The recent debut of the 2024 Hyundai Sonata’s design revealed the type of competition GM’s Chevy Malibu will soon face from the South Korean automaker.
The newly unveiled 2024 Hyundai Sonata design is a heavily refreshed and updated version of the Sonata’s eighth generation, originally launched in 2019. The physical vehicle will be put on display at the Seoul Mobility Show starting on March 30th in Seoul, South Korea.
The 2024 Hyundai Sonata features a reworked exterior including more aggressive styling the company says expresses its concept of “The Sportiness.” Specific exterior design changes include a longer hood, a widened, low-slung front end, and a wide, bold grille and air intake design. The sedan also features a fastback roofline and new lighting signatures.
Turning to the interior, the refreshed 2024 Sonata cabin incorporates a new dashboard, with a curved display housing the 12.3-inch driver instrument cluster and 12.3-inch infotainment system touchscreen. New interior colorways are combined with futuristic lighting and design cues. Extra driver comfort is provided by a palm rest and the center console gains more space by moving the shift-by-wire controller to the steering column.
There is no word yet on the available powertrains for the 2024 Hyundai Sonata. The options are likely to remain the same as those from the 2023 model year. These include a base 2.5-liter gasoline engine, two available turbocharged gasoline engines, and a hybrid powertrain. The engines are married to several versions of Hyundai’s eight-speed automatic transmission.
Meanwhile, GM has scheduled the 2024 Chevy Malibu start of regular production (SORP) for June 21st, 2023. The 2024 Malibu will not introduce significant changes relative to the 2023 model year.
GM discontinued the Premier trim level for the 2023 Chevy Malibu, reducing engine choices to one, the turbocharged 1.5L I4 LFV gasoline engine rated at 163 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. It’s paired with the GM continuously variable automatic transmission (RPO code MRG).
GM is planning the launch of sedan’s tenth generation with the 2025 Chevy Malibu, GM Authority exclusively learned in December. The new model will sit on the larger D/E variant of the GM VSS-F platform and is likely to introduce other changes as well.
The General is also developing a Chevrolet Low-Roof EV in a sedan or fastback configuration as a possible Malibu replacement. This new non-crossover EV appears to be meant only for the Chinese market, at least initially.
Production of the Chevy Malibu takes place at the GM Fairfax plant in Kansas City.
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Comments
Malibu looks much better.
The Malibu, virtually unchanged and de-contented for years. Cheap interior and wheeze engine. If I were looking for a sedan, there are several better choices out there than Malibu
To an old person that thought the LeSabre was the bees knees. Maybe.
No. The next generation Malibu has to push the design envelope. It’s 110% ‘meh’ right now. The Sonata has acres of front legroom on decent seats. Last Malibu I rented was painful; thin cushions and no support.
Americans love sedans even if they have forgotten.
The Sonata is beautiful!
The writer should learn what a curved-screen is, in this case it’s not a curved screen at all, it’s just two pieces of flat screens glued together and the infotainment one just slightly angled towards the driver. You call Lyriq’s screen as curved not this one.
The Hyundai’s have come a long way. A guy I worked with let me drive his brand new ’87 Excel. I reached for the manual window crank and it snapped right off. The one on the passenger side was busted too and the car had less than 200 miles. Never thought they would make it but now look where they are,
The current Malibu is a POS. Hyundai runs circles around anything Chevy offers.
It’s not a POS, but it certainly requires updates.
I’m guessing their going to a Lucid Air look?
Can we seriously call this a competitor to the Malibu?
The Malibu was behind the competition the minute it came out. The new Sonata is light years ahead!!!
In my opinion the only way to maybe save the Malibu name is to make a BEV version. This will at least leapfrog the competition and if done correctly meaning Great range, good DC Fast Charging Speed, Loaded with Tech, and a nice modern interior without fisher price grade plastics they can sell many and make it a truly Global vehicle. Gotta start selling Chevrolet BEV’s in Europe and do so ASAP .
Man what a colossal mistake leaving the European market it was and still is.
