AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 6 owner reports

Parking brake failure on the 2010 Chevrolet Impala

Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 6
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$1,300
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 26th

When parking brake failure gets reported

There are 6 reports of parking brake failure on the 2010 Chevrolet Impala, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 26th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 37,500 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 $250–$1,300 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 1 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 235,000 miles.

By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 31; the 2010 has 6. 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 2010 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that she believed that the accelerator pedal and brake pedal were too close together and she depressed them both at the same time. The contact felt that the parking brake release was too high up. The contact sent a letter to the manufacturer who advised her to take the vehicle to an authorized dealer. The failure mileage was 37,500. Updated 01/24/11 *bf the consumer stated on three occasions she accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. Updated evoq 01/27/11 updated 03/22/11 the consumer stated the head rest obstructs the driver's view when backing out of a parking space. Also, when driving down a small incline to enter a small street, the front under carriage of the vehicle scrapped the street. The platform for the foot rest on the driver; side for the left foot caused the consumer to experience foot cramps as her ankle was in a flex position as there was not enough space. Updated 05/17/11 *jb the consumer stated vehicle pulled to the right. The dealer informed the consumer there were two different typed of tires on the vehicle, which was causing the…

37,500 miles NHTSA complaint 827123 filed 2010-11-22

Tl*the contact owns a 2010 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that she believed that the accelerator pedal and brake pedal were too close together and she depressed them both at the same time. The contact felt that the parking brake release was too high up. The contact sent a letter to the manufacturer who advised her to take the vehicle to an authorized dealer. The failure mileage was 37,500. Updated 01/24/11 *bf the consumer stated on three occasions she accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. Updated evoq 01/27/11 updated 03/22/11 the consumer stated the head rest obstructs the driver's view when backing out of a parking space. Also, when driving down a small incline to enter a small street, the front under carriage of the vehicle scrapped the street. The platform for the foot rest on the driver; side for the left foot caused the consumer to experience foot cramps as her ankle was in a flex position as there was not enough space. Updated 05/17/11 *jb the consumer stated vehicle pulled to the right. The dealer informed the consumer there were two different typed of tires on the vehicle, which was causing the…

37,500 miles NHTSA complaint 827124 filed 2010-11-22

Tl*the contact owns a 2010 chevrolet impala. The contact stated that she believed that the accelerator pedal and brake pedal were too close together and she depressed them both at the same time. The contact felt that the parking brake release was too high up. The contact sent a letter to the manufacturer who advised her to take the vehicle to an authorized dealer. The failure mileage was 37,500. Updated 01/24/11 *bf the consumer stated on three occasions she accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal. Updated evoq 01/27/11 updated 03/22/11 the consumer stated the head rest obstructs the driver's view when backing out of a parking space. Also, when driving down a small incline to enter a small street, the front under carriage of the vehicle scrapped the street. The platform for the foot rest on the driver; side for the left foot caused the consumer to experience foot cramps as her ankle was in a flex position as there was not enough space. Updated 05/17/11 *jb the consumer stated vehicle pulled to the right. The dealer informed the consumer there were two different typed of tires on the vehicle, which was causing the…

37,500 miles NHTSA complaint 827125 filed 2010-11-22

Also reported on the 2010 Chevrolet Impala

Other electrical problem

77 reports median 77k

Other engine problem

71 reports median 77k

Other driver assistance problem

59 reports median 78k

Other powertrain problem

47 reports median 78k

Other speed control problem

36 reports median 65k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 6 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 parking brake failure happen on the 2010 Chevrolet Impala?

Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is parking brake failure on the 2010 Chevrolet Impala?

6 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