So the Malibu is back. After only 5 months of ‘away time’. She’s a little worse for the wear but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The deal was $600 for a Head Gasket but it would take some time. Not bad considering we were almost ready to go to one car anyway and everyone else wanted $1,200 for the repairs. Who cared if it took a while. After 5 months and what turned out to be 3 major redos (and no phone calls) they wanted $900. A few calls later and we settled on $700. That was the condensed non-emotional version.

So now she’s back, for better or worse, and we have 2 cars again. Kind of.

Problems the Malibu now has that it didn’t before:

• It needs a new front left shock
• When turning right it makes a horrible metal on metal scraping sound. Seems linked to the shock issue.
• While moving it smells like it’s leaking gas.
• It hesitates at first, likely due to the gas leak.
• It’s burning through fuel like it’s going out of style. Likely related.
• Rust has started to rear it’s ugly head.
• Still slightly blowing smoke/steam when accelerating.

Only really 2 main issues (shock and gas leak) that are probably causing all the issues, still frustrating.

At least it’s not blowing smoke anymore.

Anyone want to buy a Malibu?