Complaint volume
207 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
2020 Chevrolet Traverse Complaints
207 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2020 Chevrolet Traverse, grouped by component category.
207 Total complaints
11 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
5 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 engine, unknown or other, engine and engine cooling. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 11 crash reports, 1 fire report, 5 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 47 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 49,726 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to engine, unknown or other, engine and engine cooling?
- 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 2020 Chevrolet Traverse?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2020 Chevrolet Traverse
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2020 Chevrolet Traverse complaints?
11 Crash
1 Fire
5 Injury
0 Fatality
12 Towed
5 Medical attention
What are the most common 2020 Chevrolet Traverse complaint categories?
ENGINE 37
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 24
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 21
POWER TRAIN 20
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 11
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 6
SEAT BELTS 5
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 5
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 4
SERVICE BRAKES 4
207 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2025 | ENGINE | Car started making a “pinging” noise and gradually got worse over time. Finally today, it’s really bad so I crawl under and look to notice not one but TWO holes in the exhaust pipe. I noticed several recalls on other models with the same issue but not this year. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | POWER TRAIN | The Transmission went out at 128k miles, a BRAND NEW GM transmission was replaced at a cost of $6,800 to me as it was not under warranty. Less than 2 months and 2k miles later, the new transmission went out. I just got my car back yesterday with yet another GM transmission and once again it is jerking, so I’m sure another faulty transmission from General Motors | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | ENGINE | The exahust leaks and has noise just like all the other Traverse that have the recall, this also needs the same recall | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | ENGINE | Vehicle developed a large hole in the exhaust pipe going to front converter. Identical failure which is noted in an April 30,2023 bulletin which specifically narrowed defects down to the 2019 Chevy Traverse. ( Special Coverage# N212356540). Dealership did repair defective exhaust section although my warranty coverage refused to cover defect. Significant safety hazard to state the least anytime a section of any exhaust component begins to deteriorate and come apart on welded sections of pipe. My vehicle has approximately 59000 miles of use and I simply cannot understand why GM refuses to reimburse my out of pocket costs related to this defect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | ENGINE | A few weeks ago, I started noticing a purring, kind of sound coming from my vehicle when I would turn it on. I took it in to Chevy and they said there was a leak or a hole in the exhaust that they needed to be replaced for over $1600 and that wasn’t covered through warranty that it was normal wear and tear. My vehicle has 53,000 miles. They said that it’s common for a vehicle of over five years to have these kinds of issues. And that it wasn’t covered through my warranty. Which expires in April | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power in the middle of the roadway. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the starter. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 105,000. The VIN was not available. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 105,000 |
| Feb 2025 | STEERING,POWER TRAIN | The car displayed a message on the board advising the following: "Steering assist is reduced, drive with care" right after the message popped out my steering wheel locked and I couldn't turn, and move the car to a safe place was very hard, almost had a crash. I was able to park, and turned the engine off. When turned back on the message disappeared and turned on again. Next day, no message, the car was running fine and after 8 miles of drive did the same and it required towing. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | POWER TRAIN | See GMBulletin #19-NA-206 I am getting the "shift to park" warning which makes it difficult to turn off/safely park my vehicle. I know the NHTSA is aware of this as well as numerous lawsuits in progress against GM for significant safety issues. Will this go to recall status soon? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | Noise from under hood, took vehicle to dealer. Dealers inspection identified cracked exhaust PIPES before catalytic converter. Exhaust fumes get into car cabin causing health concerns not to mention a life threatening situation for the occupants. Vehicle was under 70k miles. Seems to be an emission issue/faulty workmanship with failure in QC in weld inspection causing harm to owners | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | POWER TRAIN,SEAT BELTS | 1 year after buying my car two of my seat belts stop working one was the back driver side the clip doesn't stay in sometimes and then the middle seat and middle belt got stick in the seat and I wasn't able to pull it out to use it. I bought my car in Dec of 2020 and in October of 2024 my whole transmission went out which I never had any problems before not even a warning sign, I took it to a mechanic since it was only driving in first gear and they said it might be from the inside of the transmission when it was made they solenoids are bad. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ENGINE | Front Flex pipe broken after failed weld. Issue is known by GM/Chevorlet and has been corrected on all years Except for the 2020 model year. Not sure why 2020 models were left out because they have the same condition. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | The vehicle start stop feature is malfunctioning (I have a video) .When stopping or coming to a stop after driving through the city, at random times sometimes back to back when being stopped it goes down to 1 rpm then the auto stop feature kicks on and when it's time to depress the break to move again it malfunctions then sounds like a circular saw slicing through metal. At times you have put car in park hit engine ignition button to make it stop then wait a few seconds then start it back up. There's also a smell of strong fuel vapors coming in through the vents including defrost. Navigation stopped working ( turn by turn ) feature, also sounds as if the front end is knocking around going over speed bumps, the front right wheel has an odd rub sound that increases when accelerating. The gas also with a full tank depletes nearly within a day, and ait being a V6 should not guzzle $50 in fuel of 87 grade petrol. This thing is a rolling safety hazard. I have a wife and 6 children I transport daily. If something happens and we are injured I will sue your entire company General Motors. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My backup camera only works about 3% of the time. If the temp are too cold or too hot then the screen goes black with a red triangle. Frequently, this occurs when I'm in the process of backing up and I lose all visibility. I almost struck a pedestrian this morning. I've already had the cable repaired at the dealership once but it immediately began not working about 2 weeks later. I had taken it back to the dealership but they were unable to repair because the representative could not reproduce the error when he attempted to back up. I have videos of what is occurring. