To completely appreciate this review, you need to know what I was coming from. I was driving a wonderful 1998 Ford Explorer that I bought used for $5000. When I sold it, it had 135,000 miles on it, and just about everything was falling apart.

Enter the 2006 Chevy Malibu LS. This is pretty much as basic as a car can be. My Explorer was loaded to the brim, but didn't do me much good if all of it was non-functional. So going from a loaded SUV to a primitive type of sedan was a jolt to the system.

I switched for gas mileage purposes, and because it was a 2 door and my wife told me I had to get a 4 door car.

Let's start from the exterior:
EXTERIOR
The 2006 Malibu is a sharp but plain car. It won't turn heads when you pass someone. People won't rubberneck as they pass your driveway, wondering what kind of car it is, but it also won't deter people away saying "Yuck, what is that?".

The front part of the car is actual a little stylish in a way. It is very clean looking, streamlined, with nothing obtrusive about it. The rear of the car is a little boxy looking, but nothing to be upset about.

The car door handles are very easy to open, however, the doors don't really feel like they've been shut when you shut them.

My car is black, and it shows every little bit of dust, but that's what you get when you buy black.

INTERIOR:
The interior of my car is tan. I would have preferred gray or black, but I got stuck with tan. Nothing in the interior appears all that cheap. There are a few pieces that cover up the consoles that appear somewhat "plasticky" but guess what? That's what it is!!

As you sit in the driver's seat, everything is laid out well. All of the controls for the air conditioner, windows, radio, etc. are right at your fingertips. The controls are very easy to use.

The radio has the "computer" in it, which logs your trip mileage, gas mileage, oil life, and a few more things. Its easy to shuffle through those. Adjusting the tone of the radio, switching from cd to radio, and using the cd player are all very simple as well.

The cruise control buttons are on the steering wheel itself, and cuts off part of the steering handle for your hands (if you drive in the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock position like I usually do this is kind of annoying). However, the steering wheel is both tilt and telescopic. That is a great feature that many cars are adding, and a bonus to see on a base level car.

The driver's seat in my car is manually adjustable front and back, but going up and down it is electronically controlled to adjust for driving height (which is way better than the hand cranks). The recline switch feels very cheap, and I'm sure it won't last. I'm tall, and I fit in the car easily with room to spare, both legroom and headroom.

The glove box in the car is very small, as it only holds my manual and paperwork for the car, and all of that barely fits in there. The middle console armrest is rather on the small side as well, but I don't usually keep anything in there except for trash (its supposed to be for cds, but I have XM and hardly ever listen to cds).

There are a few other cubby holes as well in the car, so there is no shortage of places to put things, its just the volume of stuff you can put in those places are limited.

The rear seats are rather comfortable, but there is not a lot of leg room. I'm 6'2" and I have my seat all the way back. A shorter person would be comfortable back there, however. The passenger side front seat is very spacious, and I had plenty of room to sprawl out while my wife was test driving.

The trunk is decent size, and both the rear seats, and the front passenger seat fold down to handle larger loads.

UNDER THE HOOD/ PERFORMANCE:
The Malibu is an automatic transmission, 2.2 Cylinder Ecotech engine. While that may sound rather puny, it actually gets up and goes with the rest of the cars on the road. No, it won't win any races, but when gas mileage is important to you, you can't beat this car. I'm currently averaging 28 mpg with mixed city and highway driving.

The transmission does seem to moan a little bit when having to change. It seems to get comfortable too quickly in certain gears. The one thing I'm real happy about is that the engine doesn't sound like a herd of elephants going up the many large hills that surround me. Most 4 cylinder cars I've driven are really loud going up large hills.

The steering in the car is equipped with electronic assistance. This was hard to get used to at first, but now I really love it. The car changes lanes and turns on a dime effortlessly. The car also grips the road well in my opinion, even with the factory equipped tires.

OVERALL:
I love this little car. Really and truly (and I may get blasted for this) I think it handles just like a Honda Accord or a Camry, and maybe a little better. I know it will last me for years to come.