2021 Grand Design Imagine: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2021 Grand Design Imagine
On the 2021 Grand Design Imagine, the failure owners report most often is other body or interior problem, with 8 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 10,000 miles. Overall it scores 67 out of 100, high risk for a 2021.
High risk for a 2021 — 194th riskiest of the 231 2021 vehicles we can rate. 24 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
What owners report breaking
Owners have reported 6 named failure modes on the 2021 Grand Design Imagine, and the three most-reported carry 63% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Other body or interior problem leads with 8 reports and about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles.
Other suspension problem follows with 4 reports.
Tire blowout or tread separation follows with 3 reports, median 10,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into body (8), wheels (5) and suspension (4).
When these failures get reported
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 3 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
What happens when these parts fail
Across the named modes, 1 a fire. 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 3.21, 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 body or interior problem at $200–$2,000, other suspension problem at $350–$2,000, tire blowout or tread separation at $200–$1,500 and other wheel or tire problem at $200–$1,500. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
4% 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
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other body or interior problem | body | 8 | 1 | — | 50k | — | 0.8 | $200–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other suspension problem | suspension | 4 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.4 | $350–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Tire blowout or tread separation | wheels | 3 | 1 | — | 9k | — | 0.3 | $200–$1,500 | Critical |
| Other wheel or tire problem | wheels | 2 | 1 | — | 7k | — | 0.2 | $200–$1,500 | High |
| Other powertrain problem | transmission | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $400–$4,500 | High |
| Other fuel system problem | fuel | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $300–$2,200 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 5 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.5 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. 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 2021 Grand Design Imagine draws about 2.4 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 79th percentile of complaint rates among 2021 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 10,072 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2021 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
Recalls on the 2021 model year
NHTSA has issued 3 recall campaigns covering the 2021 Grand Design Imagine, affecting an estimated 13,209 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover structure:interior panels:door, power train:axle assembly and equipment:recreational vehicle/trailer:lpg systems. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
One caution about reading these together: a recall usually raises the complaint count for the same part, because owners who read about it go and file. The mileages stay informative; the counts get noisy.
STRUCTURE:INTERIOR PANELS:DOOR
20,144 vehicles 2022-01-28- Defect
- Grand Design RV, LLC (Grand Design) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Imagine travel trailers. The cast aluminum pull handles on the cabinet doors and drawers may have sharp edges.
- Consequence
- Sharp handles could scrape or cut an occupant, increasing their risk of injury.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the handles, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 14, 2022. Owners may contact Grand Design customer service at 1-574-825-9679. Grand Design's number for this recall is 910027.
POWER TRAIN:AXLE ASSEMBLY
54 vehicles 2021-08-13- Defect
- Grand Design RV, LLC (Grand Design) is recalling certain 2021 Imagine recreational trailers equipped with Dexter D30 axles. The axles may have been assembled with incorrect inner bearings.
- Consequence
- Incorrect inner bearings can cause the wheels to lock up or reduce stopping ability, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers will inspect the axles for incorrect bearings and replace the bearings as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 24, 2021. Owners may contact Grand Design customer service at 1-574-825-9679. Grand Design's number for this recall is 910024.
EQUIPMENT:RECREATIONAL VEHICLE/TRAILER:LPG SYSTEMS
55,508 vehicles 2021-05-26- Defect
- Grand Design RV, LLC (Grand Design) is recalling certain 2016-2021 Imagine, Transcend, and Momentum travel trailers. The LP regulator that controls the LP gas pressure may fail, allowing excessive gas pressure that causes the appliance flame to increase.
- Consequence
- Excessive gas pressure and a larger than intended appliance flame can increase the risk of a fire.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the LP regulator, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed June 24, 2021. Owners may contact Grand Design customer service at 1-574-825-9679. Grand Design's number for this recall is 910023.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 2021 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.
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
Better and worse years of the same car
High risk for a 2021 — 194th riskiest of the 231 2021 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 3 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2021 comes out best at 67 and 2022 worst at 72, with 2021 itself at 67.
No other year of this model scores meaningfully better than 2021, so if this generation is what you want, the year is not the lever.
Within the 2020–2024 generation specifically, 2021 is the strongest year at 67 and 2022 the weakest at 72.
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.
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 2020-2024 generation, 2021 Grand Design Imagine scores best at 67 and 2022 Grand Design Imagine worst at 72.
The limits of complaint data
24 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. 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 24 reports, 3 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 13% 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".
The failure modes are assigned by software reading the owner's own words, which is accurate in bulk and wrong in individual cases. A mode with a handful of reports may contain a misfiled one.
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 2021 Grand Design Imagine?
The most-reported failures are other body or interior problem (8 reports, median 50,000 miles), other suspension problem (4 reports) and tire blowout or tread separation (3 reports, median 10,000 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 2021 Grand Design Imagine reliable?
It scores 67 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 194th riskiest of the 231 2021 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2021 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 Grand Design Imagine is best?
Within the 2020–2024 generation, 2021 scores best at 67 out of 100 and 2022 worst at 72. 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 Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed