Malibu or Traverse?

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Would love your opinions on how you like your Traverse or Malibu?? DH needs a new vehicle, and we are thinking between the two. Thinking the Malibu would obviously be less money, but wondering if itnwould be worth it to get the Traverse for the extra room? We have four kids, but if we go somewhere as a family we just take my Suburban...so that's been working out fine. I'm thinking we should just save the money and get a Malibu?

 

[tikilyn]

Would love your opinions on how you like your Traverse or Malibu?? DH needs a new vehicle, and we are thinking between the two. Thinking the Malibu would obviously be less money, but wondering if itnwould be worth it to get the Traverse for the extra room? We have four kids, but if we go somewhere as a family we just take my Suburban...so that's been working out fine. I'm thinking we should just save the money and get a Malibu?

I love my Traverse!!! I traded in my minivan for it. It gets about the same gas mileage as my minivan did.Not as roomy as my minivan but roomy enough. We just drove it to California from South Texas and it drove wonderful. It's expensive but you have to look at it like a mini suv and not a car.

 

[Sheepdog]

We enjoy our traverse but I was looking for the Acadia. The sales guy for GMC told me they couldn't do a search for one with the options we wanted. He did say if I found one online then he could get it if I told him the dealership. I asked him "isn't that what you get paid for?"
We have an 09. The two issues I have are, wish it had a 6 speed ( i think the new ones do) and I wish the brakes were heavier duty (not sure if they upgraded them)
Overall we enjoy it, but we get just under 20 mpg. Good luck.

 

[pyrxtc]

Does the Malibu even fit your 4 kids ? I know my brother's doesn't. I guess it depends on their ages and who can sit up front.

I love my Traverse, I have a 2011 that is fully loaded. It does not have as much room as my Venture did but I am getting used to that while I'm being spoiled by the features. My dealership was no help at all. we were looking for specific features and color for over 2 years and they helped none. They were sending me sales on trucks without even having a 2nd row of seats. Don't know what they didn't get about me wanting an 8 passenger ??? I found it myself on vacation by accident because my Venture broke and we went to get it fixed. My ideal Traverse was on the lot. Well, it's 7 instead of 8 but still great !

 

[SaraJayne]

I've had 2 malibu's and currently drive a Traverse. There is no comparison as far as space goes. The Traverse wins, hands down.

Since you won't be able to fit your entire family in the Malibu, I'd skip it in favor of the Traverse.

In our Malibu's, we got about 30 or 31 MPG...the Traverse gets around 23-24.

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

I like my Malibu. Bought it the first year they had the new body style. Drives very nice and is pretty roomy, but then I only have one child.

 

[dhardawa]

If you have another vehicle that will fit the whole family, I'd get the Malibu. It is cheaper and gets better gas mileage. I get about 26-28 mpg in my Malibu. I would love the space of a Traverse, but at $4 a gallon, the lower gas mileage is a big turn off.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

My husband has a Cobalt and we just bought a Chevy Tahoe for me . DH wanted me to get a Malibu but I wanted something with extra room since he already had a small car.

I looked at Traverses and Tahoe's.

I knew I didn't want a car so I never test drove a Malibu. I was going to say since you have a Suburban I would go with the Malibu but as a pp said does the Malibu even fit your 4 kids?

 

[Chelley00]

We also have four kids. We've owned a Malibu and now I drive a Traverse. I love the Traverse and don't think I'll ever own a car again. The only thing I dislike is the lack of trunk space. The traverse handles better on the snow than the Malibu did. You do give up some gas mileage. It it's not bad. The Malibu won't fit four kids unless you have one old enough for the front seat. We found it the hard way that not having two cars that fit all six of us was bad until my old van had to be repaired. We had to go places in shifts for two days ;-)

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Thanks everyone......we decided to look at Malibus today....the price and gas mileage are why...and yes...we don't NEED the extra space since we have the Burb. Ugh....getting into another car payment = no fun

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We enjoy our traverse but I was looking for the Acadia. The sales guy for GMC told me they couldn't do a search for one with the options we wanted. He did say if I found one online then he could get it if I told him the dealership. I asked him "isn't that what you get paid for?"
We have an 09. The two issues I have are, wish it had a 6 speed ( i think the new ones do) and I wish the brakes were heavier duty (not sure if they upgraded them)
Overall we enjoy it, but we get just under 20 mpg. Good luck.

All years of Traverse/Enclave/Acadia/and whatever they called the now discontinued Saturn are 3.6L V6 with 6-speed automatic. There was never another drivetrain option for these cars. The only variant is whether it's front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive. The current models may have a slight horsepower increase over the '08's though.

We have a 2008 Acadia AWD, which is essentially the same thing as the Traverse & also love ours. More usable space than a Tahoe & better mileage (17-18 "around town", typically ~21 on long trips. We did get 24 on a trip to Wisconsin Dells. That was primarily due to the 55-65 MPH speed limit in IL & WI, and the fact that we went hours on end without encountering ANY hills ). Not as useful for towing as a Tahoe, but we have a heavy-duty truck for that. So, we didn't even order it with a hitch at all.

Personally, I'd probably look at a Malibu if you already have a Suburban, ALTHOUGH if you find yourself needing to put everyone in the Malibu at once, you won't fit. That said, the 2013 Malibus are just beginning to hit dealerships and the 2012's are heavily discounted with rebates as a result. So, the price is right on those at the moment.

 

[SaraJayne]

OP, I did want to be fair in my assesment of the Malibu. Like I said, we've had 2 previously and I loved both of them. We bought the second one because it was newer (brand new) and had more features than the first. They are easy to drive, comfortable and very driver-friendly.

I love the redesigned Malibu and if we wouldn't have wanted more space with the Traverse, we would have bought another Malibu.

 

[coastiewifern]

Just putting in my 2 cents. I've had my traverse LTZ for 7 months. It was hard for me to leave my minivan but I am loving it now. It drives really well and has a lot of usable space more than our suburban did because of the wheel wells in the burb. The trunk space was the biggest compromise. I am only getting like 20 mpg all city driving. This is the first "american" car I've owned in 17 years but I am liking it

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Just putting in my 2 cents. I've had my traverse LTZ for 7 months. It was hard for me to leave my minivan but I am loving it now. It drives really well and has a lot of usable space more than our suburban did because of the wheel wells in the burb. The trunk space was the biggest compromise. I am only getting like 20 mpg all city driving. This is the first "american" car I've owned in 17 years but I am liking it

95% of the time, we have our 3rd row folded flat since it's just the 4 of us. If we had more kids, we'd have to go to a roof-top carrier for our luggage on trips. For a family of 5, it might make sense to go with the 8-passenger version so 3 can fit in the center row. For a family of 6, that might also work & then you could fold down half of the 3rd row for a little more cargo room.

 

[Avery&Todd]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Traverse!! Its a 2010 and I bought it new - I traded in my 2008 Dodge Durango which was definately more "trucky" - and I'd never get rid of this Traverse!!

We got the Captains chairs in the 2nd row but you can get a bench seat - but we mainly keep the 3rd row folded flat for baseball gear, folding chairs, etc..but whenever I need to haul more kids around, I love popping it up and I've got seating for 3 more!!

 

[sharon_wv]

I'm on the "I love my Traverse" team too! We live on a mountain so the AWD is required. My parents have the Malibu and they like it, but when I'm driving that vehicle, I'm not as comfy. The backseat is definitely not as comfy as the Traverse.

We also are a family of four, so the way back is normally down. I think we've only used the way-way back seat 4-5 times when my daughter's had friends with her, or my parents went somewhere with us. We have the bench seat as the 2nd row.

I know you didn't ask, but I'm going to recommend that you get the entertainment package. It is worth every.single.cent!!! Especially when you have a 6-year old who doesn't sleep in the vehicle!!!

 

[Anne34]

We have both a suburban and a Malibu. I've never driven the Traverse. Since you already have a Suburban, I'd say to go for the Malibu. It drives nicely and can easily fit 5 people. It is a good running around car and gets good mileage (we get around 28-30). My BIL has the saturn version of the Traverse and is constantly complaining about the gas mileage being poor.

The fact the Malibu is a lot less (our LT was around 21,000 a few years ago) and the gas mileage is better makes the Malibu the winner for me.

 

[Angrypenguin]

Just as a heads up, at the NY Auto show today Chevy revealed a facelifted Traverse. So, once those are coming you may be able to find a great deal on the current one

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Just as a heads up, at the NY Auto show today Chevy revealed a facelifted Traverse. So, once those are coming you may be able to find a great deal on the current one

In a similar bent, I know a few people who've made absolute STEALS on the Buick Enclave, particularly at model year end. They don't seem to move in anywhere near the volume as the Traverse & Acadia. And occasionally, the dealers find themselves with one they can't move. Our local dealer had one discounted over $7,000, in a recent ad. I have a coworker who went looking for an Acadia & wound up in an Enclave for the same reason. All 3 are basically the same car with similar price points IF optioned the same way. The Acadia just comes with a handful more standard features than the Traverse, and the Enclave a few more over the Acadia. Because of this, the Traverse appears to be the better bargain when looking at base prices with the Enclave looking kind of "ritzy" and the Acadia in the middle. But again, once you put a few options on all of them, there isn't much difference in $.

 

[englishteacha]

I drove a Malibu for several years. I loved that car. It was a 1997, and died last year. I miss that car. It had lots of space inside for seating and for luggage in the back. I know you won't go on any big family trips with it, since you don't all fit, but I found it to be very comfy and roomy for up to 4 people. 5 was a squeeze, but doable, especially when the people in the backseat were slim. We put 3 teenagers (one 6'5") in the backseat once. Even the tall guy was impressed with the back seat leg room. It got good gas mileage (the newer ones get even better mileage, I'm told). We now have a minivan and an ancient pick up truck. When the truck dies, I'd prefer to have another car (wouldn't mind a Malibu again!), and then DH can drive the minivan.