Federal complaint record · Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2006

2006 Chevrolet Malibu

Owners submitted 1,115 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 93th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2004 to 2008 midsize sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is steering. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Steering · 55% · group n = 814Electrical · 10% · group n = 144Fuel system · 7% · group n = 97Brakes · 5% · group n = 70Lighting · 4% · group n = 64
1,115
Complaint records on file
85,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 909 complaints reported mileage
55%
Of classified component reports name steering · group n = 814
93th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 48 model years

Steering · 6 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Steering55%

Steering reports

Chevrolet Malibu · model year 2006

Reports in this group814
Share of classified reports55%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2005
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
975 matched incidents
This car
2006
0.4complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,115 matched incidents
2007
0.4complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
977 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
Steering effort · 634 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 1 of 32006 Chevrolet Malibu
Brake performance · 110 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 2 of 32006 Chevrolet Malibu
Stalling or shutdown · 84 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 3 of 32006 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

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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.

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