Other powertrain problem on the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette report other powertrain problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 20,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 17,500 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
100% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 miles | 3,800 miles | 10,881 miles | 16,150 miles | 19,500 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 60,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 38; the 2015 has 13. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
8 speed automatic transmission down shifts at a stop with such force it feels as you have been hit from behind by another car while coming to a stop. Transmission also will not always engage properly and will over rev and slam into gear possibly causing an accident. Transmission at times will disengage while going forward then slam into gear with great force. I was told by a gm insider that gm is aware some transmissions are defective and is working on a kit to fix the fluid starvation problem internally but has done nothing to inform owners of the potential dangers of erratic shifting that it's causing while driving. This also causes the transmission to over heat and to illuminate a warning lamp.
8-speed automatic transmission always shifts erratically when starting out cold (lazy shift, slow shift, etc.) and occasionally does not downshift when car comes to a stop, only to slam hard into 1st when gas pedal is pressed to resume travel. Dealer says gm claims this is "normal," but no car I've ever owned behaves like this. Appears to be fluid starvation internally. Any fix/replacement would be costly for gm, so given their history w/faulty ignition switches, not surprised they're trying to avoid it. Transmission is definitely not normal and behavior is unpredictable + unacceptable -- especially at this price. When car is moving & transmission is in drive and trying to lazily shift gears, you temporarily lose ability to apply power, which is both dangerous and unnerving. Clearly, this transmission was put into production w/inadequate testing & development. A recall is necessary to fix properly.
The a8 automatic transmission in the 2015 corvette is prone to occasional hard downshifts from 2nd to 1st gear when driving at slow speeds (less than 10 MPH). Sometimes the downshifts are so violent that the car jerks forward several feet. The first time it happened I thought I had been rear ended by another car. The unpredictable behavior of the transmission is especially dangerous in proximity to pedestrians or other vehicles.
Also reported on the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette
Other wheel or tire problem
Other visibility problem
Backup camera failure
Seat belt or retractor failure
Torque converter failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed