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2016 Chevrolet Malibu First Drive [w/video]

You have to appreciate honesty in this business. When a car company admits its offering in a segment isn't up to the task, it catches you by surprise. The surprisingly open Chevy reps stopped short of saying that making the last Malibu smaller was a mistake, but given that the righting of the ship included a lengthening of this new model, it was certainly implied. The eighth-generation Malibu lasted only three years, with a major update coming just one year in to try and fix some of the bigger concerns. The goal for the 2016 Malibu wasn't to make a competent product better, it was to make an okay one good again. That started with a stretch. The Malibu is long again, a big car that meets America's warped idea of a midsized car. Because of this, the Malibu's dimensions sidle up to the Impala's. In fact, it's within a fraction of an inch of the Impala's wheelbase measurement, and sits right between the last Malibu and the Impala in terms of EPA passenger volume. The back seat gets the most of the payoff, bringing it back into competition with other midsized counterparts. The Malibu is now one of the longest in the segment, but also among, if not the, lightest. The 2016 model is claimed to be about 300 pounds lighter than its dimensionally challenged predecessor. While most new models tend to choose between lighter or larger these days, Chevy managed not-insignificant improvements to both. Styling doo-dads no longer separate the trim levels, it's the features inside that fuel the upsell. Some of that weight came out of the front end. The aluminum hood is lighter than before, and we'd wager that's because it stops very short of the leading edge of the car. Instead, the nose is enshrouded in a big plastic fascia, which has to be an advantage at the scales but creates a somewhat unfinished look. That's amplified by the fact that everything ahead of the hood is a bit busy, and actually surprisingly aggressive, in contrast to the rest of the design. The new Cruze, with its cowl-to-grille hood, wears a more cohesive new-Chevy front end. The styling adopts the, dare we say it, coupe-like look of many (most?) new family sedans. The profile is attractive enough but almost generic now since the Chrysler 200, Ford Fusion, and others have already moved in this direction. The rear-end styling is inoffensive, almost original Mercedes CLS meets current Impala.

VW, Jeep and Cadillac top list of most-tattooed car brands

Most car enthusiasts own at least one piece of gear with their favorite brand's logo on it. It can be a T-shirt, a pen, a hat, or a garage sign, for example. It takes a much greater degree of dedication to get a car-themed tattoo, and a study suggests this sky-scraping level of obsession is most often found in Volkswagen, Jeep, and Cadillac fans. Compare the Market analyzed Instagram hashtags and posts to compile a list of the most commonly tattooed brands. Volkswagen came out on top, with 5,507 posts; note that anything related to the Wolfsburg-based brand earns it a point, whether it's a logo, a cutaway diagram of the Beetle's air-cooled flat-four engine, or a Touareg V10's firing order. Jeep finished second with 2,139 posts, followed by Cadillac at 1,775 posts. Surprisingly, the fourth spot is occupied by Pontiac, which appeared in 1,609 posts in spite of the fact that it hasn't built a car since 2010. Holden appears near the very bottom of the top-20 chart, ahead of Lamborghini, and its result might be influenced by the fact that General Motors announced plans to shutter it earlier in 2020. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are in sixth and 12th place, respectively. Alfa Romeo doesn't appear in the top 20, though its decades-old Quadrifoglio logo (pictured) can easily be mistaken for a symbol of Irish luck. Searching for posts that show a tattoo of a specific model uncovered even bigger surprises. According to the same study, the most-tattoed nameplate is the Chevrolet Impala, which appears in 823 posts. Odds are the earlier generations, like Dr. Dre's famous six-four, are more often tattooed than the final-generation model, which unceremoniously went out of production in February 2020 without a direct replacement waiting in the wings. Second place goes to the DeLorean DMC-12, which has transcended its status as an esoteric fiasco on wheels thanks to its role as a time machine in "Back to the Future." It appeared in 800 posts. Chevrolet's Corvette takes a distant third with 180 posts, followed by the Volkswagen Beetle (147 posts) and the Mini Cooper (116 posts). All told, car-themed tattoos are relatively rare. To put some of the aforementioned numbers into context, searching Instagram for the hashtag Volkswagen yields over 15 million posts, while the hashtag tattoo appears in over three million publications. Auto News Cadillac Chevrolet Jeep

Pony-car sales war: Mustang vs. Camaro vs. Challenger [UPDATE]

Update: An earlier version of this story misstated the 2015 Mustang's weight when compared with previous models. Additionally, we have added comments from Chevrolet in the text. The Ford Mustang has blown past the Chevy Camaro as America's best-selling pony car, and in June, it wasn't even close. The 'Stang outsold the Camaro 11,719 to 8,611 cars. The Camaro remained ahead of the Dodge Challenger, which sold 6,845 units. Even though the Camaro did post an 11.5-percent sales improvement in June, the competition is arguably stronger than at anytime since the 1970s muscle-car era. The Mustang's sales leapt a whopping 53.6 percent, while the Challenger saw a gain of 56 percent. Several factors are weighing down Camaro sales, including its lame duck status. Chevy is launching a new generation of the Camaro this year that's more than 200 pounds lighter, offers a new turbo four-cylinder engine option, and has a nicer interior than the outgoing model. Put simply: wait a few months and you can get a better car. It's also unlikely Chevy will jack up the price much, as it's historically kept the Camaro within reach of everyday enthusiasts. While Chevy fans wait in anticipation for their new sports car, Ford and Dodge have downshifted. The new Mustang, which went on sale last year, is faster and more sophisticated than its predecessor. It also offers a 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder, which Ford has credited for the Mustang's recent uptick and makes up 36 percent of the car's sales, Ford analyst Erich Merkle said. View 17 Photos June's performance allowed the Mustang to widen its sales gap with the Camaro this year. Through the first five months, Ford sold 68,290 Mustangs, a 54.4-percent increased compared with 2014. Chevy sold 42,593 Camaros, an 8.7-percent decrease. The Challenger – long the No. 3 pony car in sales volume – has seen its sales surge 41 percent this year to 37,011 units. Spokesman Monte Doran said Chevy expected that 2015 would be a "relatively soft year" for the Camaro. "Mustang is taking advantage of years' worth of pent-up demand for an independent rear suspension," he said. "When Camaro introduced an IRS, in 2009, it helped make us the best-selling performance car in America.