Rumored: 2014 Malibu MCE

Personal File: There has been a lot of talk about the sudden about-face - literally - on Chevrolet brand vehicles. With the new Impala and updated Traverse, Chevrolet has set about to remake their now established split face grille.

Not surprisingly, the 2013 Malibu was unveiled and later released without the new corporate face established with the vehicles above. Development had long since been done. Rumors flew and were confirmed by January of this year that an unplanned 18-month MCE would be done to "adjust" the look as well as address rear seating concerns and other issues.

Wondering how the new "beak" would look I decided to try a rendering similar to the Cruze I did last year. I've seen online where many artists have simply copied the entire Impala over the front of the car but I doubt it will be a literal Xerox copy. My theory is GM will spend as little money as possible on hard points and focus instead on the hood, front fascia, grilles, and lighting assemblies.

Using my newly integrated Before-and-After plugin, here is my take on what the MCE might look like. What do you think? Click around the image or move the slider to view different areas of the chop. Or click the before and the after buttons below the rendering. Comments on the rendering or the new plugin are appreciated!

I just read on Jalopnik the new face might be making a special appearance at New York NAIAS - that would be a great way to end a great showing for Chevrolet! It has been a great show for GM.

All source photos copyright original owners

Rumored: 2014 Chevy Cruze MCE

Personal File: Lot's of recent rumblings online of the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze getting a 'rush job' MCE to visually align it with the new Impala and upcoming SS sedan designs. GMInsideNews and a few other outlets have released renderings that tease of what that could look like in various forms.

I was surprised to see this as I had been dabbling with something like it just for fun myself back in June. Never having liked the Cruze visually, I was exploring what could be done to update it and 'bridge the visual gap' between the two very differently designed 2013 Malibu and the future 2014 Impala sedans. My rendering combined aspects of both vehicles into a clean and sharp MCE.

Coming back to this chop again after the rumors started surfacing, I wanted to put a little more polish on the rendering. Here is a list of what has been done to a 2012 RS Cruze:

• revised c-pillar
  
• new wheels from Malibu
  
• hood and headlights and grille from Impala heavily brushed
  
• lower fascia heavily modified from Malibu heavily brushed
  
• reworked tail light shape
  

What do you think? Will GM will do something like this or are all the rumors just that - bunk?

All source photos copyright original owners

Thoughts on 2013 Chevrolet Malibu

Personal File: This is a post I've been working on for quite some time as I really can't get past the 'bangle butt' on the recently unveiled 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. Don't get me wrong though, this car is amazing and the interior is top notch. I just don't care for some of the high level exterior details.

Not one to leave a stone unturned, I wanted to see what I could do with it. So I created two different looks for the rear clip:

1. Clean and Contemporary Look (simplified rear fenders, more integrated trunk lid, adjusted rear passenger window cut line, and simplified tail lights)
2. Retro-inspired (mid to late 50s) Look (completely rescultped rear fenders, trunk lid, adjusted rear passenger window, and further tweaked tail lights)

Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and modified the front end as well. IHMO, I feel it too is a little over designed.

• Here is my simplified front end idea. This would not only clean up the front end but also align the vehicle visually with the Chevrolet Cruze LTZ as well.

What do you think? Do my adjustments look better? worse? or just different? :)

All source photos copyright original owners