Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Chevrolet Malibu

What it says about you

Opinion

The definition of adequate, produced at enormous scale. It never let you down and never gave you a story.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

21 model years on record, 17,781 complaints filed. No year stood out against this model's own history — which means it has not drawn unusual complaints, not that it is a good car.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • steering 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013 peak 73.1% of that year's complaints
  • stop 2014, 2015, 2019, 2023 peak 28.3% of that year's complaints
  • wheel 2006, 2007 peak 35.3% of that year's complaints
  • column 2005, 2006, 2007 peak 12.3% of that year's complaints
  • reduce 2016, 2017 peak 6.2% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2025 1 recall 10 complaints
  2. 2024 2 recalls 34 complaints
  3. 2023 2 recalls 59 complaints
  4. 2022 1 recall 91 complaints
  5. 2021 2 recalls 84 complaints
  6. 2020 1 recall 194 complaints
  7. 2019 1 recall 188 complaints
  8. 2018 6 recalls 705 complaints
  9. 2017 4 recalls 1,407 complaints
  10. 2016 9 recalls 1,669 complaints
  11. 2015 3 recalls 268 complaints
  12. 2014 6 recalls 711 complaints
  13. 2013 10 recalls 1,817 complaints
  14. 2012 3 recalls 905 complaints
  15. 2011 4 recalls 976 complaints
  16. 2010 4 recalls 1,361 complaints
  17. 2009 6 recalls 1,509 complaints
  18. 2008 5 recalls 2,023 complaints
  19. 2007 6 recalls 992 complaints
  20. 2006 9 recalls 1,385 complaints
  21. 2005 6 recalls 1,393 complaints

What does a Chevrolet Malibu say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.