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GM is letting the sun set on its Chevrolet Malibu, once a top-seller in the U.S.
General Motors plans to stop making its Chevrolet Malibu at the end of the year as it makes room for production on more electric vehicles.
First introduced in 1964, the Malibu was once the top-selling car in its segment in the U.S., an unwavering presence of family garages nationwide. Professional stock car racers used the Malibu body between 1973 and 1977 for NASCAR competitions, helping drivers win 25 different titles, according to Motor Trend magazine. At its height, the Malibu won Motor Trend Car of the Year 1997 because of its smooth ride, fuel economy and luxury interior.
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But sales of the Malibu, a midsize sedan, declined in the early 2000s as Americans’ preferences turned toward SUVs and pickup trucks. Hoping to jump start sales, GM did a redesign of the Malibu in 2015-16 complete with a lighter 1.5-Liter four-cylinder engine, honeycomb grille and jeweled LED headlights. Sales rose to nearly 230,000 after a redesign for the 2016 model year, but much of those were at low profits to rental car companies.
Last year, midsize cars made up only 8% of U.S. new vehicle sales, down from 22% in 2007, according to Motorintelligence.com. Americans bought 1.3 million sedans last year in a segment that’s been dominated lately by the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
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GM sold just over 130,000 Malibus in 2023, 8.5% fewer than in 2022. All told, GM said it sold more than 10 million Malibus in the car’s lifetime, spanning nine generations since its debut.
GM’s factory in Kansas City, Kansas, which now makes the Chevy Malibu will stop making the car in November. The plant will get a $390 million retooling to make a new version of the Chevrolet Bolt small electric car. The plant will begin producing the Bolt and the Cadillac XT4 on the same assembly line in late 2025, giving the plant the flexibility to respond to customer demands, the company said.
Even though the Malibu is leaving, the vehicle will remain on dealership lots probably until early 2025, Sean Tucker, senior editor at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, said in a blog post Thursday, adding that “they may be great buying opportunities.”
The Malibu “still delivers reliable transportation in a handsome package,” Kelley Blue Book test driver Russ Heaps said in the post. “Passenger comfort ranks high on its reasons-to-buy list, as does its trunk space.”
To be sure, the Malibu wasn’t without its problems. GM recalled more than 140,000 Malibus in 2014 because a software problem in the brake control computer could disable the power brakes. The Michigan automaker recalled nearly 92,000 Malibus in 2015 because the car’s sunroof could close inadvertently.
The editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times has resigned after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a journalism trade publication reported Wednesday.
Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview that she resigned because the Times was remaining silent on the contest in “dangerous times.”
“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Garza said. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
In a post on the social media platform X that did not directly mention the resignation, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board was asked to do a factual analysis of the policies of Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump during their time at the White House.
Additionally, “The board was asked to provide (its) understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years,” he wrote. “In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years.”
Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper in 2018, said the board “chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”
Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board had intended to endorse Harris and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial.
A LA Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The LA Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee said it was “deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race.”
“We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse,” the guild said in a statement. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members.”
Trump’s campaign jumped on Garza’s departure, saying the state’s largest newspaper had declined to endorse the Democratic ticket after backing Harris in her previous races for U.S. Senate and state attorney general.
Her exit comes about 10 months after then-Executive Editor Kevin Merida left the paper in what was called a “mutually agreed” upon departure. At the time, the news organization said it had fallen well short of its digital subscriber goals and needed a revenue boost to sustain the newsroom and its digital operations.
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The secretary of state’s office was the target of an unsuccessful cyberattack earlier this month, the agency confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday.
An official with the secretary of state’s office said the attack was an attempt to crash the absentee voting website, and it was discovered when the agency noticed a spike in attempts to access the site nine days ago, on Oct. 14. There were over 420,000 attempts made from around the world, which the official said was a coordinated attempt to make the website crash.
Security experts were ultimately able to thwart the attack. The secretary of state’s office said it still does not know who was behind the attack but suggested it may have been a foreign country.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the office, wrote Thursday evening in a social media post that “this was a big win for our cyber security team and our partners. We work everyday to protect Georgia voters and our systems.” In a separate post, he said, “The attack was detected and mitigated quickly.” CNN first reported the cyberattack attempt.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is aware of the cyberattack and worked with the Georgia secretary of state’s office in the aftermath of the incident, sources confirmed to CBS News. The FBI has not responded to a request for comment.
Georgia voters have also been showing up for early voting, which began on Oct. 15. Early voters shattered records this year for the presidential election, the secretary of state’s office said, more than doubling early voting figures from 2020 on the first day, with 310,000 ballots cast, compared with 136,739 on the first day of early voting in 2020.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger predicted there would be record turnout in Georgia this year, telling CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” Sunday, “You look at the turnout — we’re almost pushing 1.4 million who’ve already voted early or who we’ve accepted their absentee ballots.”
Nicole Sganga and
contributed to this report.