Only a BEV? Sounds like a way to sell even less Malibus than they already to considering that this entire segment is still 99% ICE, Camry, Accord, Altima, Sonata, KIA Sonata whatever that is called, so the hope would be that a Tesla zombie would stumble into a Chevrolet dealer and say “hey, a Malibu, thats what I want?”
Lets see what the next gen Malibu due for 2025 looks like….
@MrR
Hence the “Leapfrog” the Competition.
Only way to make the Malibu name relevant once again. Unless you are a GM fan or get a crazy discount, most Midsize Sedan Buyers do not even think of Malibu. It is just that irrelevant right now!!!
Focusing on Europe is a good idea too, I know that there Europe is desperately clamoring for mid-size Chevrolet sedans….electric ones too.
Maybe they can work on a cobranding scheme with Bud Light….
Also interesting to note how this completely “irrelevant” car was 3rd in its segment in 2022, only being outsold by the Camry and Accord.
I’m not saying the Malibu is a stunner and its been around a while but perhaps its not as bad as some are making it out to be. I doubt a BEV Malibu would be 3rd in any segment.
It was fourth behind the Camry, Accord and Altima.
Still, with 115,468 sales it did ok for an aging product. I’ll have to look up what % of those sales went to fleet when I get a chance. GM’s fleet sales have been on the rise as of late.
And as we know fleet sales aren’t “real” sales because they pay with magic beans instead of money.
Fleet sales are sold basically at cost to keep the line moving, particularly sedans. They are the worst kind of sale a manufacturer can make. No margin in the vast majority of cases.
All these cars are sold at “cost” from the manufacturer to the dealer, so fleet or retail the manufacturer makes the same…..
This is simply untrue for national large scale deals. They are done directly by the manufacturer.
https://www.gmfleet.com/
What does that link have to do with anything?
As opposed to dealers who don’t buy the car directly from the manufacturer?
Do you think dealers pay GM MSRP for their inventory?
They pay under cost, there are things like holdback and advertising money, floor plan incentives, etc etc.
Fleet or Dealer, GM makes about the same per car.
You are correct Frank, fleet deals are direct from the manufacturer to the business/agency in question. No dealers involved.
There are generally two types of fleet:
Daily rental: least profitable..if at all.
Commercial: usually some profit but not close to “retail” (wholesale to dealers).
On the other hand we don’t know what percent went to fleet until actual registration info is available. OEM’s don’t release model level fleet sales numbers.
Take it from an ex-Chevy car product line manager, Fleet sales has it’s upside (bump in sales numbers) and it’s downside (lower margins).
Frank, a bit of a correction or caveat to my previous comment.
There are in fact certain types of fleet (generally smaller) that can run through a dealer but the pricing structure and distribution are completely different than retail and therefore are handled by GM Fleet.
Ugh MrR, probably best not to comment if you know nothing about how the OEM’s various sales channels and pricing structures work.
Hint, you’re not close to being correct.
Alrighty then…
Malibu needs a major refresh. Personally, I think GM should have dropped Malibu and kept Impala at a reduced price. Platform was paid for and margins would have not taken a hit with new trim levels.
GM can compete in this space with the right value proposition. Going totally SUV & CUV makes no sense with GMC & Buick.
I’m sure there are folks who want a domestic sedan. Dropping Cruze, ceding the market share to rivals, was poor long-term thinking. A company is more than quarterly profits & must think ahead.
Drop Malibu, rebadge old GM Cutless, make a new start of it. Malibu doesn’t radiate prestige.
The current Bu isn’t garbage (good handling, quiet interior) but looks cheap & dated compared to Accord, K6, Sonata.
Is this Barra or Mark Reuss’ fault? No GM vehicle should be so uncompetitive
Yes we needed a new Malibu yesterday, i don’t know why it takes GM so long to update their vehicles and I thought the Malubu was officially dead in the water since sedans were going away. The current Malibu is underpowered but its not a POS go drive one. The 2025 will probably be the last ICE Chevy sedan, i bet its beautiful.
