2021 Chevrolet Tahoe
This year drew an ordinary 432 complaints for a Chevrolet Tahoe — the model's median is 180. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.3% of them mention fuel, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Chevrolet Tahoe was redesigned for 2021. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 432 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 180 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 16 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 24.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation (8.4×).
- lifters — 12% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: lifters, camshaft, rods, misfiring.
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
Engine failed while driving down the road. There was not prior warning signs to this issue. Vehicle was unable to accelerate. The safety of myself and husband were put a risk as we were traveling on an Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge, LA. The vehicle was inspecte…
Check Engine Light Came On. Upon Diagnosis', the engine is misfiring, lifters are not performing correctly and there are critical engine alerts and an estimate of 11,000 to fix. 2021 - 83,000 miles v8 - 5.3 NOT the 6.2 and no one will help me bc my power train…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V455000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 21V579000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 22V036000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V792000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V811000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V064000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V735000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V739000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 16. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Tahoe 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 Tahoe? What happened to yours?
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