AtWhatMileage
Body · 31 owner reports

Other body or interior problem on the 2006 Chevrolet Impala

3 crashes 3 fires 6 of the 31 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.

Reports of this failure 31
With an odometer reading 25
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 12%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 6
Typical repair $200–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 7th

When other body or interior problem gets reported

Owners of the 2006 Chevrolet Impala report other body or interior problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 126,890 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 25 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
37,600 miles 70,000 miles 91,000 miles 140,009 miles 164,490 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, 3 a crash and 3 a fire are 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–$2,000 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 2011, at a median of 7,500 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 100,000 miles.

By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 75; the 2006 has 31. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Tl*the contact owns a 2006 chevrolet impala. While driving 10 MPH or stopped at a stop sign, the vehicle lunges forward 10 to 15 feet by itself. The failure occurs whenever the vehicle is driven. The vehicle performs the same way when in reverse. For the past two months, the service department at the dealer has had the vehicle. All of the service department personnel agreed that the vehicle lunges forward abnormally, but stated that nothing could be done. The current mileage was 7,000 and failure mileage was 1,000. Updated 01-10-08. *kb the consumer stated overhead dome light stayed on, transmission hesitates and bumps on 1-2 shift, and A/C blows warm intermittently. Updated 01/04/07 *tr

1,000 miles NHTSA complaint 649220 filed 2007-12-10

Tl*the contact owns a 2006 chevrolet impala. Sporadically, the two rear passenger doors will not unlock from either the interior or exterior of the vehicle. The dealer stated that this was a common failure for this year, make, and model vehicle. The contact would have to replace all the latches, locks, and linkages at more than $200. The vehicle has not been repaired and the manufacturer did not provide any assistance. The failure mileage was 49,000 and current mileage was 50,000. Updated 10-07-08 *bf updated 10/15/08. *jb

49,000 miles NHTSA complaint 684526 filed 2008-08-22

The right and left rear doors are inoperable. I opened the door and when I attempted to close the door it would not shut. The jam was unhooked and when I attempted to open the door again it would not open. This happened with both sides of the door. If an accident were to occur the backseat passengers would be unable to get out of the vehicle. *tr

70,000 miles NHTSA complaint 701773 filed 2008-12-30

Also reported on the 2006 Chevrolet Impala

Other steering problem

75 reports median 71k

Other powertrain problem

72 reports median 86k

Other electrical problem

70 reports median 85k

Other engine problem

43 reports median 103k

Water pump failure

31 reports median 37k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 31 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2006 Chevrolet Impala?

Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 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 other body or interior problem on the 2006 Chevrolet Impala?

31 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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