This week’s Automotive News includes an article (subscription required) on upcoming ads for the new 2008 Chevrolet Malibu. Apparently, Chevrolet is going to attack the erroneous “belief system” that American cars cannot compete.

So far, so good. But one sentence I must really wonder about: “It takes the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima to task for quality and reliability, says LaNeve.” (LaNeve is GM’s marketing chief in North America.) Are these ads really going to criticize the Camry, Accord, and Altima on the basis of reliability?

If GM is going to do this, then the reliability of the new Malibu had better be stellar. TrueDelta’s current data suggests they’re on thin ice. The latest Camry and Altima are just average in reliability. But then so is the Saturn Aura, the car to which the new Malibu is most closely related.

Will it do GM any good to essentially point out, “They’re as average as we are.” Maybe a little. But such ads could only be very effective if the Malibu were more reliable, not just roughly tied for average.

Of course, the new Malibu hasn’t yet gone on sale. So it could end up about average. Or much better. Or much worse. If the latter somehow happens, these ads could backfire. Again, assuming that LaNeve meant to say what he seems to have said.