2016 GMC Yukon Denali
Complaints about this year name brake far more often than the model's other years — 39% of them, about 43× the usual rate of 0.9%.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 766 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 4 |
| Involving a crash | 19 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
What the complaints were about
- brake light — 20.9% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the model's other years (39.9×). Owners wrote it as: brake light, rear brake, side brake, led brake.
- tail — 24.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the model's other years (17.4×). Owners wrote it as: tail, tail light, tail lights, rear tail.
- lights — 26.6% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the model's other years (9×).
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.
Also unusual this year
- lights — 27% of complaints, 67× usual
- light — 43% of complaints, 6× usual
- tail — 20% of complaints, 50× usual
What owners wrote
BOTH TAIL LIGHTS AND BRAKE LIGHTS STOPPED FUNCTIONING WITHIN A WEEK OF EACH OTHER. NO BULB TO REPLACE AS THEY ARE LEDS AND ENTIRE HOUSING HAS TO BE REPLACED.
BOTH THE DRIVER AND PASSENGER BRAKE LIGHTS ARE NOT FUNCTIONING AT ALL. BECAUSE IT IS AN LED LAMP, THE ENTIRE TAIL LAMPS ASSEMBLY REQUIRES [VIN] AT A SIGNIFICANT COST.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the GMC Yukon Denali 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 GMC Yukon Denali? What happened to yours?
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