2001 Chevrolet Malibu

My husband bought this car before we even met, when it was brand new in '01, and we just sold it last month. The car always met our expectations, even when things were wrong with it, we could still make it from point a to point b. Sometimes during the last couple months of driving that car it got a little scary, not knowing if it was going to stop working in the middle of the highway, but it never quit on me. After a couple years, the heating and cooling system messed up. Heat level 2 and 3 didn’t work, so it was either too hot or too cold, you really couldn't have it where you wanted it. The cd player did eventually quit working, so we had to replace it with a new one and we went through a lot trying to get a code to unlock the new one. We finally had to take it to a shop and have it done for us. The driver side armrest on the door was weak. My husband often pressed his elbow into it to move himself back, and broke a big hole into it. There really is not a whole lot of room for cd's or papers, or money for that matter. We always got good gas mileage driving this car, except when we didn't get the oil changed on time. We had to change the brake pads on that car often, and the last couple months that we owned it, the antifreeze started to leak into the oil. There was starting to be quite a bit of dust on the car, and some how, under the lid of the gas tank kept filling up with dirt and rocks. I would recommend this vehicle to older people, who take it easy on cars. This car really doesn’t seem to be made for teenagers, or people who race going down the highway. The stereo system is not that loud, and we were always replacing the speakers. I know that my husband brought this car from Wisconsin to Kentucky and back two or three times, so it was very reliable for a long time. After awhile the defrost system didn't work very well either, so in the winter it took forever for the windshield to defrost. The heat was not strong at all so we had to start the car 20 to 25 minutes before we went anywhere. That was a pain. When we finally decided it was time to trade or sell that car, we first decided to take it to dealers who said they would only pay about 500 dollars for the car. There was a ticking noise in the motor, they said wouldn’t do any damage or cause any problems, but it was hard for them to explain that to anyone that was willing to buy the car. In the end, we ended up giving the car to someone for them to do some work for us. I definitely would not recommend this vehicle as a family or teenage vehicle.