The Chevrolet Malibu certainly looked more contemporary than its predecessor when it first appeared in 2003, with more character and class. It also looked more substantial, giving the impression it's a more expensive car than it is. The sedan's freshness has faded, however, increasingly looking like a collection of styling cues and surface planes gathered from here and there but not all that well integrated. Meanwhile, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Hyundai Sonata have been replaced with new models.

The Maxx has held up better, with its longer wheelbase and chopped off, rather stubby, but somehow sporty back end that, perhaps thankfully, none of the others has felt compelled to emulate.

Equally thankfully, the front end of the Malibu has been relieved of the chrome bar spanning the full-width of the car. The chrome bar on the sedan was originally intended to establish a Chevrolet styling trademark to be carried across the brand, from the smallest Aveo to the lumbering Suburban. (It's not included on the new, 2007 Suburban, an indication of the extent to which it flopped.)

Both the sedan and the Maxx now wear an understated, monochromatic, single-piece fascia with almost generic lower air intake and grille, in which is centered the proper trademark, the Chevy bowtie. Angular headlights perch in the top corners of the fenders. Fog lamps, when present, occupy small, polished cutouts in the lower corners.

The rear of the sedan resembles the upright rears of European cars more than any of the Asian-branded competition. And indeed, the Malibu shares its structure with the highly successful German Opel Vectra and the Swedish Saab 9-3, which provides a solid platform with the vital added benefit of good economies of scale.

From the center post of its roof forward, the Maxx is identical to the sedan, including the updated front end. From there back, however, it's a different and more innovative vehicle, no larger than the sedan, but proportioned much differently.

While the sedan is built on a 106-inch wheelbase, the Maxx rides on a wheelbase that's six inches longer, stretching to 112 inches. Yet in overall length the Maxx is a half-inch shorter than the sedan. Maxx is also a half-inch taller than the sedan. Its roof is longer, its trunk shorter, increasing space for rear-seat passengers. Again, more European than Asian, or even U.S., in roots.