Jeep Cherokee 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	Jeep Cherokee	Chevrolet Malibu
Complaints on file	20,992	29,413
Model years covered	1973–2026	1964–2025
Worst model year	2015	2010
Best model year	2006	2022
Crashes reported	997	1,224
Fires reported	443	234
Injuries reported	562	743
Deaths reported	23	38
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	9.6%	7.6%

Jeep Cherokee by year

1 1 1 1 8 24 26 72 118 287 368 297 175 571 618 732 584 496 553 516 508 329 18 3,965 2,662 2,046 1,927 992 2,418 382 214 73 4 5

73 78 80 81 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 06 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 26

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 5,604 26.7%

Engine & Cooling 2,904 13.8%

Electrical System 2,409 11.5%

Brakes 2,197 10.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,775 8.5%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 967 4.6%

Body & Structure 892 4.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 780 3.7%

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%