2012 Chevrolet Malibu
This year drew an ordinary 905 complaints for a Chevrolet Malibu — the model's median is 976. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.3% of them mention headlight, against 4% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Chevrolet Malibu ran from 2008 to 2012, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 905 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 976 |
| Involving a crash | 50 |
| Involving a fire | 13 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlight — 12.3% of this year's complaints, against 4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: headlight, bulb, side headlight.
- fuse — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: fuse, fuel pump, box, fuse box.
- wiring — 9.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: wiring, harness, wiring harness.
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 WAS NOT OPERABLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE WIRING HARNESS AND FUEL PUMP WERE DEFECTIVE AND NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED; HOWEVER, THE VEHICLE WAS STILL NOT OPERABLE. THE VEHI…
DROVE TO WORK AFTER WORK CAME GOT INTO CAR WILL NOT START SO CALL THE MECHANIC TO COME HELP ME AND HE TOOK IT TO SHOP AND SAID SOMETHING GOING ON WITH THE FUSE BOX AND FUEL PUMP CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT DONE THIS MORE THAN ONE TIME HAVE TO OPEN TRUNK TOUCHED THE FU…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15V269000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V252000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14E044000 STEERING 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 2012 Chevrolet Malibu? What happened to yours?
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