all vehicles · every Sierra year · method

GMC Sierra 2018

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.48 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 106 complaints filed in the first three years, of 367 ever. 95% lower bound 0.39.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.23	38
2009	0.19	27
2010	0.13	16
2011	0.24	33
2012	0.16	25
2013	0.19	33
2014	1.33	264
2015	1.13	247
2016	0.41	92
2017	0.52	114
2018	0.48	106
2019	0.80	181
2020	0.58	141
2021	0.45	113
2022	0.73	178
2023	1.22	328

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Power Train 137 complaints

truck	46	33%
shaking	17	13%
illuminated taken	15	11%
speed transmission	14	10%
shudder	13	10%
shuddering	10	8%

Engine 81 complaints

truck	24	30%
lifters	15	19%
lifter	13	16%

Service Brakes 54 complaints

truck	24	45%
trailer	22	41%
trailer brake	14	26%
service trailer	12	23%
assist	10	19%

When it breaks

49% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 32,000 miles, from 154 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

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.

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

11064915 · 11066902 · 11066925 · 11075573 · 11079106 · 11081400

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.