Cruise control failure on the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu
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.
When cruise control failure gets reported
There are 8 reports of cruise control failure on the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu, 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 72,000 miles. It is the 29th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 103,225 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 $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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 174; the 2001 has 8. 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.
Was driving car just pulled off from a red light making a left turn and car started to pull forward then could not steer myself went off road almost into trees then jerked itself left pulling back to road and onto oncoming traffic then stopped was able to drive home slowly w/ hazards on. 2nd incident was driving and car started to pull /jerk forward fast tried to put on brakes and was very difficult to bring car to a stop almost felt like was not going to stop w/all my pressure applying to brakes was still hard to stop car. All 4 incidents were similar in that car kind of took off on it's own and was not controllable as far as steering or braking. This car is in local chevrolet dealership for last few days for them to find/correct this problem our daughter is driving this car and it's not safe right now for her to drive. The dealership can not find the problem. First they thought anti lock brakes had a glitch, or the transmission,but car is not doing this when they take for short drives and they can not pin point this problem. ,but there is most certainly a problem. I do not want my child to get hurt or worse driving this vehicle…
I was traveling at 60 and took my foot off gas to decelerate and car wouldn't go less than 50. Engine RPM's wouldn't go below 2500. I could still stop car with brakes but this appears to be a constant problem and not intermittent like the person reported a few days ago. I checked the throttle linkage because I thought the non functioning cruise control could be affecting engine speed but neither cable kept the flap from bottoming out. *tr
I was traveling at 60 and took my foot off gas to decelerate and car wouldn't go less than 50. Engine RPM's wouldn't go below 2500. I could still stop car with brakes but this appears to be a constant problem and not intermittent like the person reported a few days ago. I checked the throttle linkage because I thought the non functioning cruise control could be affecting engine speed but neither cable kept the flap from bottoming out. *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other electrical problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other engine problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 2001 Chevrolet Malibu?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 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 cruise control failure on the 2001 Chevrolet Malibu?
8 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