Since the slide into its current crisis began 30 years ago, GM’s products have been criticized for their lack of quality and for falling short of the competition. Over the past few years, the beleaguered automaker has launched several vehicles that are near or at the top of their respective classes, but the car-buying public’s perception of GM still lags behind Toyota’s sterling reputation. So here we submit for your approval two cars from GM that are good enough to topple a couple of Toyota’s finest. But are two products enough to save a company in crisis? Are two products enough to stem the tide of 30-plus years of mediocrity?

CHEVY VERSUS TOYOTA

Completely redesigned for 2008, the Chevrolet Malibu was such a watershed vehicle that we promptly placed it on our 10Best Cars list. The handsome new exterior styling grabbed us, the much-improved interior satisfied us, and the newfound refinement and genteel road manners won most of us over. Next to the Malibu that preceded it, the new car seems to be from a completely different company, one actually interested in besting the competition.

Feel No Pain

It didn’t take long for us to throw the Malibu to the sharks of its segment. In our March 2008 comparison test of four-cylinder family sedans, the Malibu took on the Dodge Avenger, Toyota Camry, Hyundai Sonata, Honda Accord, and Nissan Altima. The Malibu finished behind the perennial 10Best-winning Honda Accord and the sporty and fun-to-drive Nissan Altima, but it did finish ahead of everything else—including the darling of car buyers, the Toyota Camry. Next to its rivals, we found the Camry to be too soft and—to borrow from Pink Floyd—too comfortably numb. Think of the Camry as a car shot full of Novocain: It won’t hurt, but nothing fun ever happens when you’re numbed up. A pain-free experience could be enough for buyers needing mere transportation, but it isn’t enough for us.

Lively and Alive

The Malibu, in contrast, comes across as more alive than the Camry and does so without feeling raw. The 173-hp four-cylinder engine is hushed as it goes about its business, and the suspension and the structure have a refined and solid feel. When hustled, the Malibu feels stable and never out of its element. An examination of performance numbers reveals that the Camry and the Malibu are nearly identical, but subjectively, our entire comparo crew enjoyed driving the Malibu more because of its communicative chassis and solid feel. Put simply, the Malibu drives better than the Camry.

We did criticize the Malibu for weighing more than the competition and for only having a four-speed automatic. The weight issue remains for 2009, but the four-cylinder is now available with a six-speed automatic on all but the most basic trim level, which improves fuel economy and acceleration.

Selling to the Wary

Through October of this year, Malibu sales are above 151,000, still far shy of the 386,000 Camrys that Toyota sold in the same period. Toyota actually sells nearly as many Prius hybrids as Chevy sells Malibus. We think the Malibu is better than the Camry, but we can’t blame the public for being skeptical of the Malibu. After all, our staff wasn’t unanimous in voting it onto the 10Best Cars list. It takes time to erase distrust, among auto journalists and the public at large. And with GM losing billions, the company might just be running out of time to convince car buyers.

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