It was a pearl of mediocrity among a putrid vat of automotive shit. A 2005 Chevy Malibu. It came equipped with a V6, alloy wheels, a lime green paint job that would make Kermit proud, and only 47,000 miles. The sole great car relatively speaking among a hundred plus repos by a title lending company.
It went for $7200… plus about a $350 auction fee.
At this point a lot of folks start laughing and mouthing the words, “Holy Shit!”. The car not only went for retail… but high retail. Super clean to the extreme plus $1500 in monopoly money. No sane soul in this business would have dog-fighted their way into buying that car.
But then only four days later, something even more incredible happened. A 2009 Chevy Malibu. Same green color. Same alloy wheels, no roof, V6 combination. This one with 57,000 miles.
The bidding started at $13,000, then $12,000, then…Only two buyers happened to be interested in the vehicle. It just so happened that one was directly behind the other. $12,000 went to $10000, and then… after some more time sitting on their heels… a final starting bid at $8000 by the guy in back.
Guy in front bids $8100. Guy in back of him bids $8200. The auctioneer asks and pleads for another bid. After ten seconds of beggary.
The guy in front complained and complained. “You did not take my bid! Why you no take my bid!” But the deal was done. The guy in back of him just earned a big ear to ear grin.
As for the rest of the stuff? One other fellow bought a 2011 Chrysler Town & Country with 34k miles for only $15,500. That was a nice buy, and it reminded me that I better start selling on Ebay again. I got a ’95 Miata in red and 94k for $2675.
I’m confused. How did the ugly 2005 model manage to sell for more than the much better looking 2009 model? Sure it’s got 10000 miles less than the 2009, but since they weren’t at the same auction they weren’t competing cars.
I had a co-worker with the 2005 model in that horrible green color. Very ugly car. She liked it though for some strange reason.
That 2005-05 Malibu is the homliest Chevy since the ’73 Malibu with the cowcatcher bumpers. Plus poor build quality relative to its competition…I can’t believe it. I’d take the ’09 hands down. And at that price maybe I should…
Plus one of the worst interiors compared to its contemporaries. I was somewhat interested in the Malibu Maxx, but that center console & IP was absolutely a no-no.
The 2005 is a story of a nicely executed engineering product that suffered from external design problems:
– The only mechanical/design flaw was the steering column, which they fixed in 2007, and GM will replace for free with a good one at any dealer
– The side-to-side internal room is mammoth. The G6, Aura, and new-for-08 Malibu all had several inches less of hip and shoulder room.
– The wheelbase is shorter so it feels sportier. The G6, Aura, Malibu Maxx, and the 08 Malibu all had six more inches. It is easier to pull off a u-turn in a cul-de-sac with the Uglibu than those.
– The longer wheelbase did not translate into better leg room in a manner only GM could pull off.
– The 3500 had a great mix of power and fuel economy for the weight of the car. 200 lb-ft of low-end torque gets you off the line; you can regularly get 32 mpg highway with summer tires or 30 mpg highway with winter tires.
– The car does not weigh as much as later Malibus.
– The 4-speed, although primitive, was considerably more reliable than previous generations.
I thought the ’05 was the peak of ugly with that Silverado bar; they toned it down a lot for ’06 and ’07. The pushed-out look, however, gives you that shoulder room and it has dramatically better visibility than a G6 or an Impala.
I leased a 2006 Maxx LT, it turned out to be a pretty darn good car. Not too long after we took delivery of our 2009 G6 was I aware of how much shoulder room we lost. My rides in my neighbor’s 08 Malibu confirm that fact.
There’s nothing here I would disagree with, it was just a big box on wheels that did it’s job with no drama. Which is why we liked it so much, I guess.
Now, to get my hands on a nice Maxx SS, though…
The Malibu in question at the top? Mediocrity? Yes, but a solid buy. The edition pictured was the best until the new generation came out.
