2018 Chevrolet Impala
This year drew an ordinary 59 complaints for a Chevrolet Impala — the model's median is 544. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.6% of them mention transmission, against 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 | 59 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 544 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 18.6% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the other years of this generation (3.7×).
- evaporator — 15.3% of this year's complaints, against 6% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: evaporator, freon, operating, who diagnosed.
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 OPERATING THE VEHICLE, A STRANGE ODOR WAS PRESENT COMING FROM THE ENGINE INTO CABIN OF THE VEHICLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO LOCAL DEALER (RACEWAY CHEVROLET LOCATED AT 1510 SOUTH 5TH ST, HARTSVILLE, SC 29550) WHO DIAGNOSED THE AIR CONDITIONING EVAPORATOR…
GETTING A SECOND LOOK AT AIR CONDITIONING. I WAS TOLD THE COMPRESSOR COULD BE LEAKING AS THERE HAS BEEN NO FREON FOR OVER A MONTH OR TWO. THE FREON IS 120/POUND AND COULD COST 1000, HE MENTIONED FOR FREON ALONE. THIS IS A 2018, PURCHASED LAST YEAR AND I'M DEAL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V576000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC 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 2018 Chevrolet Impala? What happened to yours?
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