Despite its storied nameplate, the Malibu won’t be missed by many.   It’s not a very good car.

This trip has exposed its shortcomings far more than last time I rented one.    Last time, my driving was far more local.   This time I will have done around 500 miles by the time I hand the keys back.   This involved a lot of interstate driving.   In most states, Americans don’t really go for draconian enforcement of reasonable speeds, so the traffic flows much faster.    At 85mph (130km/h) this car is terrible.

The engine is willing enough, and even has more to give if required to get around another car.   The issue is NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness).   Generally newer cars do a decent job of this overall.   However this car does not.   I question if there is any sound deadening at all in the vehicle.   I’m travelling with two co-workers and it is hard to maintain a conversation at regular interstate speeds.    This isn’t so much wind noise as noise and vibration coming from the wheels & tyres up into the car.   The ride is also terrible and you feel every expansion joint and crack in the road.   The tires are from Firestone, so are not a brand I have not heard of.   They are not light truck tyres either.

The sound system is no help here.   I’ve driven cars with two tiny speakers that sound better.   There is just strange sound coming out of strange places in the car.    It felt so tinny and grating, that I could only listen to it by going into the settings and turning the treble down while boosting bass and mid range.   That didn’t make it sound good, but at least it was no longer grating.

On the plus side, the infotainment system is so simple that I was able to connect my phone in seconds and play music.   I’ve rented cars with the apple car play system and it just complains about Siri and never works.

Power and fuel economy are adequate, although the engine is coarse if pushed.   Apparently its equipped with a CVT, but its set up to feel more like a regular automatic transmission.   It mostly does, and while it goes not bogged down at low speeds like a lot of CVTs, its not inspiring either.    Comfort is also adequate, and the boot is quite large.   Turning circle is only average.

The 2024 model is equipped with a very strange collision warning system.   There is an alarm and light on the dashboard that goes off when the car wants to warn you of an impending collision.   However, it warns at the most inopportune time.   I was almost rear ended the first time it went off, and I stood on the brakes thinking there was a major issue.   This feature makes the car less safe.

I assume the main buyer of this car has been fleet buyers.  I can’t imagine anyone getting excited by it.   The drab colour of the one I rented is pretty appropriate.

Rating 2/5.

Update 22/6/25:  I rented another 2024 Malibu this month.   I also drove this car extensively and came to the same conclusion.  This car had Continental tyres, and yet the road noise at interstate speeds was unbearable.   Turning the tinny infotainment system up wasn’t much of a help.   This time the colour was more attractive, the car I rented being dark blue.

The collision warning system was even worse in the wet, going off at random times that startled me.   The one time I did have to panic stop, the system didn’t activate.   The brakes were very effective but the rudimentary suspension wasn’t.

On this trip, I picked the car up in Newark, NJ.   I drove around NJ for a few days, before then driving to Philadelphia, then Washington DC.   There was a good mix of freeway and local driving.    I found the blue car as bad as the silver one.   I also discovered another feature.   When I first picked the car up, it tried to steer for me at times when it thought I wasn’t in my lane properly.   This was really disconcerting.   I quickly worked out how to turn this feature off.

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The highlight of the Horton classic car museum is the Corvette collection.   The museum has an example (and sometimes multiple) of practically every model year from 1953 to 1973.   They also have a couple of pace cars of the later years.

I’m only somewhat familiar with Corvettes so it was nice to see the evolution of the model over the years.   They even  have some of the rare early Corvettes with the six cylinder engine right up to low production performance models from later year.

The Corvette always seemed to the the place GM innovated the most, perhaps with the exception of the Corvair.   Certainly the Corvette was first with tech like independent rear suspension, fuel injection, disk brakes and so on for GM.  it was also very competitively priced for what you got.    This is continued in the unveiling of the new C8 corvette with its mid-engined layout and dual clutch transmission, all for $60k USD.   GM even went to the extreme where restrictions were placed on other divisions so they didn’t compete with the Corvette.

I have tried to arrange the photos chronologically.  I have also photographed the descriptions for the Corvettes.

The tour starts with the C1.    My favorite C1’s have always been the 1956-1957 models.   I still have a 1:18 model of a 1957 in aqua with white coves.   Looks great.     By then the manual transmission was standard, and late 57’s could even have a four speed.   A two speed powerglide is not exactly appealing in a sports car.     The later C1s wih the dual headlights and more bling are not as appealing for me, but they do have more options available and are cheaper to buy.

The C2 is my favorite generation of Corvette, in particular the coupe.   While the split window is cool, I would go with one of the later cars.   I don’t think it’s worth the quite large price premium.    I’ve heard they are not great for tall drivers, but the reviews say that too about S1 E-types, and I fit fine.     The C2 was really the birth of the Corvette as a true sports car with IRS, disc brakes, more powerful engines and the performance options like the Z06.

The C3, based on the Mako shark inspired concept car, introduced the T-Top.   The Horton Classic car museum actually has the first T-Top car from 1968.    They also have examples of the C3 right until 1973.

The rest of the front two rooms are Chevrolet products, mostly with a performance spin.    You can tell the owner is a big fan of Chevy performance products from the 60s in particular.     Somewhat out of place is a Donald Trump mannequin..   Its not a particularly good likeness, you wouldn’t really know except for the red tie and red baseball cap.

The second room has a more varied collection.   There is still somewhat of a performance bent, but there is also some American luxury.    My favorites in this room are the two pre-war Packards.   I’m a big fan of these cars.     There is an early 30s dual cowl Phaeton and a Packard 12 club sedan.    Outside the really expensive open toped cars, the Club Sedan is the one you want as most of the four door cars are big limo bodies.

The Horton classic car museum was a great place to spend two hours and now it was time for the next stop on the North Texas car museum road trip, The vintage car museum in Weatherford.

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The guide lists four museums, and challenges the reader to visit all four in a day!  I wasn’t sure all four would be possible, but even two or three would be a great day out.   The museums are listed below and the links point to photos and descriptions of each museum:

1. Horton Classic Car Museum – Nocona
2. Vintage Car Museum, Event Center and Grill – Weatherford
3. Terrill Antique Car Museum – De Leon
4. Clifton Classic Chassis Museum – Clifton

The Horton is the largest and opens at 9AM, so it is the starting point.     I left a little later than planned, around 8am, which got me to the museum at 9:30.    Once i got to the Horton Museum, all plans of a quick browse and on to the next one went out the window.   Even seeing a low quality Donald Trump mannequin, replete with red baseball cap wasn’t going to make this a short visit.     The first half the collection is all Chevrolet and in particular the Corvette.     If you want to see an example of practically all model years of pre-emissions Corvette, this museum is the place to come.    There are also some other very nice cars in the collection.

From there, the next stop was Weatherford.   I didn’t leave the Horton until after 11am.  At that point I was already assuming that all four North Texas museums were probably out of the question.

I did loose some time being pulled over by a Texas State Trooper.   The rather empty road I was driving on had dropped down to 65 from 75 for no apparent reason I continued at around 80.    Luckily I escaped with a warning and chastened, I continued on.

The Vintage Car Museum is three facilities in one.    There is a small museum of about 15 cars, a space for events and a diner with about 10 more cars in the back.  Like the Horton, they also have their very own Donald.   There didn’t seem to be a particular theme to the main museum, with everything from pre-war fords, pierce arrow, Cadillac and even an Alvis!  The diner cars seemed to have more of a celebrity theme, with a few movie cars and one that once belonged to LBJ.    There was also a Trabant.    I partook in a good American burger at the diner,  and by about 2:30PM was ready to go again.

The next stop was supposed to be De Leon for the Terrill Antique car museum.   This museum is the smallest of the four and closed at 4PM.   I decided to skip it and head straight to Clifton.     The webpage I found these museums is not that clear on the opening hours of this museum. I found it to be 5PM on a facebook page.

I arrived at Clifton about 4PM, giving me almost an hour to browse this museum.    The Clifton Classic Chassis Museum is a private collection owned by a retired gentleman who had grown up in the area.   He purchased a disused grocery story to house it and brought it down from Dallas after he retired.     The theme of this museum is American Luxury and the friendly owner was on hand to talk a little about his collection.     He also has a rather impressive art collection housed under the same roof.

The drive back from Clifton was uneventful and I was back at my hotel just before 7PM.     It was a very full, but enjoyable day.     I had assumed that driving in this area of Texas would be a little like Australia but it is much greener.   My only other road trip in the Texas area was through the panhandle and that is a much more arid area.

Overall I was driving for more than six and a half hours and coved at least 370 miles.     I would recommend this drive for any car enthusiast staying in the Dallas area.    The trip (pictured below) takes you on a big circuit through some nice looking little towns, often with lovely looking buildings on the main street.  Especially some really ornate town halls.    There were quite a few unused buildings I saw that looked like great candidates for a conversion to a car enthusiast’s workshop.

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