Chevrolet Impala Limited
Problems & Worst Years
Every reported problem for the Chevrolet Impala Limited, model year by model year — ranked from 476 federal NHTSA complaints across 2015–2016.
Between the two years on record for the Chevrolet Impala Limited, 2016 is where the volume lives. It posted 428 total complaint occurrences squeezed into only five distinct problems — a strikingly concentrated file — while 2015 spread 160 occurrences across 16 problems with no safety-severity entries at all.
The 2016 story is engine power and park behavior. Reduced engine power during driving dominates at 223 reports, logged at safety severity; a related entry pairing the check engine light with reduced power adds 65 more. The other big block is the transmission's relationship with park: a safety-severity "shift to park" issue drew 136 reports, and the transmission failing to recognize the park position drew 67. Rounding out the list are brake booster vacuum pump failures at 25 reports. When nearly nine in ten complaints for a model year describe either sudden power loss or a car that argues about being in park, a buyer knows exactly what to test: drive it long enough to trust the powertrain warnings stay dark, and cycle the shifter into park repeatedly, on a slope if possible.
The 2015 file has no equivalent center of gravity. Its most-reported problems are electrical failures causing dashboard malfunctions (32 reports), side detection system failures (28), power steering malfunction (17), brake system issues (12), and electronic stability control failures (12) — electronics-heavy, mostly moderate in severity, and the sort of thing an afternoon with every switch and warning light can largely screen for.
No recall campaigns are listed for either year in this data. That means no open-recall shortcut and no fix-was-mandated reassurance — the individual car's condition is everything. Complaint totals like these reflect what owners filed with NHTSA rather than measured failure rates, and later years of any model have had less time to accumulate reports besides. Weigh a pre-purchase inspection and a coherent service history above the model year, and for a 2016, add the power-loss and shift-to-park checks to the routine.
Chevrolet Impala Limited problems by year
Complaint volume by model year (bar = relative to the worst year). Theworst yearsare the most-complained-about, weighted by safety-risk problems.
| Year | Complaint volume | Problems | Safety / High | Most common problem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015worst | 135 | 16 | 0/7 | Electrical system failures causing dashboard malfunctions Electrical · 32 complaints |
| 2016worst | 341 | 5 | 2/2 | Reduced engine power during driving Engine · 223 complaints |
Data source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) owner complaints and recalls, 2015–2016. Problem clustering and year rankings are derived from the complaint record; complaint volume reflects reports filed, not total incidence or fault rate. Vehicle image is illustrative.