Complaint volume
186 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2019 Chevrolet Malibu Complaints
186 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Chevrolet Malibu, grouped by component category.
186 Total complaints
8 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
4 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are power train, electrical system, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 8 crash reports, 1 fire report, 4 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 56 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 45,501 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to power train, electrical system, unknown or other?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2019 Chevrolet Malibu?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2019 Chevrolet Malibu
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2019 Chevrolet Malibu complaints?
8 Crash
1 Fire
4 Injury
0 Fatality
9 Towed
3 Medical attention
What are the most common 2019 Chevrolet Malibu complaint categories?
POWER TRAIN 38
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 23
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 17
ENGINE 14
SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE 8
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 6
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 5
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 5
ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 4
POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE 4
186 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The Apple CarPlay system, specifically the GPS/navigation function, froze and malfunctioned. This occurred in two separate vehicles I’ve owned: a 2019 Chevy Malibu and now a 2019 Chevy Equinox (the vehicle involved in the accident). Both cars frequently experienced lagging and freezing while using Apple CarPlay. The infotainment system and vehicle are available for inspection. On June 28, 2025, while driving at night with GPS active via CarPlay, the system froze and gave me an incorrect instruction — telling me to turn left onto a one-way street in the wrong direction. I did not realize I was going the wrong way until reaching the intersection, and by that point, I was involved in a head-on car accident. This presented a significant danger to me and others on the road. The issue has not been officially reproduced or confirmed by a service center, but it occurred consistently in two different GM vehicles. I have text message documentation sent to my family over the months before the accident describing the freezing and lagging of CarPlay. The accident and vehicle were reviewed by insurance representatives, but no inspection was done specifically on the infotainment/GPS system by the manufacturer. There were no warning lamps or dashboard messages. However, the symptom was consistent lagging and freezing of the CarPlay interface, which had been happening for months prior. There were no official error codes displayed before the crash. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 3 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Jul 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | GM has issued a known defect for the 2019 Chevrolet Malibu. My VIN is not on the recall list for the Shift to Park issue. The Chevy dealer will not fix the defect for free. I would like to add my VIN to the recall list. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My vehicle will not sense that it is in park when it is in park and therefore will not allow me to shut off the vehicle. This is become a problem multiple times and does it consistently enough that it could be a danger. What if I needed to exit the vehicle quickly and it will not allow me to. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | When car is shifted into park the info system reads “Shift to Park” and the car continues to ding. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2025 | ENGINE | The part in the linked article which was recalled, was never replaced. [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2025 | POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated while driving or while the vehicle was parked, the gear shifter failed to shift into drive. The contact had to shift into neutral, depress the accelerator pedal, and the vehicle responded as intended. The check engine warning light illuminated for 45 minutes and then stopped being illuminated. A dealer was contacted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed and determined that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified on the failure but offered no assistance. The contact was referred by the manufacturer to report the failure to the NHTSA Hotline. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 100,000 |
| Jun 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE | The vacuum pump has a tendency of breaking and when it does it affects the exhaust camshaft making the car completely inoperable. When this happened my vehicle lost all brakes and power and would not start. This happened suddenly with no warning and left me stranded in the middle of lanes of travel. This is a well known issue with the Chevy 1.5 L and is documented in the TSB Bulletin #21-NA-268. The vehicle was inspected following the TSB number provided and diagnosing via the information provided. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My car constantly gives a warning of shift to park even when the car is in the park position. The will constantly give the alarm. I move the shifter from drive to park several times before it stops. I have replaced the battery due it being drained by this faulty shifter. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | This model of 2019 Malibu, does not have the function to shut off the auto start/stop feature. I have had the car for a few years and in the past year this feature has begun to malfunction multiple times at random. When in drive and approaching a stop sign or red light the Malibu will engage in the auto stop feature. There have been occurrences when after this is engaged and I lift my foot to continue to drive that the vehicle will not restart and be completely shut off. The dash will tell me to “shift to park” as if believing that I am in drive but that I shut off the vehicle. I will have to shift the vehicle to park and then push the on/off button to restart the vehicle several times. It has taken upwards of a whole light change cycle for it to be restarted. It is exceptionally dangerous as I am often in a busy intersection light with my vehicle unable to go. There is no obvious trigger and it occurs at random intervals. There is no option to turn off the auto start/stop feature and it is the only thing that causes it to occur. No warning lights or indicator has occurred. I have taken the vehicle twice to the dealership as well as another mechanic and they were unable to diagnose any problem or replicate the issue. Since it occurs at such unpredictable times they were not able to identify anything, however I do have a video taken of it occurring to me. The dealership said that GM has not seen anything like this, yet I have read about other similar issues online with this model. Safety is extremely at risk for myself and others as the car is essentially turning itself off while I’m in the middle of a drive and takes several moments to be able to drive again. This has occurred about 10 times since it begun and seems to be more frequent. I’ve replaced the battery and reset the BCM as two cautionary measures and neither has resolved the issue. I have a video of it as well but I can not attach to this form. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2025 | POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that on several occasions while shifting into park(P), the message “Shift to Park” displayed on the instrument panel. The driver was forced to shift the gear shifter several times before the vehicle recognized that park(P) had been selected. The dealer was notified of the failure and the contact was provided an estimate for a diagnostic test. The contact stated that the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that there were no recalls associated with the VIN. The manufacturer then referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50,000 |
| Jun 2025 | ENGINE,FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that on two occasions while driving 35 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power. There were no warning lights illuminated; however, the contact determined that the failure was due to the throttle body. The vehicle was repaired. The local dealer was not contacted but had not diagnosed or repaired the vehicle. The manufacturer was contacted, and informed the contact that the VIN was not under recall. The failure mileage was approximately 96,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 96,000 |
| Jun 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE | Brakes got hard and reduced engine power came on and now won't crank went to the dealership and then they charge me 389 for a battery and it still didn't work they say it need a new motor | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE | Vehicle was being driven at 60 mph on the highway when the brakes weren't responding as I was entering a sharp curve. Had to stand on the brakes and manually lower the gears to keep from hitting a tree head-on. Check engine light was on. P0014, P0017, and P0556 codes were pulled before having it towed to the first mechanic. Car wouldn't start after it was parked after the initial incident. The first mechanic was unable to diagnose so the vehicle was towed to the Chevrolet Dealership. They say the brake vacuum pump malfunctioned and caused permanent damage to the engine rendering the car inoperable and I will have to have a new engine installed. The car drove fine prior to the vacuum pump failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Not in park warning when shifter is placed in park. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | The clutch solenoid started failing without warning or notice. This was finally confirmed by a transmission shop after a warning lamp related to the issue finally popped up after months of issues. My safety was put at risk due to the sudden and intermittent failure to shift into drive. This would sometimes lead to the engine stuttering then shutting off while still in drive. Attempts for dealers and private shops to nail down the issue were unsuccessful due to the system not reporting or recording any information related to this failure to shift. Again the danger came intermittently and suddenly when, shifting from park to drive, shifting from park - reverse - then drive. It would cause my vehicle to “stall out” in an active lane of traffic. This issue occurs from probably 60,000 - 90,000 miles when the system finally threw P0700 and P2714 codes to point to the issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | The contact owns a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu. While the contact's wife was driving at an undisclosed speed, the brake pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to stop as intended. No warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the brake pedal was depressed to the floorboard however, the vehicle failed to stop. The contact stated that the failure caused the vehicle to crash into a nearby ditch. In addition, the contact stated that the failure caused severe damage to the vehicle, and the vehicle was undrivable. The contact used a code reader to diagnose the vehicle a retrieved a code for a brake booster back-up pump failure. The dealer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but provided no assistance. The contact referenced an unknown recall repair however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The failure mileage was approximately 63,455. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | 63,455 |
| Apr 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | My vehicle has been having issues for the past 2-3 years with its engine acceleration, the bcm and ecm are faulty and or my fuses continue to fail, my check engine comes on with a service esc, power steering depleted, shift to park, and a service security system warning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | POWER TRAIN | so when im driving my chevy every thing is all fine and about like 30 minutes of driving the trash cvt won’t accelerate from a complete stop. I have two mass of gas pedal all the way down and the car will hit 4000 RPMs till it accelerate and that’s very dangerous. It happens all the time especially when it’s hot outside when a car has a stop sign or at a red light and I’m getting ready to takeoff. The car won’t even take off now. I’m going 5 mph pass in intersection is very dangerous and especially go on the highways. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | POWER TRAIN | My car keeps showing the “shift to park” code when I try to turn off my car even though it’s already in park. I have to wiggle the shifter and turn the car repeatedly on and off to try to get it to stop. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Shift to park sensor does not recognize the vehicle is in park. I am unable to shut off or lock my vehicle. Ongoing prior to ownership. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | My 2019 Chevy Malibu had a problem where the gear shifter failed to properly register that it's in the "park" position, even when I moved the lever there, resulting in a message on the dashboard saying "shift to park" having me afraid to leave the vehicle and having to restart the vehicle and move the shifter to different gears then trying again even driving a few feet to see if that would help finally after a several tries i was able to park vehicle. I scheduled a appointment with Lasorsa GM service for 2 /18/ 25 this was my second incident the prior one resolved after two tries but was also unnerving | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | The car consistently says shift to park even after being placed in the park position. The car won't cut off. This has been an ongoing issue for around 1 month. I read online that this is common in Chevy. There should be a recall | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | This is by far the worst car purchase I've ever made. I've had this car for 4 years now and ever since I purchased it, it has given me problems. The car shut down completely at the stop sign or stop light, even when pulling out of the parking spot. Battery replaced, fuel line/pump/gasket replaced, wire fixed, oils and fluids stay up to date, transmission fluid changed, and not one mechanic, not even GM can tell me what the problem is because they don't even know. No codes appear and diagnostics come back fine and clear. Every mechanic has fixed something they've thought could be causing the problem yet the problem still exists. This is a headache to deal with and dangerous for my family and me. This has been the worst experience ever experienced with any vehicle i have owned. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | My wife drove the car into the church parking lot and placed the shifter in park. Turned off the engine and the Display stated "place the car in Park." She restarted the car backed up and pulled back into the space, shut off the engine and it did the same thing again,. She got out and attempted to lock the car with the FOB and it stated place in Park, and Key fob in car. It wasn't , and she had started walking into the church with the audible alert beep and headlights behind her. I went out started the car shifted it into park and it did the same thing. I backed up a little bit engaged drive and slowly moved the shifter to park and it worked that time. Will take it to our certified mechanic tomorrow. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Purchased this vehicle (2019 Chevy Malibu) in September 2024. Put the vehicle in park and the display keeps saying "shift to park" when it's already in park. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |