspeed. 

With a wad of windfall in hand, though, you'd think it would be easy to find a suitable and sensible used car to replace it. No such luck. Here in 2019, we quickly deduced that six grand is about half of what you need to find anything decent. However, that fact did not deter my wife and I, actually more me than her, from finding something suitable for less, ideally far less, than what the insurance company paid us.

I learned or relearned some valuable lessons about car shopping in the two months it took me to find this anonymous looking 2003 Chevrolet Malibu for an all in price of $3,500. First, shopping for an inexpensive used car is an arduous, time consuming process that requires an extreme amount of patience - of which I have precious little of. Secondly, this being north east Ohio, most cars up here that are more than ten years old have some sort of rust issue. Shoot, the brine they treat roads with here is so caustic to automobiles and trucks that I've seen vehicles three or four years that old with rust bubbles. What's worse is that often times the body of the car will be fine but the under carriage looks like something brought up from the Titanic. Beware. Thirdly, despite the drop in the number of people who smoke, you'd swear there were more people than ever who still smoke based on the number of "smokey" old and not so old cars I looked at, smelled and walked away from. Maybe it's just that people who smoke drive old cars? Fourthly, small cross overs are extremely popular and therefore very expensive.

Another thing that dragged out out our search was that we had no focus; we looked at not only a large number of different vehicles but different vehicle types. That's not something I usually do since when I shop for a car it's almost always for a particular vehicle or vehicle type. Our younger son, whom the vehicle was for, wasn't picky but he said if we could, find him something that was a "small SUV" like a Pontiac Vibe. Really. A Pontiac Vibe. That was an odd request from a kid who couldn't tell a Buick Century from a Dodge Viper. Turned out a friend of his at Ohio University had one and he liked it. Ever the dutiful parent, I did find a handful of "Vibes" and even the Toyota it's based in our price range but they were mostly all beaten to death. What's more, in the one or two that seemed drivable, instead of a transcendent driving experience like I've had with so many Asian cars, I found they drove like cheap, weird Tupperware bowls. So much for "Oh, What a Feeling".

All our son really wanted, and bless his heart he was not really choosy, was something with four doors so his friends could get into and out of it easily. Also, something he could haul his "stuff" with. In his words, "dad, please - something normal". Ah, the kid knows his old man so well. I found this Malibu for sale. oddly enough, literally around the corner from where I now work. It was listed for $3,295, had "only" 97,000 miles on it and thanks to it being a Pennsylvania car it was rust free. I mean, this thing is all but pristine where it really counts - underneath. They don't use the brine they use in Cleveland to treat their roads. After the scores of rust buckets I'd come across I couldn't get my check book out fast enough to lock this up when I found it. I signed as quick as I could on the dotted line. I even had a mechanic look at it and even he was amazed at how great the car was.

It's ironic I bought this car given that years ago my wife and I had leased one of these brand new. Despite the car not giving us a second of trouble during the time we had it, we despised the damn thing. After three years with a Nissan Maxima prior to that, stepping down to a Chevrolet Malibu was humiliating and I think I took my frustration out on the little car. However, given my modest salary and my wife taking care of the boys full time, it was perfectly fine. I never took to it but in the end it was fine.

Our "new" 2003 Chevrolet Malibu rides and handles just as primitively as I remember our '99 did but this little car has a remarkably spacious interior. Especially compared to a 1996 Camaro. And look! Leather! Well, whatever this rubberized stuff GM called leather back then is. Of course, this car is  not perfect. The driver's seat cushion is crushed, apparently a previous owner was on the large side, and the turn signals worked intermittently. I fixed that. Aside from that it's pretty ok. Best of all our automotively ambivalent non car crazy younger son loves it and is extremely appreciative.

You can't ask for more than that.