2016 Chevrolet Impala
This year drew an ordinary 897 complaints for a Chevrolet Impala — the model's median is 505. What they were about is the unusual part: 28% of them mention malibu, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Chevrolet Impala, which began in 2014. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 897 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 505 |
| Involving a crash | 27 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- malibu — 28% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (11.3×). Owners wrote it as: malibu, chevrolet malibu, malibu contact, chevy malibu.
- reduced — 26.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (11.1×). Owners wrote it as: reduced, engine power, power reduced, reduced engine.
- engine — 44.7% of this year's complaints, against 14.2% across the other years of this generation (3.2×).
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
THE VEHICLE EXPERIENCED REDUCED ENGINE POWER AND DECELERATION. THE CONTACT STATED THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT ACCELERATE PAST 20 MPH AND THE "ENGINE REDUCED POWER" WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO FIVE STAR CHEVROLET BUICK (300 S BOONE ST, ABE…
WHEN I AM DRIVING MY 2016 CHEVY MALIBU WILL REDUCE SPEED IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAFFIC. THE DASH READS 'ENGINE REDUCED POWER'. THIS HAS HAPPENED A LOT TIMES SINCE I PURCHASED MY VEHICLE IN SEPTEMBER 2016. THE DEALERSHIP HAS NOTES OF MANY TIMES I HAVE REPORTED.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2016 Chevrolet Impala? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…