Model year report

2017 Chevrolet Impala: what breaks, and at what mileage

What breaks on the 2017 Chevrolet Impala

On the 2017 Chevrolet Impala, the failure owners report most often is other electrical problem, with 9 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 42,500 miles. Overall it scores 61 out of 100, high risk for a 2017.

High risk for a 2017 — 257th riskiest of the 263 2017 vehicles we can rate. 138 owner reports; fleet size borrowed from other years of the same model.

What breaks on the 2017 Chevrolet Impala

Owners have reported 38 named failure modes on the 2017 Chevrolet Impala, and the three most-reported carry 17% of everything filed, which is an unusually even spread for one model year.

Other electrical problem leads with 9 reports and about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles.

Other engine problem follows with 8 reports, median 50,000 miles.

Air conditioning failure follows with 6 reports, median 50,000 miles.

By system, the reports fall mostly into electrical (11), engine (11) and fuel (10).

When these failures get reported

89 of the reports on the 2017 Chevrolet Impala came with an odometer reading, and half of those were filed before 42,500 miles.

Cumulatively, 63% by 50,000 miles, 92% by 100,000 miles and 97% by 150,000 miles of the dated reports had been filed, with 1 filed above the top of the chart.

The busiest stretch is between 0 and 10,000 miles, which alone holds 21% of the dated reports.

38% of the dated reports were filed below 36,000 miles, which is early enough that a fair number of these cars were still under a factory warranty when the owner complained.

Median

Other electrical problem

56k
Other engine problem

49k
Air conditioning failure

48k
Other steering problem

28k
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure

46k
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault

51k
Catalytic converter failure

115k
Other brake problem

24k
Other lighting problem

50
Other powertrain problem

63k
Other body or interior problem

61k
Complete transmission failure

164k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

Showing the 12 most-reported failure modes of 38. The full list is in the table below.

How reports accumulate

Share of reports filed by each mileage

half by 42.9k

Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A further 1 report came in above that, which is why the line stops short of the top. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.

Line share of reports filed by that mileage
Dashed the median reported mileage

Severity, and what it costs

Across the named modes, 3 mention a crash and 5 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.

The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.72, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.

What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: other electrical problem at $250–$2,000, other engine problem at $300–$4,000, air conditioning failure at $400–$2,800 and other steering problem at $350–$2,400. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.

14% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.

