A short documentary video shows the sedan being put through durability trials at the company’s Milford Proving Ground in Michigan.
Engineers aim to calculate the effects of pothole damage over the course of 150,000 miles, replicating such conditions on three road courses littered with potholes of increasing severity. Prototype vehicles are then run through the course hundreds of times.
“Although most Malibu owners will never put their car through similar abuse, we test all new vehicles in extreme climates, inclement weather and on punishing road surfaces,” said Malibu validation engineer Dan Devine. “The 2016 Malibu is definitely up to these challenges.”
The next-generation Malibu was also brought to Yuma, Arizona for tests in extremely high temperatures, and also to Northern Canada to verify its resilience to cold. Wilder extremes are then created in a wind tunnel, exposing the preproduction vehicles to temperatures ranging from -40 to 140 degrees.
All of the tests are now commonplace in the auto industry, though the behind-the-scenes looks are typically used to promote trucks rather than sedans.
The 2016 Malibu is scheduled to make its formal debut next month in New York.
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