The wife and I are shopping for her new car. Two days ago we drove a brand new 2004 Malibu LT 3.5L. The car had nice handling and a great ride BUT...the moment you touched the brakes the whole body shell went into a horrendeous buzz/humm/harmonic resonance that was in direct portion to the pressure on the pedal. Now, I'm not talking about a brake squeal from rusty rotors, or a pulsation from warped rotors - the whole interior cavity started to resonate. How loud? You couldn't talk over it! We were ready to deal, but that stopped us dead! The salesman of couse said it could be fixed. My question is, "Does this portend a major design flaw?"

man, if you have not found out about Malibu and brake poroblems - you better find out before you buy! I bought brand new 99 and brakes failed at 15,000 miles!

We bought our Malibu Maxx LT about 2 weeks ago and everything is perfect so far. My wife and I are very impressed with the car and the brakes are flawless.
We only have 400 miles on the car.

Prior to buying the Maxx, we rented a 2004 Maxima SE. Very impressive. Although the Maxx rides more softly and doesn't accelerate as viciously as the Maxima did, the brakes, in our opinion, provide the same level of confidence we experienced in the Maxima.

I am old enough that I have owned "a bunch" of cars over the years.

Bought an 04 Malibu LT for my wife because the four wheel discs brakes and the electronic power steering were so great in comparison to most we tried.

Now, at 9,000+ miles the brakes are still great (and quiet) but we sure have had problems with the steering. It's in the shop again!

Like DMaxx, I have about 400 miles on my '04 Maxx. Brakes have been suberp. I think you are looking at a bad example, that's all.

Wish I felt the same way about the fuel guage and skylight sunshades, though.

We just bought a 2004 LT a week ago. Everything was fine but now we are experiencing the same problem. It is only noticible when applying moderate braking when going 55+. With light braking there is no noticible vibration what-so-ever at any speed which is what I find the most odd. If it were a warped rotor or something you should feel it at least a little even at slow speeds and/or with light braking. I only have 600 miles on the car so back to the dealer I go. Just hope this isn't a sign of things to come, because we love this car alot.

No vibrations or crazy sounds from mine. It is like any cars brakes, smooth. So that is interesting that you had a problem like that.

Oh and to bcopeland, remember the newer cars are completely redesigned in everyway. Basically everything is different so the problems that you are experiencing are different in many ways.

1824 miles and brakes are as wonderful as at 80 miles.
I know... we don't drive much... but that's our value here, right?