Cruise control failure on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala
2 fires 2 of the 11 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When cruise control failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Chevrolet Impala report cruise control failure at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 90,578 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57,422 miles | 60,000 miles | 92,500 miles | 140,920 miles | 148,000 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
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2005 has 11. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 chevrolet impala. While driving less than 70 MPH, the vehicle would not decelerate when the brake pedal was depressed. The contact continued to pump the brakes until the vehicle eventually slowed down. Periodically, while traveling in residential areas or areas where the speed limit is less than 55 MPH, the vehicle will accelerate on its own. The contact would remove his foot from the accelerator pedal and the vehicle acted as if it were stuck in cruise control. The dealer believed that the cruise control may be the cause of the failure. The failure and current mileages were less than 92,500. Updated 11/12/08 *bf updated 11/13/08. *jb
Tuesday, 1/27/09, while driving on a local country road to work at 6:15 am, vehicle headlights and other exterior lights went dark. Dashboard lights stayed on, but other exterior lights went dark for 8 to 10 seconds. Same thing occurred again monday morning, 02/02/09. No dimming or warning, lights just went off and I was driving in darkness. 02/03/09 took impala to gm dealer to run diagnostic. They determined problem with the multifunctional high/low beam lever switch (this unit also houses the cruise control, windshield wipers, and directional light controls). Est for repairs $735.00. 02/07/09 had the unit replaced at another garage for $435.00. I kept the defective unit. Have since done research to find other people reporting this same problem occurring on other impalas ranging at least from model years 2001 thru 2005. In some cases the headlights stayed on, but they were unable to switch the headlights between high and low beam. I feel this is definitely a safety issue. I contacted gm customer service to relate what happened as I believe this is a very serious problem. I feel that due to the high potential for accidents…
Steering knuckle makes a popping noise speedodometer does not work temp gauge does not work cruise control engages when ever it wants to if the switch is in the on position a herd that a lot of chevrolets had recalls for these conditions! Are there any recalls for these conditions on my car? *kb
Also reported on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Instrument cluster or gauge failure
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 cruise control failure happen on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2005 Chevrolet Impala?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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