For every car sold, owners filed fewer complaints about the 2015 Malibu than about the typical Malibu year. Among the 14 Malibu years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2015 (0.25 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2018 (1.33).
Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.
better than this nameplate’s own median
Counted from 48 complaints filed in the first three years, of 270 ever. 95% lower bound 0.18.
The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.
| Model year | Per 1,000 | Complaints | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.67 | 119 | |
| 2009 | 0.48 | 81 | |
| 2010 | 0.51 | 92 | |
| 2011 | 0.27 | 55 | |
| 2012 | 0.51 | 106 | |
| 2013 | 0.83 | 171 | |
| 2014 | 0.39 | 75 | |
| 2015 | 0.25 | 48 | |
| 2016 | 0.71 | 151 | |
| 2017 | 1.02 | 212 | |
| 2018 | 1.33 | 220 | |
| 2019 | 0.30 | 41 | |
| 2020 | 0.38 | 45 | |
| 2021 | 0.18 | 13 | |
| 2022 | 0.25 | 29 | |
| 2023 | 0.17 | 21 |
Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.
| auto | 17 | 25% | |
| auto stop | 10 | 15% |
Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.
That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.
For every car sold, owners filed fewer complaints about the 2015 Malibu than about the typical Malibu year. Among the 14 Malibu years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2015 (0.25 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2018 (1.33). The typical year is the median across its model years.
The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Engine (70), Electrical System (68), Air Bags (49). The phrases they used are listed above.
Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Malibu years: for every car sold, owners filed fewer complaints about the 2015 Malibu than about the typical Malibu year.
Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2015, at 0.25 per 1,000 sold. Every Malibu year, ranked.
No guide we read covers the Malibu.
Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site: