Just about the same car as your Malibu with a big block. And it is a year newer.

 

Ah, but I've heard mixed reviews about the 6T70 transmission... The car drives fine(the owner says), but I could own the car three weeks and replace the transmission... I'm still leanin toward an Ion, or a really nice manual S series

That being said, that 3.6 powered Aura would be nearly as quick as my Redline(with a tune which I would happily get), and get decent mileage when hypermiling

 

Used cars are a crap shoot unless you get a decent warranty. Good luck

 

Anything w a FACTORY ORIGINAL UNTOUCHED 6T70 from 2008 up to ???
WILL suffer the 3 5 R waveplate failure. It was a design flaw and those vehicles are covered by extended Service warranty coverage to 100K mi. There is a TSB. Look it up. I am not sure if this ONLY applies to the original owner or not. Should be in the TSB. THe 2008 Vues used the 6T70 and the Outlooks the 6T75. Our 2008 Vue XR 3 5 R 'd (it's a verb -- look it up) at 93K.

So I'd stay away from any early 2008-2009 vehicle using either unless the owner has proof it was repaired through GM. Easiest way to confirm is to put in tap shift mode and enjoy the funky 2-3, 4-5 and delay or lack of reverse.

I swear mt 6F35 in my 2014 escape is on the same path. It has a 2-3 shift flare (a well known flaw they refuse to address for about 6 years running) even though I brought in my vehicle and demonstrated 2-3 flare, their tranny expert stuffed it under the (happens for the first few shifts from a cold soak. So they acknowledged it was there but after 3 hours running at operating temperature and still present, it's a cold soak issue?

They are delaying repairs as long as they can hoping people will total their vehicles between now and when they become undeniably hosed.

I called Ford customer support. The rep recommended I try another dealer.

I told her that implied that not all techs at all Ford dealerships are trained equally and that I hoped that they would have ensured training on this 7 year old existing problem, and by telling me or anyone else to try another dealer crushes anyone's expectations of receiving quality service at ANY Ford dealership. I almost asked her if she wanted me to review the training records of the three closest Ford dealerships to check for insufficient training issues so that I could be sure that I can go to anyof these

 

Go get em, derf. Quality has NEVER been job one at Ford. They make some good looking rides, but their quality control sucks.

 

I have a good Ford dealer here in Oregon, kind of a long drive for y'all.

 

But you still have to like a Ford, Andy. I don't. I'm a Mopar guy. I just hate the fact that Fiat is going to screw them all up. I am seriously thinking about going back to Toyota. As much as I hate to do it, I always had great service out of the few I ever owned alongside my Mopars.

 

It is interesting to look up the information on this joint Ford/ GM venture in designing a common transmission to be used. Why would to competing automobile companies pore money into a joint venture business proposition unless one of them saw a business proposition that would screw the other?
But
It happened and information on this joint venture can be found fairly easily and here is one way it was done by me. I googled this:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...late+failure.+
and sure enough there it is in black and white complete with service and reliability problems and GM's answer to dealing with it after the fact.
I don't see where FIAT/Chrysler is involved and as I own a 2015 Dodge Caravan I don't see where the situation even addresses Chrysler a product I have had no service problems with at all lately. My service problems wih MOPAR pretty much ended about 2002 when MERCEDES re-designed the Chrysler front wheel drive transmission making it reliable. It however is a completely different transmission than that which is in the 2015 model vehicles.
Nor do I see reference to it anywhere in this search.
But it is a real deal and GM has publically dealt wwwcllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

 

My father told me along time ago "Don't buy a first year anything." I would modify that "the first several years".
I have worked as a mechanic for fleet vehicles for most of my life. Police, fire, public works and for the last 12 years for a large electric utility. Unfortunately these types of entities have fleet rotations that occur no matter what the manufacturers do. They get new rigs every year, the good with the bad usually on a bid or purchase agreement.
Every manufacturer has problems with something, it all depends on how they handle warranty and extended warranty. There are improvements to the design and sometimes they can't fix it and you just have to run the vehicle out and move on. This is very painful to to the individual customer, and it just adds to the cost of operation for companies.
The transmission guy at my Ford dealer is very busy but so are the three Diesel guys. I have a 2011 Dodge at the dealer now and I think they are going to have to replace the Cummins to get it to stop leaking oil. They have put two oil pans and three rear main seals in it, I think the block itself is porous.

 

Okay, so the Malibu left here on a rollback yesterday, gone to the great parking lot in the sky (or in real life Hurricane, WV lol), and I'm officially looking for my next vehicle...

And Surprise! My top two candidates are Saturn S series cars...

Both 2002, both manual, one is a SC2 with 104k miles, and the other is a presumed SL1 with 140k...

Oh, and I'm also looking at another Ford Ranger(2wd, 2.3/M5OD)...it's a 2001(so it's the Duratec 2.3)... CEL is on, but it runs fine, the owner says