2017 GMC Sierra 1500
This year drew an ordinary 74 complaints for a GMC Sierra 1500 — the model's median is 54. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.7% of them mention brakes, against 8.8% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 74 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 54 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 25.7% of this year's complaints, against 8.8% across the model's other years (2.9×).
- happen — 17.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: happen, completed, recall completed, speed transmission.
- forward — 12.2% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (5.8×). Owners wrote it as: forward, shuddering, referred, failure referred.
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
TRUCK WAS RECALLED FOR BRAKES. RECALL COMPLETED WAS COMPUTER ISSUE. THAT RECALL CAUSED BRAKE VACUUM TO MALFUNCTION. ALMOST COST ME MY LIFE. 70 MPH IN DALLAS TX TRAFFIC. HAD TO SLOW DOWN QUICKLY. ONCE IT SLOWED DOWN THEN IT WOULDN'T STOP!!! GOT IT TO A PARKING…
WHILE REVERSING, THE VEHICLE HESITATED AND SURGED FORWARD. WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL WAS RELEASED AND THE VEHICLE [VIN]. THERE WERE NO WARNING INDICATORS ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO SILVER STAR BUICK GMC (3601 AUTO MALL DR,…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V645000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 19V761000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 16V651000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V487000 CHILD SEAT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V437000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the GMC Sierra 1500 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 2017 GMC Sierra 1500? What happened to yours?
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