Hyundai Elantra 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	Hyundai Elantra	Chevrolet Malibu
Complaints on file	12,108	29,455
Model years covered	1992–2026	1964–2025
Worst model year	2013	2010
Best model year	1993	2022
Crashes reported	1,289	1,225
Fires reported	306	234
Injuries reported	756	743
Deaths reported	14	38
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	19.5%	7.6%

Hyundai Elantra by year

46 39 110 179 138 196 75 183 259 445 431 310 209 180 209 365 424 321 504 589 920 1,864 552 356 398 1,078 406 333 342 215 143 159 94 34 2

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 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,969 16.3%

Airbags 1,365 11.3%

Steering 1,147 9.5%

Electrical System 1,093 9.0%

Brakes 1,082 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 826 6.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 680 5.6%

Suspension 618 5.1%

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 2,205 1,529 1,473 1,383 564 402 1,446 1,179 1,217 309 336 134 157 106 62 16

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 5,717 19.4%

Electrical System 4,822 16.4%

Engine & Cooling 3,167 10.8%

Brakes 2,828 9.6%

Lights 2,060 7.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,687 5.7%

Stability & Traction Control 1,330 4.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,297 4.4%