Federal complaint record · Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2001

2001 Chevrolet Malibu

Owners submitted 721 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 71th percentile for complaint intensity within its 1999 to 2003 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is electrical. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Electrical · 30% · group n = 303Engine · 20% · group n = 198Lighting · 12% · group n = 121Brakes · 11% · group n = 107Fuel system · 4% · group n = 42
721
Complaint records on file
73,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 444 complaints reported mileage
30%
Of classified component reports name electrical · group n = 303
71th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 39 model years

Electrical · 3 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Electrical30%

Electrical reports

Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2001

Reports in this group303
Share of classified reports30%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2000
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
922 matched incidents
This car
2001
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
721 matched incidents
2002
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
567 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 · 97 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 1 of 32001 Chevrolet Malibu
Stalling or shutdown · 89 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 2 of 32001 Chevrolet Malibu
Electrical faults · 38 reports

Reports describe electrical faults or battery drain

Cluster 3 of 32001 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