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2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid: 48 mpg for $28,645

With the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, General Motors wants to show it's as serious about mainstream hybrids as it is about mainstream midsize sedans. Keeping with the theme, Chevy announced the Malibu Hybrid will have a serious price tag of $28,645. Chevy said Thursday the 2016 Malibu Hybrid will go on sale in the spring, with that price also including an $875 destination charge. That's about $3,000 more than where the Ford Fusion Hybrid kicks off, and about $2,000 more than a Toyota Camry Hybrid LE. The big news being pushed with the Malibu Hybrid, however, is the fuel economy. GM says it's capable of 48 miles per gallon city and 45 highway, for a combined rating of 47 mpg. That's better than any other 2016 midsize hybrid sedan. Power comes from a 1.8-liter gasoline engine and an electric motor with a 1.5-kWh lithium-ion battery, producing 182 combined horsepower. That's competitive with both the Camry and Fusion. Chevy also likes to say it's roughly the same system as the one installed in the 2016 Volt – although with a smaller battery, larger gas engine, and without the plug – so the Malibu Hybrid has that halo effect going for it. With both this Malibu and 2016 Toyota Prius, there's a lot of activity around gas-electric hybrids amid lowering fuel prices and a raft of plug-ins and full-electrics. The gas-only 2016 Malibu was found to be, "at least good again," so the 2016 Malibu Hybrid should be able to attract those who want a competent midsize sedan with excellent fuel economy that awaits EPA verification. We'll go with that thought until we get to drive it. Related Video: NEXT-GEN CHEVROLET MALIBU HYBRID LT STARTS AT $28,645 Projected to offer 48 MPG city using technologies borrowed from Volt DETROIT – The 2016 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid LT, which achieves a General Motors'-estimated 48 mpg city, will be available this spring with a starting price of $28,645. "The Malibu leverages knowledge and technology directly from the second-generation Chevrolet Volt," said Steve Majoros, marketing director of Chevrolet Cars and Crossovers. "By leveraging technology, we are broadening our level of expertise and lessons learned to bring consumers a world-class hybrid." With an all-new, hybrid powertrain that uses a slightly modified drive unit and electric motors used in the 2016 Chevrolet Volt, the Malibu Hybrid offers a GM-estimated 48 mpg city, 45 mpg highway – and 47 mpg combined, unsurpassed in the midsize car segment. Official EPA estimates are pending.

National Corvette Museum to recreate sinkhole experience for patrons [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The Thunderdome at the National Corvette Museum is not a ride; instead it's an experience that mixes digital graphics and thundering sound. For a brief period, it looked like the National Corvette Museum was going to preserve that sinkhole that ate eight important 'Vettes last year. After all, tourism boomed there afterwards. However, keeping the crater would have been more expensive than just doing the repairs. The museum isn't ready to let people completely forget, though, and now intends to make a major attraction out of a recreated version of the calamity. The museum's plan turns the sinkhole disaster into an amusement park ride called the Thunderdome, according to GM Authority. In a smaller recreation of the Skydome, 15 people at a time would get to watch an imitation of the sinkhole devouring the eight Corvettes. To make the experience even more immersive, visitors would get to view this all from an artificial, underground cave. If you missed seeing the actual pit, this would certainly be a bizarre way to experience it. According to GM Authority, the exhibit would also include an explanation of how sinkholes occur. The Corvette museum reportedly wants the attraction open by this fall.

Race Recap: Rolex 24 at Daytona was fast and feisty

Let the record show that victory at the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona went to the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Target/Ford EcoBoost Riley DP driven by Verizon IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan and NASCAR drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson. The winner did 740 laps to cover 2,634.3 miles in 24 hours and 57.667 seconds. That's a statement to this year's pace in spite of 18 cautions, two more than last year: the Michael Shank Racing Ligier got pole with a time of 1:39.194, slower than last year's pole time of 1:38.270; however, the winning car last year only did 695 laps. The fight for top honors was shaved to a four-car battle over the first third of the event. The No. 02 Ganassi car took the lead on the first lap, swapping it well into the night with the No. 01 Ganassi car, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP, and the defending champion No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, all of them staying within about 20 seconds of one another. The Action Express car had a fuel connector come loose and lost three laps getting towed back to the pits to have it reattached, but was back in the lead 18 hours in. The No. 01 Ganassi car dropped out with recurring clutch problems 22 hours in, retiring not long after. A race-within-the-race is where the concluding action happened, a seven minute, 30-second dash from the end of the last caution to the checkered flag. During the penultimate pit stops with an hour to go, Dixon was in second place followed Jordan Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing DP into the pits but beat him out, taking the lead. The Action Express car was in third. In the last pit stops of the race, Dixon gained even more time, getting a four-second advantage over Taylor. Then a full-course caution came out twenty minutes before the finish when a Prototype Challenge car hit the wall and caught fire, bunching up the field. That closed the pits, but the Wayne Taylor Racing car had to pit during that yellow because of a miscalculation of driver time. No driver can be behind the wheel for more than four hours in a six-hour period but Jordan Taylor was going to go over, so he came in to swap out for brother Ricky. That cost the team any chance of second place, since they took an additional drive-through penalty for entering closed pits. When the track went green again, Sebastien Bourdais in the Action Express car stayed all over Dixon for the final five laps but couldn't get around him.