What was the last GM sedan that was “beautiful”‘, especially after factoring in the interior.
I agree. Every sedan made was a case of “why?”ie why didn’t they do something more with this? It’s like they design stuff for focus groups rather than go out on a limb.
The last Impala and CTS were both great looking cars inside and out, as was the CT6.
Most people heartily disagree on the Impala. The CT6 was reviewed consistently with an interior that was not competetive.
Why does it have to be a BEV? Because Biden or Barra said so?? If GM gave the same EV treatments (especially the interior) to ICE vehicles, they would have a great looking lineup.
I agree with you
To counter this Chevy will introduce a new Medium Silver Grey metallic to replace Medium Grey Silver metallic…..
Anything and everything is a competitor to the Malibu. It was fine when it came out but it’s years out of date compared to anything being introduced. The Malibu is a dinosaur. A pity that GM wouldn’t spend any energy to stay competitive in passenger cars. Hyundai and Toyota are both cranking them out.
Having driven both current generation cars, unless the Malibu makes a huge jump in powertrain offerings, driving feel and infotainment/tech, the Sonata is just a nicer car. If you’ve driven both for weeks at a time and you disagree, then down vote. Otherwise….
They are both still in the rental fleet category with the Altima. The Sonata though is good enough to grab some private sales. GM isn’t giving much love to the Malibu and it shows in the details and options. Frankly that is a smart decision. For a long time GM tried to, or said they were, going head to head with the likes of the Camry and Accord. Never really matched the sales or profitability of those two. Yeah, they sold a lot of Malibus at certain points, but depending on fleet sales doesn’t carry the same weight.
GM have the company car and rental market in their sights with the Malibu and they make a good car for them. Fairly reliable, inoffensive styling, tech advanced enough and priced (with discounts) to give those companies a good product. Even though the engine offering for the Malibu is plebish, I’d be money that it would outlast most of the Hyundai engines, unless Hyundai has solved their decades long struggle with reliability.
The Sonata went from the worst looking car in its class to the best from what I see.
“Refreshed 2024 Hyundai Sonata Debuts As Chevy Malibu Rival”
That really isn’t saying much…my zero turn mower is a rival to the Malibu.
if gm puts the screen that is in the chevy EV’s in the malibu, give the engine that is in the xt4 in the malibu, and with optional awd, then i do believe the malibu can rise up to 2nd place in sales. my cousin has a 2019 accord with the 1.5 and cvt and i have to say, despite being the 1.5 and a cvt, the thing moves once it gets up to speed. yes it has some noticeable turbo lag but other than that its actually decent. with that being said, i know the current malibu powertrain has to be abysmal with its 160 hp and cvt trans. the accord 1.5 pumps out nearly 200 hp while the malibu is at 160. how the malibu is in 3rd place is beyond me.
The article is well balanced and fair. It actually describes what the new Hyundai has going for it vs the Malibu. Where are you finding cringey?
Went to the Twin City 2023 Car Show last week. Hyundai sedans, Kia sedans, Nissan sedans, Genesis sedans, Toyota sedans & Honda sedans, you had to wait to see or sit inside. gm brands were very quiet (very low traffic), 5 Corvettes which drew people to Chevrolet but most walked away laughing and shaking heads no family car Lol, The Malibu & Camaro had no lookers at all, Chevy trucks were drawing muscle car people that was about it, Buick/GMC reps looked board, Cadillac had only one Ct5, the front door liner was hanging loose! The Cadillac reps were glued to their phones to even notice. I remember when GM was the showcase that drew the most excitement, sadly those days are long gone. There were many vehicles to test drive from every brand except gm & Ford. Longest wait for test drives were the Hyundai Sonata, any Subaru model, KIA K-5, Honda Accord, the most popular of all was the all new Toyota Crown sedan (replacing the former Avalon).
The front end looks so bland and characterless. Much like a boring EV. The rest of the car is fine but Hyundai needs to create some better looking alloy wheels.
Who amongst us imagined the Malibu/Sonata rivalry would be spurred on to such wuthering heights?