2005 Chevrolet Impala
This year drew an ordinary 609 complaints for a Chevrolet Impala — the model's median is 505. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.5% of them mention speedometer, against 1.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 609 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 505 |
| Involving a crash | 39 |
| Involving a fire | 13 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- speedometer — 31.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the model's other years (19.9×). Owners wrote it as: speedometer, how fast, zero, fast going.
- gauge — 14.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (6.2×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, temperature, temperature gauge, works.
- instrument — 16.1% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the model's other years (4.8×). Owners wrote it as: instrument, cluster, panel, instrument cluster.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH, THE GAUGES ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WORKED INTERMITTENTLY. THE SPEEDOMETER WOULD DROP TO ZERO AND THE [VIN] GAUGE WOULD BECOME HOT. THE DEALER STATED THAT THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER FAILED. NO REPAIRS WERE MADE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 39,000…
THE STEPPER MOTORS THAT CONTROL DASH INSTRUMENTS. SPEEDOMETER WILL NOT RESET TO 0 MPH AFTER COMING TO A FULL STOP. ALSO, STEPPER MOTOR CONTROLLING FUEL GAUGE. INACCURATE FUEL AVAILABLE READING AND I MUST RELY ON TRIP METER TO ESTIMATE WHAT FUEL IS REMAINING.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V400000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 08E063000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 09E005000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 07E021000 FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Impala was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Chevrolet Impala? What happened to yours?
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