Dodge Caravan vs Chevrolet Malibu

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Dodge Caravan	Chevrolet Malibu
Complaints on file	14,200	29,413
Model years covered	1984–2017	1964–2025
Worst model year	1997	2010
Best model year	2014	2022
Crashes reported	914	1,224
Fires reported	335	234
Injuries reported	652	743
Deaths reported	35	38
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	13.6%	7.6%

Dodge Caravan by year

26 85 55 83 135 236 341 773 1,126 1,229 836 656 2,178 1,028 840 745 613 341 326 252 83 691 231 115 421 175 257 112 116 34 27 29 2 3

84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Brakes 1,819 12.8%

Engine & Cooling 1,502 10.6%

Electrical System 1,470 10.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,467 10.3%

Airbags 1,269 8.9%

Body & Structure 816 5.7%

Steering 762 5.4%

Seat Belts 695 4.9%

Chevrolet Malibu by year

1 1 2 2 4 6 3 3 1 1 3 693 1,480 1,227 1,379 1,005 755 773 1,639 1,386 1,475 1,253 1,489 2,356 2,204 1,526 1,472 1,383 563 399 1,443 1,174 1,215 307 332 132 149 103 59 15

64 74 75 78 79 80 81 82 83 86 89 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Steering 5,713 19.4%

Electrical System 4,816 16.4%

Engine & Cooling 3,161 10.7%

Brakes 2,824 9.6%

Lights 2,060 7.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,682 5.7%

Stability & Traction Control 1,330 4.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,290 4.4%