I had one of these last weekend and was pleasantly surprised (I usually avoid American made cars). The 4 cylinder engine fooled me as well - it felt like it had the kick of a V6. My one complaint was the manual transmission mode was extremely sluggish and slow to respond to shifting with the paddles on the steering wheel.
While I will still lean towards selection foreign cars, I would not hesitate to take an 09 Malibu again if no foreign options were available.