Both prices seem WAY too high. Back in Sept. '17, I traded in my '04 Malibu Maxx LS with only 40K miles and the most any dealer would give me was $1000. Probably sold it for $4000, but that's because of the very low mileage. I think you're asking for trouble with either of these old vehicles. At least buy through a dealer and get some kind of warranty. I had a '98 Malibu LS (you're calling it a Classic, but Malibu Classics were only for the '04 model year, earlier ones were plain Malibus) and it was nothing but trouble (even with a V6). GMs dark days seemed to clear by '03-'04.