2011 Chevrolet Malibu — Problems & Complaints
NHTSA has 978 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.
Chevrolet Malibu — Complaints by Model Year
Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.
1,365 complaints
978 complaints
907 complaints
923 complaints
363 complaints
270 complaints
863 complaints
725 complaints
700 complaints
What Owners Complain About Most
Recent Owner Reports
THE NIGHT OF 12/29/2018 ABOUT 10PM AT AN APPROXIMATE SPEED OF 45MPH I EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF POWER STEERING WHILE DRIVING MY 2011 CHEVROLET MALIBU HOME FROM THE MOUNTAINS AND STEERING BECAME VERY DIFFICULT AND WE ALMOST RAN OFF OF THE ROAD DOWN A STEEP EMBANKMENT. A SERVICE ESC AND POWER STEERING LIGHT WAS ON THE DASH. I RESTARTED THE ENGINE AND THE WARNING LIGHTS WENT OUT AND …
MY PASSENGER LOW BEAM KEEPS GOING OUT. I HAVE GOTTEN IT CHANGED 4 TIMES AND THE LAST 2 MONTHS. NO ONE KNOWS THE PROBLEM AND THE BULBS ARE NO T BURNING OUT IT JUST STOPS WORKING. I HAVE SPOKEN TO A NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE THE SAME YEAR BODY AND MAKE THAT HAS BEEN DEALING WITH THE SAME EXACT ISSUE AS ME.
STARTED THE CAR TO GO TO WORK . ON THE SCREEN CAME UP POWER STEERING ESC AND SERVICE TRACTION CONTROL, THE TRACTION CONTROL WAS ALSO ON AND THE CAR HAD NO POWER STEERING. I HAD IT TOWED TO THE DEALERSHIP THEY REPLACED THE CABLE AND BATTERY. WAS GOING TO GO TO THE STORE TODAY AND THE SAME THING HAPPENED NO POWER STEERING. NOT REALLY DRIVING THE CAR THIS WEEKEND. IT'S DANGEROUS…
SINCE MARCH 2014, I HAD INSTANCES WHERE THE CHEVY MALIBU I WAS DRIVING WARNED ME ON THE DASH THAT I NEEDED TO SERVICE THE ESC. IT WOULD TELL ME ESC TURNED OFF AND TRACTION CONTROL TURNED OFF. THIS MESSAGE WOULD DISAPPEAR WHEN I TURNED THE CAR OFF AND RESTARTED. IT STARTED DOING IT MORE FREQUENTLY SO I CALLED GMC ON AUGUST 2ND. I HAD TO WAIT 2 WEEKS UNTIL THEY COULD GET ME …
ONCE LAST WINTER I STARTED MY CAR AT 4:30 AM TO TRAVEL TO WORK. I NOTICED MY DEFROSTER WAS NOT WORKING. MY CAR HAD BEEN RUNNING FOR 15 MINUTES AND WAS WARMED UP. I CHOSE NOT TO DRIVE MY CAR SINCE I COULD NOT SEE OUT OF MY WINDSHIELD. THIS SUMMER, MY CAR DID THE SAME THING AFTER WORK ONE DAY. THE BLOWER MOTOR WAS NOT WORKING. I GOT A MILE DOWN THE ROAD AND IT STARTED WORK…
Recalls & Crash Tests
Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2011 Chevrolet Malibu, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.
Problems Checker
Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.