Eyes on the Road Test Drive: 2013 Malibu Eco

By Joseph B. White

Open the trunk of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco model, and you can’t miss the box shaped enclosure marked with a cartoon representation of a battery.

That battery and the hardware around it cut 3.1 cubic feet of cargo space out of the Malibu Eco compared to a standard Malibu. Is it worth that sacrifice?

I test drove a 2013 Malibu Eco for a weekend of driving around Detroit. GM doesn’t want to call the Malibu Eco a “hybrid.” Instead, it calls the car’s battery-booster the “eAssist” system.

GM says eAssist delivers about 15 horsepower of electric boost in hard acceleration, and powers a system that turns the car’s gasoline engine off at a stop light, and then restarts it when you hit the accelerator.

The latter feature, also known as idle-stop or stop-start, is going to appear on more vehicles in the U.S. as auto makers look to boost fuel efficiency. The concept is straight-forward: If you’re idling at a stop light, running the engine is a waste of petroleum. Why not shut down the petrol-burning motor, and restart using power from a battery. The GM system recovers energy from braking, an added plus.

Execution is everything on an idle-stop system. European drivers are used to putting their stick-shift cars into neutral and turning off the engine at a long light. American drivers are accustomed to instant power through their automatic transmissions when the light turns green. That’s one reason for the tepid to negative reviews on some idle-stop systems in the U.S.

The Malibu Eco’s idle-stop system is close to seamless. When I paid close attention, I noticed a slight shudder when the engine turned back on. The response time between touching the accelerator and moving forward was well within the range of what I consider normal.

Among other good points of my test car: The layout and look of the controls, the two-tone interior color scheme, and the extra money invested in giving surfaces such as the top of the dashboard a quality look and feel.

The Malibu Eco’s performance on the highway was less pleasing. Cruising at a steady speed was quiet and drama free. But when I tried to accelerate hard to change lanes from a near stop, the result was a lot of revolutions on the tachometer, a high, whining noise from under the hood, and almost no sense of going faster.

The rub for many comparison shoppers will be the modest fuel efficiency gain the eAssist provides. The Malibu Eco’s government-rated mileage is 25 city, 37 highway, 29 mpg overall A conventional Malibu four cylinder is rated at 22 city, 33 highway, 26 overall. During my drive, the car’s computer said I averaged about 30 mpg. A Chevy spokesman says some media test drivers have achieved mileage in the high 30s, up to 44 mpg. Others recorded worse fuel efficiency than I did.

The Malibu Eco test car I drove had a base price of $27,605, including freight charges. My car had another $1,775 in options including leather trimmed, heated seats. Total list price: $29,380. A 2012 Malibu LT – which Chevy says is roughly equivalent in content to the Eco model – lists for $27,270 – but should sell for substantially less after rebates.

At today’s fuel prices, the Eco model would save about $220 a year over 15,000 miles of driving compared to the standard model with the bigger trunk. That’s not peanuts, but it’s not enough to pay back the extra cost in less than five years – which is the yardstick many consumers use to judge fuel-saving technology, industry executives say. The comparison likely gets tougher as Chevy rolls out new engines for conventional Malibus this summer.

Chevy expects Eco models to account for less than 10% of total sales of the line. That sounds realistic, barring another big spike in gas prices.