Federal complaint record · Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2021

2021 Chevrolet Malibu

Owners submitted 77 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 32th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2019 to 2023 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is powertrain. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Powertrain · 22% · group n = 26Electrical · 20% · group n = 24Other · 20% · group n = 24Engine · 11% · group n = 13Fuel system · 8% · group n = 9
77
Complaint records on file
22%
Of classified component reports name powertrain · group n = 26
32th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 39 model years

Powertrain · 2 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Powertrain22%

Powertrain reports

Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2021

Reports in this group26
Share of classified reports22%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2020
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
191 matched incidents
This car
2021
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
77 matched incidents
2022
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
89 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Stalling or shutdown · 16 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 1 of 32021 Chevrolet Malibu
Transmission behavior · 13 reports

Reports describe harsh shifting, slipping, or shuddering

Cluster 2 of 32021 Chevrolet Malibu
Brake performance · 7 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 3 of 32021 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.

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