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | SUSPENSION,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Purchased the 2020 traverse on [XXX] from Basswood in Ft. Payne Alabama. Under the guise of the salesman I was assured that the vehicle was in great shape, with no issues at all, and a very clean Carfax. Well I'm new to purchasing a car via financing with a co-signer in which he was assured the vehicle was in great shape. Well unbeknownst to us my household the car was nothing of the sort. Within a few days the Start/Stop malfunctioned to the point it would not restart 98% of the time without sounding like a Demo Saw, it's a dangerous problem and there's times we smelled fuel once we were able to restart the vehicle. The front right wheel assembly looks as if it were on fire and if that's brake dust and it has a grinding whomp whomp sound when in motion,that's really not good no wonder it's hard to stop at times. The front end sounds like drums when going over bumps, speed bumps, road imperfections etc.. on morning start-up there's an absurd amount of exhaust coming into the cabin area, the codes [P3055 and P3056] are registered from the computer of vehicle. Now the smell of fuel is blowing through all vents whenever the defrost is running or all vents are used front and rear, with the truck in motion. It was so bad today that my entire family had to pull over to a gas station and get fresh air our eyes were burning and my [XXX] son nose started to bleed., so that's two parents and 6 children scrambling for safety. This is our only reliable vehicle other than an old 99 suburban that is hardly even road worthy anymore. I spoke with several people that have purchased vehicles and all agreed that the salesman and mostly the sales managers knew that the vehicle came from an auction and was never serviced nor inspected at the basswood dealership, which equates to them actively concealing major effects and problems with the vehicle in question. Just to make a one time commission on a fraudulent deal! They didn't provide any inspection papers to me! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | POWER TRAIN | The flywheel teeth broke off and became jammed in the starter, which apparently caused a short to the fuse block. The dealership hasn’t commented on exactly what the root cause was though for why that may have happened. I don’t have the original part(s) but the dealer might. I was in the car at the time with my entire family. We were in the middle of driving everyone home from school. The power to the car stayed on but the engine completely died. Given we don’t know what happened with I’m terrified the starter may have tried to engage while driving which would have broken the teeth off. The problem was confirmed by the dealer only in the sense that the parts were broken, but they don’t have root cause. The vehicle was never inspected by insurance as it still fell under the 100k mile certified pre owned warranty. No warning prior to the incident but after there was one brief message that came up saying we needed to check engine system. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | The exhaust bracket on the front broke, and caused my catalytic converter to crack and have an exhaust leak. I’ve talked to different exhaust places and said it is common in the 2020 traverses. The car is running rough. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Failed catalytic converter. I have had this part repaired multiple times and there is still a leaking issue. I have receipts from both auto repair shops and the dealership showing that this is an ongoing issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | I was driving to work at 0530 on 11/10/24. I was on the highway driving the speed limit. A light came on that read "service ESC". Within 2 minutes of this light coming on, I heard a loud noise and the tail end of my car started to spin out. My power steering went out, my brakes did not work and I hit the guard rail very hard. The "electronic stability control" system in my car, turned off on me with only a minute warning, and almost killed me. My car was totaled and deemed a complete loss. Any advice would be appreciated. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact stated while starting the vehicle, there was a loud rattling sound coming from the rear end of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the exhaust pipe had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and was diagnosed that the exhaust bracket needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the mechanic where the mechanic confirmed that the vehicle was associated with N212356540 (Front Exhaust Pipe) and referred the contact to the dealer for further assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made of the failure and a case was opened. The contact was referred to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The approximate failure mileage was 112,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 112,000 |
| Nov 2024 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Vehicle would not start. Towed to repair shop. 350A fuse blown that controls ignition system. Pulled starter to inspect for damage. Transmission Flex Plate had 7 broken teeth with a tooth being lodged in the starter housing. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle, there was a loud vibration coming from the vehicle. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was related to Special Coverage Adjustment: N212356540 (Front Exhaust Pipe). The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, who diagnosed the failure as a fractured bracket on the muffler. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer confirmed there were no open recalls on the VIN. The failure mileage was approximately 95,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 95,000 |
| Nov 2024 | POWER TRAIN | The transmission on my 2020 Chevrolet Traverse has experienced severe shuddering problems when shifting gears. The vehicle is not old and the integrity of the safety of the vehicle puts myself and my family at risk whenever driving it now. The dealer quotes approximately $8,000 for a fix and a similar search online sees other customers with the same issues. Chevrolet should recall the affected vehicles and not force the consumer to pay out of pocket for the repairs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | My 2020 traverse has the exact same issue as the 2019, and 2022 models, both of which have active recalls. I contacted Chevy and their response to me was that there was no recall on my model. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact stated that the "Shift to Park" message was displayed on the instrument panel while attempting to park the vehicle. The contact also stated that the ESC (Electronic Stability Control) warning light was displayed while at a complete stop, and an audible chime was heard during the failure. In addition, the START/STOP function failed after removing the foot from the brake pedal while at a stop light. The vehicle shut off without warning as the contact attempted to depress the accelerator pedal. The contact stated that a motorist assisted with pushing the vehicle to the side of the road. The contact called for Roadside Assistance and a Police Officer assisted with jumpstarting the vehicle. The Police Officer then escorted the contact to a nearby gas station where the contact purchased a new battery. Initially after the battery replacement, the contact experienced no failures with the vehicle; however, the shift to park failure had recently returned. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 135,000 |
| Nov 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | I took my vehicle to the shop for noise while driving. It was diagnosed as a cracked flex pipe. Upon research, the 2019 and 2021 models had recalls for the same issue, but not 2020. I did find a bulletin from gm including all models of traverse stating the cause could be a faulty weld. My vehicle looks the exact same as the bulletin. This is a safety issue as a hole in the exhaust can cause exhaust to backflow into the cabin. I'm very lucky and thankful me and my kids have not yet been medically affected. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |