Early Word on Malibu: Customers Okay With Smaller Engine
By Michelle Krebs January 17, 2008
Another sign the automotive times are a-changin’: Customers grabbing up General Motors Corp.’s all-new ’08 Malibu midsizer don’t mind a couple less cylinders.
Speaking to reporters, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner says some early data on engine take-rates for the Malibu show customers opting as much for the car’s smaller 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine as they are for the Malibu’s grunty and sophisticated 3.6-liter dual-cam V-6.
In the past, initial customers for highly anticipated new vehicles typically opted for the largest, most powerful engine if there was a choice, an inclination that has been fairly universal, regardless of name or badge. And some of that phenomenon was driven by the automakers, which often slant the early “mix†of vehicle production towards heavily optioned, higher-profit models and trimlines.
But Wagoner says that hasn’t been the case with Malibu, in what might be a clear indicator of customer sentiment about the impact of larger engines – both on the environment and their wallets, with gasoline prices often drifting above $3 per gallon.
“My sense is there’s a fundamental change here,†says Wagoner.
V8 Shelved
That corporate vibe may have drifted over to the company’s Powertrain Division, which recently confirmed it is shelving development of an all-new family of dual-cam V8s that was earmarked to take over for the aging Northstar family of passenger-car V-8s, currently employed mainly for the company’s crucial Cadillac brand.
At the Detroit auto show, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the recently passed Energy Bill that requires a Corporate Average Fuel Economy of 35 mpg did in the under-development V8.
The company will never kill its legendary “small-block†V8 design, but the small-blocks mainly are relegated to truck and Corvette duty. The new V8 was earmarked for Cadillac and other special car applications.
GM officials have said they believe the company’s sophisticated and stingier-
with-fuel V6s can take the place of a V8 in the hearts and minds of consumers. And they may have a point: the high-output version of the 3.6-liter DOHC V6 in the Cadillac CTS churns out 304 horsepower. The current 4.6-liter Northstar V8, at 320 horsepower is making just 14 horsepower more.
And GM’s lead may begin the momentum for similar engine-downsizing moves and trends throughout the industry, particularly for domestic automakers, which have been reluctant to back off after more than a decade of horsepower wars in all market segments.
For example, Ford officials have been noncommittal of late regarding its on-again, off-again “Boss†V8, a program similar to GM’s to replace today’s V8s with a new architecture. The program is believed to still be active, but it’s a reasonable bet Ford’s powertrain planners are assessing the gravity of GM’s swerve on V8s.
Equally worried may be Hyundai Motor Corp. Eager to earn its spurs among the world’s highline automakers, Hyundai introduced its all-new Genesis premium sedan at the Detroit auto show. The Genesis ushers in two passenger-car firsts for Hyundai in the U.S. market: rear-wheel drive and an all-new V8 (Hyundai’s first ever), a 4.6-liter unit generating a healthy 368 hp. It may prove to be a classic example of unfortunate timing.
GM’s Wagoner says it “wasn’t an easy call,†to pull the plug on its premium-V8 development program. The move may prove to be prescient for a company with a spotty record for light-on-its-feet tactics.
“Applying those resources to other areas made more sense right now,†Wagoner explains.
Photos by General Motors
1 - Chevy Malibu buyers don’t mind fewer cylinders.
2 - GM’s more-economical, direct-injected 3.6-liter V-6 makes almost as much horsepower at its current Northstar V-8, which is a full liter larger.
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It seems the Northstar successor is the first casualty of the energy bill that, let's not forget, was the brainchild of liberal Democrats in Congress. No doubt there will be others too, as the rot spreads into a full-blown new era of what is essentially fuel-crisis engineering. For this reason alone, President Bush and Congressional Republicans ought to have stood on principle and killed the bill, instead of giving in to short-term political expediency.
It's a given that new-generation fuel-crisis products will be better overall than those of the past, but how much better? For those who remember such debacles as the Mustang II or GM's ill-begotten passenger-car diesels that sallied forth thirty years ago, these are discouraging and frightening times. I just hope that GM can quickly restart the passenger-car V8 program once this whole "enviro" fad passes, as it surely will in time. The electric car is alive and well; now we should ask, "Who killed the American V8?" The inconvenient truth is that Al Gore and his liberal Democratic cronies are to blame for this developing disaster.
An American car company without a modern & powerful V8 is like Apple pies without the apples.
drove the malibu in a test drive.. personally i think its a better car than my "Sludge-yota" Camry. which has the uncanny talent of turning sythetic motor oil into "Gell" or is it "Jell"
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