The interior, the visual and tactile elements of which are shared with the Maxx, is conservatively styled. There's an off switch for the daytime running lights, useful when parked with the engine running. Controls on the center dash are conveniently backlit for night driving. Heating and air conditioning controls are quite logical. The stereo and information system are a little less so, but still more readily understood than many others. We thought the wipers were a little loud. And the triangularly shaped outside mirrors are small, limiting rearward vision more than we liked.

Otherwise, it's a convenient interior. Lots of nooks and crannies are available for storage, including a center console with a roomy bin, four cupholders (though beware the two in the rear seat's fold-down center armrest, as it bounces enough over bumps to flip a cup of coffee into an unwary lap), a storage tray and a clip pad. Two 12-volt outlets provide power for whatever needs powering; the Maxx adds a third outlet in the cargo area.

Malibu Maxx offers slightly more total passenger space than the sedan, at 106 cubic feet. But more than that, Maxx offers increased versatility. Its rear seat is split 60/40 not only in the back, but in the cushion; and each unit slides fore and aft as much as seven inches to adjust between passenger and cargo room. Rear-seat passengers sit farther back in the Maxx and enjoy nearly identical room as the front-seat occupants and as much as the rear-seat riders in a full-size domestic sedan. Also, the rear seatbacks recline for improved comfort. In short, the back seats of the Maxx are a comfortable place for adults.

Standard in the Maxx are a pair of fixed skylights over the rear seating area, so rear-seat passengers can see clouds by day and stars by night. Or if it's sunny, they can close their individual sunshades.

Back in the cargo bay, Maxx provides 22.8 cubic feet of space, versus 15.4 for the trunk of the sedan. Fold down Maxx's back seats and the available space expands to 41 cubic feet. There's a 12-volt power outlet way in the back in addition to the two up front that it shares with the sedan. A four-position shelf in back can be configured for two-tier loading or, with a drop-down leg, as a table for roadside picnics. There are hooks for hanging plastic grocery bags. And of course the one-piece liftgate with remote power release allows you to load objects like appliances that would never squeeze through the sedan's conventional trunk opening.

The biggest problem with the Malibu's interior, whether sedan or Maxx, is its inconsistency. Some interior parts are made from high quality materials, such as the soft rubber door handles, which reminded us of Volkswagen, the benchmark for interiors. Yet other parts, such as the plastic surrounding the audio and climate controls, appear hard and cheap. The cover for the driver's seat-mounted, side-impact airbag left gaps around the edges. Several plastic pieces showed flash where the sides of the mold had clamped together. Although fit and finish was otherwise good, with decent tolerances between pieces, panels and fabrics, we didn't feel the interior generally measured up to the craftsmanship of a Honda, a Toyota or today, a Hyundai.

The remote starter is a questionable feature. Useful for starting the car from inside the house when it's very cold or very hot outside, it also contradicts what every carmaker's owner's manual and clean air agency urge people to do when starting a car. And that is, instead of letting the engine warm up unloaded at idle, to get in and drive the car as promptly as possible. This heats up the engine quicker, thereby lighting off the catalytic converter earlier, which minimizes exhaust emissions when they're at their dirtiest level. As convenient as it might be, we'd conveniently forget about it. Some of our other testers like it. If you're the type of person who runs outside on cold mornings, starts the car, then runs back inside while it warms up and defrosts, then you'll like the remote starter.