The St. Catharines Standard by Glen Woodcock

There’s one thing I really admire about Chevrolet: it has a sense of tradition the other General Motors divisions seem to lack.  Well, at least it does when it comes to naming its vehicles.  Consider …

Gone are famous Cadillac names such as Deville and Eldorado, replaced by the likes of CTS and STS.  At Buick, the Roadmaster and LeSabre are out and Allure and Lucerne are in.  And as for Pontiac, famous nameplates like Bonneville and Grand Prix have been supplanted by a range of G-series vehicles with unglamorous designations such as G6 and G8.

But for now, at least, Chevrolet is bucking the corporate trend to shed names from the past.

Corvette is still around after 56 years, Impala is still with us after 51 and you can still buy a Malibu, introduced way back in 1964 as a subseries of the Chevelle line of midsize cars.

Today’s Malibu may not have the panache of some of the line’s muscle car variants of past years, such as the SS, but I guarantee you that it’s better in every way except, perhaps, straight-line acceleration.

This is the kind of car Chevrolet didn’t build for so long that the brand’s reputation got tarnished.  Now critics say Malibu is a worthy competitor for the likes of Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.  Perhaps we should turn that around and say those upstarts are worhty competitors for the new Malibu.

Like the Saturn Aura, this sixth-generation Malibu is based on the long-wheelbase Opel Vector platform from GM Germany and first went on sale in 2008, when it was named North American Car of the Year.

This week’s tester is a 2009 LT, which falls in between the base LS and the V6-powered LTZ.

Our car’s engine is GM’s ubiquitous 2.4-litre Ecotec inline four, tuned in this application to produce 169 hp at 6,400 rpm and 160 lb.-ft. of torque at 4,500.

Both the block and cylinder head are cast alunimum with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing.  It’s a smooth unit and surprisingly peppy in a car weighing in at 3,442 lbs. (1,561 kg) and should do a 0-100 km/h in about 9.0 seconds.

It’s handsome enough, in the look-alike world of midsize cars, much as movie heartthrobs once were expected to have pencil-thin moustaches and Brylcreemed hair.

The cabin is quite elegant for a car in the under-$30,000 price range, with tasteful wood trim and quality materials.  The dash and instrument panel have few seams or levels, so cleaning should be a breeze.  GM really has gone to school on creating fine interiors and the company’s workmanship and design now rate among the best in the world.

Controls for audio system and heat/air conditioning are simple and straightforward, the way most drivers like them, with big, round knobs that can be operated with gloves on.

The rear bench has room for three, and the split seatbacks flip forward so there’s room for objects that are too long to fit in the 15-cubic foot trunk.

The individual front buckets are comfortable on long trips.  I took one such journey with a friend in the Malibu’s front passenger seat, and he kept raving about how comfortable it was.  (Then again, the last test car he shared with me had Recaro buckets designed for reed-thin 25-year-olds, not guys like us with our thickening middle-aged bodies.)

Base cars get a 4-speed Hydra-Matic coupled to the Ecotec four, but the LT line benefits from a modern 6-speed automatic with Tapshift manual mode plus paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel.

Like the other cars built on this platform (Saturn Aura and Pontiac G6), Malibu has a refined ride and better handling than we once thought possible in a family sedan.  It’s also a very quiet highway cruiser.

OnStar is standard, along with six airbags, traction control, 17-inch wheels, power doors/locks/mirrors, cruise control, air conditioning and tilt and telescopic steering.

The StabiliTrak electronic stability control system is standard on LT and LTZ models.  Malibu also is available with a hybrid gas-electric drivetrain.