2008 Chevrolet Malibu
This year drew an ordinary 2,023 complaints for a Chevrolet Malibu — the model's median is 905. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.5% of them mention door, against 6.8% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Chevrolet Malibu was redesigned for 2008. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,023 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 905 |
| Involving a crash | 65 |
| Involving a fire | 10 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 23.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 18.5% of this year's complaints, against 6.8% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: door, lock, locks, doors.
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
WHEN THE MASTER DOOR LOCK OR THE KEY FOB WAS USED, THE REAR PASSENGER SIDE DOOR WOULD NOT LOCK OR UNLOCK HAD TO BE LOCKED OR UNLOCKED MANUALLY. THE DEALER RE-PROGRAMMED THE REMOTE, BUT THE FAILURE CONTINUED. THE [VIN] WAS NOTIFIED. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILE…
WHILE DRIVING AT VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE POWER STEERING ASSIST INTERMITTENTLY FAILED WITHOUT WARNING. IN ADDITION, THE DOOR LOCKS FOR ALL FOUR DOORS FAILED TO ENGAGE WHEN USING THE KEY FOB REMOTE. ALSO, WHEN SHIFTING THE VEHICLE INTO PARK THE DOORS FAILED TO UNLOC…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V252000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V153000 STEERING
- 14V224000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 14E044000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 12V460000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Malibu 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 2008 Chevrolet Malibu? What happened to yours?
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