Model years Chevrolet Cruze

2015 Chevrolet Cruze

This year drew an ordinary 251 complaints for a Chevrolet Cruze — the model's median is 247. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.8% of them mention overheating, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation.

Last year of its generation. This Chevrolet Cruze ran from 2011 to 2015, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

Complaints filed251
Median for this model247
Involving a crash20
Involving a fire4
Recalls4
NHTSA crash rating5/5
EPA combined30 mpg

What the complaints were about

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

Coolant leak and engine overheating from Thermostat housing issue. 2nd time we have taken it in for this problem in 2 months after initial repair.
Coolant leaking, was repaired. Now coolant mixed into oil causing overheating and a blown head gasket. Car now needs major repairs under 100,000 miles. I see recalls for 2013-2014 Models but none for 2015.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

Own a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze? What happened to yours?

Loading comments…

How this was worked out

Every year of the Chevrolet Cruze 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.

Every year of the Chevrolet Cruze →