BY DANIEL BARRON, SUN MEDIA

Who would have thought a few years ago not only would a GM vehicle be car of the year in the ultra-competitive mid-size market in 2007, but its biggest rival would be another GM vehicle?

Sure, General Motors knows how to make trucks, but after moving its focus to more fuel-efficient passenger cars in the new millennium, it finally earned some serious credibility when the Saturn Aura won North American Car of the Year in 2007.

But the automaker sure wasn’t done there.

In 2008, it eclipsed even the stunning Aura by introducing a completely redesigned Malibu mid-size sedan that is truly awesome in almost every way.

Gone is the ho-hum styling, replaced by clean panels, a handsome new grille that shows off the new global face of Chevrolet and simple-yet-effective twin round taillamps. Gone are the consistently shoddy wheels, replaced with sweet-looking five-spoke alloys. Gone as well is the sub-par interior; the 2008 model has top-notch fit and finish.

Everything feels great and looks even better.

One area in which competitors of the Malibu always seemed to have the upper hand was fuel economy, but this year, Malibu can truly hold its own (and brand new this year, there’s even a hybrid version of the Malibu to take on the Camry and Altima hybrids).

I averaged just under 10 L/100 km in my tester, which was equipped with a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder ECOTEC engine and a four-speed auto transmission, and I was thoroughly happy (and surprised) with those numbers. But unlike the staid performance of the Camry or Accord, the Malibu has some kick to it.

The engine springs to life when you gun it, but the second you ease up on the gas pedal, it almost instantly settles right back down.

Keep in mind as well, there will soon be an option to fit some four-cylinder-equipped Malibu trim levels with a further fuel-saving, six-speed automatic, a first in the mid-size segment.

Being fuel-conscious is something many drivers are just recently considering, but the one constant most car buyers have always looked at is price.

The Malibu, as I’m sure you can guess, delivers in this case as well. My tester was equipped with the more expensive of two ‘LT’ packages, which comes in at a smidge under $26,000.

The only two options on my car brought the price up about $600, and I could have easily done without both.

The standard features included just about everything I could ask for in a car for that price — suede trim bucket seats (I want to start a movement to put suede on the seats of every single car in the world — it really is that comfortable), power adjustable pedals, remote starter, leather-wrapped steering wheel and StabiliTrak stability control.

Something you can’t pay extra for in any car is noise reduction, and at the risk of sounding like a commercial, that comes standard in all Malibus. From liquid spray-on, sound-deadener to nine added tuners and resonators to help soften the sound coming from the four-cylinder engine, the Malibu effectively has no rivals in this category as far as I’m concerned.

Another constant in this segment is the lack of exciting styling, and though the Malibu won’t have necks craning in its direction, it’s still easily one of the best-looking mid-size sedans on the market right now.

The new face of Chevrolet is there front and centre, while the surfaces are clean, the new tail lamps are pleasing to the eye and the aforementioned wheels prove Malibu isn’t here to be seen as a pretender.

This newest Malibu is a true victory for Chevrolet. It doesn’t put it on par with its competitors; it successfully puts it ahead of them.