Federal complaint record · Chevrolet Malibu · model year 1997

1997 Chevrolet Malibu

Owners submitted 443 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 65th percentile for complaint intensity within its 1995 to 1999 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is brakes. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Brakes · 20% · group n = 136Electrical · 14% · group n = 95Steering · 12% · group n = 84Engine · 11% · group n = 77Suspension · 9% · group n = 64
443
Complaint records on file
85,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 98 complaints reported mileage
20%
Of classified component reports name brakes · group n = 136
65th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 33 model years

Brakes · 2 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Brakes20%

Brakes reports

Chevrolet Malibu · model year 1997

Reports in this group136
Share of classified reports20%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Brake performance · 109 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 1 of 31997 Chevrolet Malibu
Steering effort · 57 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 2 of 31997 Chevrolet Malibu
Stalling or shutdown · 19 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 3 of 31997 Chevrolet Malibu

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.