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The new Chevrolet Malibu. Good. Cool. Special. And unnerving.
Good: Perky turbo engine. Ten airbags. Decent handling. Very aerodynamic, and with lots of soundwork, quiet inside. Fold-down seats for trunk enlarging.
Parking help comes from tilt-down mirrors and backup camera.
Cool: XM gives you not only satellite radio, but nearby forecast, fuel, and movie times with cast and synopsis, and then directions if you like it.
Pandora if you're connected.
And when you're super distracted by all this stuff, it has lane-departure warnings when you cross over the line, and lets you know when you're gonna rear-end someone.
Special: The interior. It powers up with a production, and opens up for hidden storage. By day, it's quite shiny, with no feeling of cheapness.
By night, it glows like nothing else, with lighting trimming all over.
Unnerving: The unnerving part, you can't see, but the owner's manual tells you about the Event Data Recorder. After a crash, the police or GM lawyers can access it to see just what you were doing.
So far, they can't tell if you were just looking at the pretty lights.