Verdict: Good buy – for a change!
agreed
maybe the 05 was a direct buy from an individual via proxy? maybe the 09 was a flood/salvage? not enough info here except to speculate.
Those 09 Malibus are so damn cramped inside. You have no sholder room. Huge on the outside and no room inside.
We had one on vacation for a week and I couldn’t believe how cramped it felt. Nice enough car, but we have malibu maxx and the interior feels huge by comparison.
The previous gen has much worse build quality but at least you get some legroom in the back. Don’t know the measurements, just my perception.
Total weirdness. The only weirder thing would be a 3400 equiped 2004 Impala going for more than a 3900 enquipted 2008. Although I like to say that things sell for what they’re worth… to that person.
Weird world. The bidders on that first Malibu ought to be kicking themselves.
“It was a pearl of mediocrity among a putrid vat of automotive shit.”
Sounds like someone had a bad day at the auction.
Those aren’t alloy wheels on that ’05. You can clearly see the plastic caps over the steel wheels in the first picture.
I don’t think those pics are of the actual auction cars. Steve said that they were both lime green, but neither of the pictured cares are. I think they were just a couple pics to represent what was sold.
Edit: I didn’t see Steven’s reply below…
Some auctions are fine with me publishing pictures. Others not so much. The one on the top was a ‘not so much deal’ so I simply used one from a public domain.
When you account for auction fees, the difference between the 2005 Malibu and the 2009 Malibu only amounted to about $700. Both of them had clear titles.
There were a couple of surprises with these two auctions.
The first is that the 2005 came from an auction that featured a title pawn as one of their main consignors. Usually those vehicles are among the roughest… I would say only about 20% of title pawn repos have been decently kept and most of them average right around 14 to 15 years old.
The crowd that picks up these vehicles tends to be more focused on the lower end of the market…. so you can usually get a decent deal on the high end.
The other auction usually has 80 to 100 dealers for only one lane. In otherwords, you have 80+ potential bidders looking at the same exact vehicle at the the same exact time. Competition tends to be fierce at the auction where the 2009 Malibu sold.
If there hadn’t been a screw up with who was bidding chances are the seller would have made an extra $2000 compared to what it sold for.
I don’t think this was a retail deal for the 2005 model. This was more than likely a dog fight between people who are playing with other people’s money.
These days a LOT of buyers play around with other people’s money. Some of it is funny money. But that’s a subject for another day.
Domestic residuals are back up?
Since 2009, definitely.
Since summer 2011, it depends.
Tax Season Prices?
Here you go…
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/02/hammer-time-tax-season-2/
Could have been that someone really, really liked that mint color. When I was in the ‘biz, people who liked that color would not settle for beige or silver like everyone else.
I detect a haughty tone in this thread for that generation of Malibu. I sold my sister a lease returned 2004 Malibu Maxx in 2008: it had 42k km (about 25k miles), leather seats, rear DVD, dual sunroofs – in short, all the toys.
Where are you going to get all of that with reclining rear seats AND 30 mpg on the highway with 200 hp, with that kind of mileage for under $10k?
Seriously. Looks are subjective, but that car was an helluva bang for the buck, even new. In the Land of $4 a Gallon Gas, these vehicles flew out the door – for the price of a 4 banger Camry!
@Carbiz: As I posted further up, I really liked the Maxx I had on lease. The car was a great value, but the looks were polarizing. I guess that kept too many people away.
Having sat through quite a few auctions myself, I too have noticed that 9 times out of 10 you can have a pretty good guess at what a car will eventually sell for and get it right. But every now and then you’ll watch a bidding war erupt over a car that is completely not worth the money.
Talking of ‘funny money’ back in 2007 there was a change in the law in the UK where any purchases over GBP 20,000 could not be paid for in cash. This just meant that those trying to hide their money just ended up buying more cheaper cars instead, which tended to push up prices in the lower end.
