Federal complaint record · Chevrolet Malibu · model year 1999

1999 Chevrolet Malibu

Owners submitted 789 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 82th percentile for complaint intensity within its 1997 to 2001 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is brakes. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Brakes · 33% · group n = 399Electrical · 13% · group n = 161Engine · 12% · group n = 151Suspension · 7% · group n = 90Tires · 6% · group n = 76
789
Complaint records on file
66,249
Median mileage at the reported problem · 265 complaints reported mileage
33%
Of classified component reports name brakes · group n = 399
82th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 36 model years

Brakes · 3 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Brakes33%

Brakes reports

Chevrolet Malibu · model year 1999

Reports in this group399
Share of classified reports33%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
1998
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
976 matched incidents
This car
1999
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
789 matched incidents
2000
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
922 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Brake performance · 267 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 1 of 31999 Chevrolet Malibu
Fire or smoke · 70 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 2 of 31999 Chevrolet Malibu
Stalling or shutdown · 51 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 3 of 31999 Chevrolet Malibu

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

Published model-year records · free · no login

Check the next car before the test drive

NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

Browse all Chevrolet records How the index works