Motor Trend testing director Kim Reynolds mentioned the U.S.S. Iowa during a powwow the other day, and it got me thinking. The decommissioned battleship that served in World War II and beyond is being converted into a naval museum after it's towed from Richmond, California, to the Port of Los Angeles. The U.S.S. Iowa and its story rekindled memories of all those war books I read in school.

While I'm fascinated by war, I recognize its terrible reality -- unless we're talking about the 21st century car wars. There's a fierce battle raging in the U.S. midsize segment, an arms race that involves more than 10 legit models. But unlike real war, civilians actually benefit. Chevy is one of several top automakers who have brought in the heavy midsize artillery this year, and it's just fired off its latest round in the form of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco.

Approached in a vacuum, the 2013 Malibu Eco is solid. It may as well be brothers with the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid. Brothers in the sense that both sedans -- stuffed with unconventional powertrains -- are the base players of their respective lines. The Chevy runs the most recent iteration of the Belt Alternator Starter mild hybrid system christened eAssist. An electric motor rated for 15 horsepower and 79 lb-ft of torque is mounted straight onto the engine, driven off the ancillary belt. On the gas side, a revised 2.4-liter Ecotec inline-four with direct injection pushes 182 hp and 172 lb-ft. In case you were wondering, combined peak production does not magically equate to 197 hp and 251 lb-ft of torque. Precise power output depends on when the control electronics decide to phase the electric motor in to directly help the engine.

The eAssist getup works, but it's not always obvious, making us wonder how the average soldier, er, buyer will perceive the technology. The six-speed automatic is geared for fuel economy and uses a tall-for-a-four-cylinder 2.64 axle ratio. It's a mostly silky transmission, though it hesitates when downshifting during moderate to hasty braking. The 2.4-liter is also one of the slowest-revving mills we've flogged in years, as if it's carrying extra flywheel weight. Nevertheless, our Malibu Eco tester cracked off an 8.5-second 0-60 mph run and the quarter mile arrived in 16.6 seconds at 83.8 mph, handing the 140-pound-lighter predecessor (a 2010 Malibu LT -- 9.0 sec, 16.8 at 84.1 mph) its not-as-attractive behind.

Mat the gas pedal on surface streets or the freeway and electric assist may or may not come on, regardless of the air-cooled, 0.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery's state of charge. You may as well guess what accelerator pedal position and speed you'll need to trigger blended gas/electric power. The 15-kW-rated regenerative braking system does top off the battery amply, though. Speaking of braking, the brake pedal is hard and possesses a long stroke, but the depression to braking response relationship is otherwise convincingly linear.

Wind noise suppression is excellent but road noise was worrying -- so much so that it compelled us to do a sound recording. Out on the smoothest stretch of road we could find, the firm-riding Malibu Eco recorded a best of 23.8 sones and 65.8 dBA at a gentle 60-mph cruise. Our present D-segment yardstick/reigning Car of the Year Volkswagen Passat went through the same exercise, returning 20.8 sones and 66.0 dBA. It's unlikely the human ear will pick up 0.2 dBA, but the three-sone difference equals a 14.4-percent increase in loudness going from the five-banger Passat to the Malibu Eco. Low-rolling-resistance tires likely shoulder some of the acoustic fault, but I don't recall the Cruze Eco or Volt suffering nearly as much on marginally narrower rubber (215/55-17 vs. Malibu Eco's 225/55-17). Additionally, associate editor Scott Evans noted an unusual, vacuum-cleaner like battery-cooling fan sound issue during his first drive of the car. In an attempt to replicate, I had web production editor Carol Ngo shuttle me around at irresponsible acceleration rates as I listened for the sound from the back seat, but I could not detect what Evans did.

Overall, there's a good sense of quality in the fit and finish, with the weakest link being the flimsy release on the center console storage box. The large, highly legible buttons and hefty dials on the center stack are fantastic, the hidden cubby behind the screen and blue ambient lighting are neat touches, and the vibrant MyLink interface is incredibly easy to operate. The optional Pioneer nine-speaker sound system is well-tuned and audio playback quality is better than some luxury cars out there.

The interior dimensions grow and shrink from the last generation depending on where you look, but there's no getting around the Malibu Eco's 13.2-cubic-foot trunk, recessed hinges and all. Sans the battery, non-Eco Malibus will have 16.3 cubic feet, putting those versions in the upper echelons of the current midsize cluster.

Our assessment: Chevy's midsizer is almost there. Reynolds wrung the Malibu Eco out on the figure eight in 27.8 seconds at 0.60 average g (0.9 sec quicker than 2010 car) on test day, and then drove it back to the office. Pressed for his analysis, he declared it more suited for the figure eight than the real world -- damning praise for a midsize sedan. But he's right: the overdamped chassis could stand to loosen up, the car wanders a little too much when traveling straight, and can someone get rid of the chromed plastic? As a matter of fact, bring us the impending 197-hp 2.5-liter four and turbocharged 2.0-liter sport model and we'll lock-and-load the Malibu again soon.

2013 Chevrolet

The rest is here:

2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco First Test