I had one encounter with Malibu Maxx. Xmas flying from Boston to Atlanta via Raleigh. Plane lands in Richmond VA, we walk into the concourse and slowly learn that no planes are leaving Richmond, not our connection, nothing. While everyone is in tickets line we dash for the car rental. It was cheap enough one-way, we had no idea how far to drive and what we get. Got the Maxx. Few hours into the drive I realized that there are no cops on the road, period. From then on it was full on 100 mph pretty much all the way, shifting with that button on the shifter stalk. I was very surprised by the car, it just worked and got us through those 900 miles in some ridiculously short time, in time for dinner, that’s for sure.
If they had offered the Maxx SS with a decent stick, I might just be compelled to track one down. Love the functionality. Plus the hatchback styling manages to turn a boring box into something unique.
The tranny is the one real drawback of the SS. A manual 5 would be great since the AT 4 kills the gas mileage for an otherwise nice highway car.
In the rental fleet we had the G6 GXP 3.9 4 Speed combo at one sad time. The bad surveys killed us as if we built the car. Customers hating on the stight car getting 13 MPG. They would always notice it as the tank would barely break 200 miles on a trip. Same 3.9 was also thisty in Impala and Grand Prix vs 3500/3800.
I would love a chance at a G6 GXP 3.9 6 speed manual combo however. That would be awesome.
“Plus the hatchback styling manages to turn a boring box into something unique.”
I totally agree. My wife drives one, and I see echoes of the Avanti in its profile.
I think the G6 GTP/GXP 3.9 was offered in Stick shift only as a 2 Door Coupe. As a rental car any of the G6 were not loved. They always seemed to have some kind of mechanical issues. Customers hated the high belt line, small windows, tiny trunk and non stealer gas milege. We were happy when the turds were gone just to have HHR’s and Cobalts bringing on the hate. The late models of those were built better. Thank G-D.
The GTP was originally offered with 3.9/6 manual and 3.9/6 auto (6T70). In 2008 when the GXP debuted the 6 manual went away, it was auto only. But the GXP sedan did get the 3.6 V6, the convert stayed with the 3.9. Are we confused yet?
I have the early 2009 with the 2.4 Eco/6 auto (6T70). It’s at 48.5K miles, and other than the intermediate shaft and the front discs warping, no mechanical issues. The headliner rattles on cold days, the Maxx did the same thing.
The G6 is more dramatically styled than most other beigemobiles, but is still pretty normal. To me, the ingress and egress are like other cars. Like many other cars, the sightlines are less than optimal, and not as good as the Uglibu. The car has a nice size trunk, but the opening is rather small, to accommodate the type of hinges that don’t intrude into the trunk. I’d rather deal with the hinges, but so far, it hasn’t been an issue. OTOH, we don’t use the car like a pickup truck either.
It’s a shame folks didn’t warm up to it, but it has to be better than the last Kia (Amanti) that I rented a few years back. It made me yearn for the comforts of my Maxx…
I worked at the detailing shop at the time when G6 come out. We had a customer that was getting company cars. He had ’69 ‘vette and pristine low mileage Celebrity (in a rust belt!) in a personal fleet. His company car was a Grand Am GT V6 that he exchanged for a new G6 V6. Both vehicles were black. However, paint on a G6 would scratch so easily if you look at it the wrong way, that customer said that if it was his personal vehicle, he would have driving it thru the window of the dealership, where he obtained said vehicle. For the next car, his company said that they would give him a budget and he could lease whatever would fit it.
…..”why you no take my bid?”….more than a hint of something going on there, Steve. Either discrimination, corruption, or old fashioned favoritism. You don’t usually add extraneous comments, so which was it?….or is that another story for another day?
No, the guy didn’t keep track on where he was on the bidding. The auctioneer stared at him intently for several seconds while asking for another bid. The fellow just talked to his friend and looked away from the auctioneer.
I have seen my share of ‘quick hammers’ and ‘brother-in-lawing’ over the years.
This wasn’t one of those situations. The auctioneer played it right and the bidder made a mistake.