Model years Chevrolet Silverado 1500
2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
This year drew an ordinary 42 complaints for a Chevrolet Silverado 1500 — the model's median is 91. What they were about is the unusual part: 35.7% of them mention tailgate, against 0% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 42 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 91 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- tailgate — 35.7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (178.6×).
- vin — 23.8% of this year's complaints, against 6.5% across the model's other years (3.7×).
- check — 19% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the model's other years (4.1×).
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
The tailgate opened and closes on its own while trailering causing sever binds and damage to the trailer and allowing loads to become unsecured. There is a recall already from GM on this issue, but for some reason our VIN is not included. This is a well docume…
Automatic tailgate open by itself while vehicle was traveling at 65mph on I64 in Virginia between Charlottesville and Waynesboro. And when we stopped the tailgate reclosed by itself. But we lost our load in bed of truck. State police was called but no report w…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V792000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V811000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V684000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 21V495000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V985000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 24V797000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 25V274000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 26V083000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 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.
Own a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500? What happened to yours?
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