Every reported failure mode

Mileage figures are percentiles of owner-reported readings. Click a column to sort.
Failure mode	System	Reports	With reading	25th	Median	75th	Per 1,000	Typical repair	Severity
Other electrical problem	electrical	9	4	—	56k	—	0.1	$250–$2,000	Moderate
Other engine problem	engine	8	7	—	49k	—	0.1	$300–$4,000	High
Air conditioning failure	hvac	6	4	—	48k	—	0.1	$400–$2,800	Moderate
Other steering problem	steering	6	4	—	28k	—	0.1	$350–$2,400	High
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure	fuel	5	4	—	46k	—	0.1	$250–$1,800	Moderate
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault	airbag	5	5	—	51k	—	0.1	$300–$1,600	High
Catalytic converter failure	emissions	5	2	—	115k	—	0.1	$900–$3,500	Moderate
Other brake problem	brakes	5	5	—	24k	—	0.1	$300–$1,800	High
Other lighting problem	lighting	5	3	—	50	—	0.1	$120–$1,200	Moderate
Other powertrain problem	transmission	4	2	—	63k	—	0.1	$400–$4,500	High
Other body or interior problem	body	4	3	—	61k	—	0.1	$200–$2,000	Moderate
Complete transmission failure	transmission	3	1	—	164k	—	0.0	$2,800–$8,000	Critical
Fuel pump failure	fuel	3	3	—	1k	—	0.0	$600–$2,600	High
Infotainment screen failure	infotainment	3	2	—	36k	—	0.0	$400–$2,600	Low
Headlight failure or clouding	lighting	3	3	—	120	—	0.0	$150–$1,800	Moderate
Misfire or rough idle	engine	2	1	—	44k	—	0.0	$250–$1,600	Moderate
Overheating	cooling	2	1	—	151k	—	0.0	$400–$3,500	High
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure	electrical	2	0	—	—	—	0.0	$700–$3,000	High
Backup camera failure	infotainment	2	2	—	60k	—	0.0	$250–$1,200	Moderate
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash	airbag	2	2	—	37k	—	0.0	$1,000–$5,000	Critical
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure	steering	2	0	—	—	—	0.0	$700–$2,600	High
Tire pressure monitor failure	wheels	2	2	—	38k	—	0.0	$80–$600	Low
Sunroof failure or glass breakage	body	2	1	—	4k	—	0.0	$700–$4,500	High
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin	emissions	2	0	—	—	—	0.0	$250–$2,000	High
Other wheel or tire problem	wheels	2	2	—	8k	—	0.0	$200–$1,500	High
No-start or intermittent start failure	engine	1	1	—	20k	—	0.0	$200–$1,800	Moderate
Fuel leak or fuel odor	fuel	1	0	—	—	—	0.0	$300–$2,500	Critical
Airbag inflator rupture	airbag	1	1	—	47k	—	0.0	$0–$0	Critical
Seat belt or retractor failure	airbag	1	1	—	30k	—	0.0	$200–$900	High
Cruise control failure	adas	1	1	—	10k	—	0.0	$200–$1,400	High
Loss of power steering	steering	1	1	—	40k	—	0.0	$600–$2,800	Critical
Wheel, stud or lug nut failure	wheels	1	1	—	8k	—	0.0	$150–$1,500	Critical
Tail light, brake light or signal failure	lighting	1	1	—	43k	—	0.0	$100–$900	Moderate
Other fuel system problem	fuel	1	0	—	—	—	0.0	$300–$2,200	High
Other suspension problem	suspension	1	0	—	—	—	0.0	$350–$2,000	Moderate
Other driver assistance problem	adas	1	1	—	101k	—	0.0	$250–$1,800	High
Other speed control problem	adas	1	1	—	46k	—	0.0	$250–$2,000	Critical
Other visibility problem	glass	1	1	—	54k	—	0.0	$150–$1,400	Moderate
Unclassified problem	other	31	16	34k	59k	67k	0.4	—	Moderate

This year had no usable recall paperwork, so the fleet-size estimate is the median of other years of the same model. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.

How often, against how many were built

Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2017 Chevrolet Impala draws about 2.0 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 77th percentile of complaint rates among 2017 vehicles we can rate.

That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. This year had no usable recall paperwork, so the fleet-size estimate is the median of other years of the same model.

The working figure is 69,816 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2017 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.

What owners wrote

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

How it ranks in the 2017 field

The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.

Risk score against the rest of the 2017 field

Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.

Left fewer and less serious reports
Right more, or worse
Marker this vehicle

Where 2017 sits in the model line

High risk for a 2017 — 257th riskiest of the 263 2017 vehicles we can rate. Every score on this site is a rank inside its own model year, which is what makes a 2004 and a 2019 comparable at all.

Across the 22 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2020 comes out best at 56 and 2009 worst at 71, with 2017 itself at 61.

If the model year is negotiable, 2020 scores lower than 2017 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.

Within the 2014–2017 generation specifically, 2017 is the strongest year at 61 and 2014 the weakest at 70.

Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.

Risk score by model year, out of 100

Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.

Within the 2014-2017 generation, 2017 Chevrolet Impala scores best at 61 and 2014 Chevrolet Impala worst at 70.

The limits of complaint data

138 owner reports; fleet size borrowed from other years of the same model. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.

Of those 138 reports, 89 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 64% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".

Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.

And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.

Questions this page answers

What are the most common problems with the 2017 Chevrolet Impala?

The most-reported failures are other electrical problem (9 reports, median 55,000 miles), other engine problem (8 reports, median 50,000 miles) and air conditioning failure (6 reports, median 50,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.

Is the 2017 Chevrolet Impala reliable?

It scores 61 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 257th riskiest of the 263 2017 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2017 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.

Which year of the Chevrolet Impala is best?

Within the 2014–2017 generation, 2017 scores best at 61 out of 100 and 2014 worst at 70. Same body, same engines, different luck.

Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.

What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt 30 August 2026 Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed