Unclassified problem on the 2016 Chevrolet Impala
1 crash 3 fires 2 injuries 6 of the 25 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.
Only 15 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.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Chevrolet Impala report unclassified problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 37th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 75,060 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,740 miles | 47,950 miles | 65,000 miles | 79,500 miles | 94,800 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, 1 a crash, 3 a fire and 2 an injury 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 112,500 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 187; the 2016 has 25. 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.
On april 2nd, 2018, I was driving to work around 4:50 a.m. Driving on the 303sb only about 7 minutes into my drive I noticed that my vehicle began to lag and stall out, I began to notice grey smoke coming from the hood and that's when I realized that my car was on fire. While trying to avoid traffic and after almost being hit by oncoming traffic I was finally able to get my vehicle into a safe are on the side of the road and call emergency roadside assistance on provided by my auto insurance usaa. My concern is that the vehicle never provided any type of notification letting me know that the vehicle was severely damaged. If my oil is low my vehicle tells me something, when the tires are low on air, my vehicle tells me. How come when my vehicle caught fire and while it began stalling out I still received no notice? I could have been killed had I got hit by oncoming traffic and the situation may have ended a lot worse. I had my vehicle towed to the nearest repair shop as covered under the usaa roadside assistance endorsement that being chevrolet sands. I received a call from a rep who stated that the vehicle had had pre-existing…
The airbag redyness light stays on most of the time but it dose go off once in awhile for a few minutes. I understand this is extremely common and dates back to 2009 I strongly feel a recall on this issue is in order because potentially millions off people's lives are at risk. From my research dealerships are changing $300-400 to fix this problem the problem shortly returns and that want to charge you again they just say save your receipts in case a recall is issued. I strongly feel gm is fully aware of how common the issue is and apparently the cost of a recall out weighs human life.
Also reported on the 2016 Chevrolet Impala
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Other driver assistance problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 25 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 25 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2016 Chevrolet Impala?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2016 Chevrolet Impala?
25 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