This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
When trying to accelerate from a low speed, maybe 20 mph or less, the transmission often does not deliver any power to the drive wheels (the motor revs up but the vehicle does not accelerate). Also, when climbing a hill at normal road speeds the transmission often does not down shift, to the point where the motor almost stalls, and the few times that it does down shift there is an explosive increase in engine rpms resulting in an almost uncontrollable burst of vehicle speed. Chevrolet says this is the way it's designed to work. If it is, it's the first vehicle I've seen, or even heard about, that does these dangerous things.
Vehicle stalls. When navigating a corner transmission looses its gear and acts like it doesn't know what to do and bangs and stalls. Also trans acts confused stop and go situations(city) and bangs when it remembers. Also does this when coasting on highway and accelerating again. It may jump down several gears and take off. Vehicle also has stalled several times at red lights and has a rough idle most of the time like it wants to stall. Been in shop numerous times for same thing and advised Chevy but they cant figure it out and it is still doing it. Also looked online for possible answers and there are a lot of these same problems reported with no answers.
Chevy 2016 Colorado Z71 V6 with a 6 speed automatic: The transmission does not shift under light acceleration or when under load going up a hill. The truck hesitates seems to miss and doesn't know what to do to get it so accelerate! it also has this issue when lifting my foot on the gas when rolling through a corner and then hitting the accelerator. Then I have to push the accelerator hard to make the transmission up shift 2 gears to make the truck accelerate! this is frustrating and dangerous as it could cause being hit from behind when the truck does not accelerate as it should. I took my truck back to the dealership three times and they said 'there are no codes, there seems to be nothing wrong the computer doesn't know whether to stay in that gear or up shift 1 gear or 2. all you have to do is to push down harder on the accelerator and learn to drive with a smart transmission.' My reply was 'I am not part of the vehicle sensor system and I should not have to learn how to drive to a poor shifting situation especially when I am paying this much for a new vehicle.' GM should be forced to fix this very common problem before something serious happens as a result of this!
Low to moderate speed gear shift hesitation, transmission not smoothly shifting, . feels like a bad miss. Electronics and transmission/engine not in synch or synching. Hesitation, lack of responsiveness can be sever at times. Reboot of ECM helped, but issue has returned worse than ever. This has been a problem since day one of ownership. Hill decent control activates at al speeds including high end hiway speeds. 40, 50, 60, 70+ mph engagement - tap the brake and it actives. Engine RPM's go through the roof. Disabling the control wit the button does not deactivate. Dealership has not and does not offer any solution. Sever loss of control of vehicle could occur in inclement weather or other conditions. Also, fast slow down with no warning to other drivers in the vicinity. Engine RPM's as high as 5K in my truck in mountainous Pennsylvania December 2016.
Since purchase of vehicle, it had a bucking at speed of 25-40 mph, this was very noticeable in city driving, this issue was couple with uncontrolled surges in the engine. The vehicle was purchase Oct 28 or 30, 2016. I turned in the vehicle for service on Dec 19, 2016, dealer service rep confirm there was an issue and keep the truck for repairs. Vehicle was in the service department for over 40 consecutive days to fix issue, dealership techs, as well as GM field reps have looked at the vehicle and have tried to fix it to no avail. On Feb 8, the GM rep said there is nothing wrong with the vehicle and the issue was a software problem with this specific type vehicle and that the software this vehicle has is a new software. When I asked if this issue is being worked by the software engineers for solution the rep said he has no idea and that I should take the vehicle back. This issue is a safety problem especially when suddenly surges without control, particularly while driving in a city center a driver can cause an accident or potentially hit a person while loosing control. GM costumer assistant was contacted, but there was not help and GM refuses to let me know when the fixes for this issue will be out. Therefore I have refuse to take possession of vehicle until if fixed correctly!! this issue will affect all 2016 and up Colorado with duramax engine and new software version installed on them.
- Harrington, DE, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Vehicle has erratic downshifting and upshifting of the automatic transmission causes abrupt changes in acceleration and deceleration that sets up sequences that force the driver to continually press down on, or let up, on the break and or accelerator to attempt to blend in with stop-and-go traffic. Only getting 15-16.5 mpg city driving.
This vehicle's erratic downshifting and upshifting of the automatic transmission causes abrupt changes in acceleration and deceleration that sets up sequences that force the driver to continually press down on, or let up, on the break and or accelerator to attempt to blend in with stop-and-go traffic. In very heavy traffic, present when entering or leaving large cities, the onset and continuance of this vehicle's performance worsens resulting in driver fatigue and extreme stress, brought on by the ever present necessity to be extra watchful and to maneuver to avoid hitting the vehicle in front, or being rear-ended. When driving through mountainous terrain at today's interstate speeds, there is recurring "bumping" that sets up when ascending long grades. It creates the feeling that either the transmission is attempting to downshift but then changes its mind, or the engine's RPM are about to increase but don't. this adds to fear of imminent failure and being left stranded. This behavior was present from the very first time the vehicle was driven. It's getting worse.this driver believes the unsafe operating performance of this vehicle as described above, is exacerbated by the combination of the small, 4 cylinder engine coupled to the 6 speed transmission, that requires the engine to rapidly downshift or upshift to provide the needed performance required in today's driving environments. Further, it is evident the software controlling the transmission's operating behavior was neither fully developed nor tested throughout its anticipated full operating range and as such creates a vehicle that is dangerous to operate on public roads attempts to have these issues addressed with the dealer resulted in being told..." nothing can be done...the problems you are encountering are being are being experienced by many customers. Chevrolet is not providing any solutions".
In motion, when driving speed limit and then you let off accelerator to slow down and then you press gas again it hesitates and does not want to accelerate. I took to dealership and they said they fixed by programming something in computer and it ran fine for 3 days and started doing same thing again. And also, when you accelerate and it will not respond you give it a lot of gas and it makes rpms go to like 5000, but the RPM do not match the speed, its very strange. I see other complaints about the same thing on forums.
Transmission down shift slow to respond. Feels like it is out of gear, or like a engine hesitation, steeping down on accelerator hard makes it shift but the shift is hard. Concerned about this happening on ice causing a possible spin out.
Vehicle hesitates and stumbles on acceleration during motion when acceleration is resumed while moving. It seems that the transmission is not shifting down. You have to get into the acceleration, which is a safety condition in traffic. At times it stumbles bad enough to slow speed dramatically, which is also a safety condition on interstate. Took the vehicle to dealership and they are dedicated to saying that there is no codes up and I am nearly at the point to seek help from lawyer on the situation.
Recurring problem. Intermittent problem. Engine hesitates between 1000 and 2500 RPM. Causes unexpectedly poor acceleration from a stop. Causes unresponsive throttle. Causes transmission overshifts (shifting 2-3 gears lower). Causes unsafe driving conditions when acceleration is less than anticipated.
Transmission does not downshift properly under any type of acceleration (slow or sudden) especially between 20 mph and 40 mph in normal street traffic and on the highway. It also hunt for gears especially between gears 4 through 6. it hesitates for approximately 2 to 3 seconds, finds a gear, hesitates again, and then drops to an even lower gear and over accelerates. What I have observed is that the vehicle is too eager to upshift and sometimes goes into 5th or 6th gear and drops the engine below 1000 RPM. It stays in that gear when slowing down and when accelerated it stays in the high gear on bogs down and on two occasions stalled. This is dangerous especially in highway traffic and is especially dangerous when accelerating to pass or accelerating on an highway onramp to merge with traffic. I have take the truck to dealer at around 2000 miles. Was told that they couldn't find any problems and they "reset" the transmission. It ran fine for one day and began the problems again. I have operated the truck now to 6000 miles to see if the transmission can "learn" its way out of this and it has not. I am going to dealer again and if they tell me again that there is no problem, I am going to force the service manager to drive with me for a day to experience the problem.
On numerous occasions while entering/exiting vehicle my knee lightly brushes the 4 wheel drive engage switch located on the dashboard. This activates the 4 wheel drive on the vehicle. This is happening without my knowledge. Since there is no obvious indicator on the dash the the vehicle is in 4 wheel drive, if I do not notice the brief "engaging 4 wheel drive message" there is no way of knowing that it is in 4 wheel drive until the vehicle starts "hopping" on dry pavement while turning. Should this happen at highway speed on a curve there is the strong risk on a rollover. I have found myself having to regularly check the knob in order to determine if the 4 wheel drive is inadvertently engaged by this light brushing of the knob.
"the transmission does not downshift from a high gear (5 or 6) to a lower gear when slowing down from 45 mph to 20 mph (or lower). When the accelerator is depressed to accelerate the engine bucks, vibrates, and does not accelerate. The engine RPM drops to 1,000 RPM or lower. If the accelerator is quickly floored the transmission downshifts several gears lower and jerks forward. This condition happens primarily on secondary roads while driving along the road and when pulling from one road into traffic on another road. The situation when pulling into traffic is dangerous because the truck does not accelerate as it should. This truck was purchased new and has 1200 miles on it. This condition has been present since the truck was purchased and the severity varies with truck speed and road inclination. I reported the situation to the dealer and they attempted a fix (had the truck for three days) that supposedly involved a "new download" from Chevrolet, but it didn't change a thing. Dealer knows it didn't fix anything and says Chevrolet may have a "recall update", but reading all the other similar complaints, I'm suspicious. In the 1 month I have had the truck, I have almost been hit twice by approaching traffic because of hesitant acceleration. This is a dangerous problem and Chevrolet need to fix it immediately. I
I live in a rural area with moderate hills and many winding roads and tree obscured corners. While driving at a moderate speed (30-40 mph), I experience problems with the vehicle's ability to downshift from overdrive to address the increasing incline. The vehicle will, despite normal increase in fuel pedal pressure, lose RPM's from approximately 2,000 to 1,000. As it approaches 1,000 RPM, the vehicle begins to "stutter" and "lurch" as the engine tries to cope with the higher gear. There are two "fixes" for this; pushing the gas pedal down firmly, which causes the vehicle to radically down shift and "leap" forward, or to drop the transmission lever to "manual" and manually change gears (without the "leap" seen in the first method). The end result of the non-manual approach is to cause the vehicle to accelerate radically in an environment of obscured corners and uphill driving. I believe this is a dangerous safety problem as the area is swarming with deer, bicyclists, pedestrians, etc. I have also had "stuttering" incidents when accelerating from low speed, to enter traffic, interstate, etc., although these have been intermittent in nature. I have noticed that the vehicle will also radically downshift going downhill without warning and seems to take a long time to up shift once it is on level ground - again an intermittent action. Fortunately no one has been "tailgating" me when this occurs (a common failing of drivers in this area). I have had the vehicle to the dealer twice for the failure to downshift for a hill and they tell me Chevrolet does not recognize a problem with the transmission, shifting, etc. A side note: This problem does not exist in cruise control, but use of cruise control on these back roads would not be advisable.
Chevy said there are no fixes for the following complaints. Transmission is acceptable and smooth shifting under light loads. Under a need for downshifting for acceleration the down shifting is delayed or hesitates momentarily and then the truck jerks forward to a excessively lower gear & the upshifts to the gear it should have in the first place. The delay or lag in downshifting creates a very dangerous condition when needing instant power. There is much difficulty when merging into traffic when power is needed.. manipulating the manual shift can cover up this defect on some occasions when if you have time to plan for it. The transmission also shutters at low load many times resulting in no power until you downshift. Then this downshift is delayed and then becomes abrupt again. The shutter feels like the truck is going over small bumps in the road. The transmission shifting is certainly not correct and certainly results in unsafe situations. I should have test driven the truck under more conditions than I did and probably would not have purchased it. I hear that this problem can be fixed with an aftermarket computer update. Chevy probably dose not want to admit that in order to have the gas mileage ratings the transmission must bet this way. Also note that the 2017 Colorado will have an 8 speed transmission.
Delayed or no downshift. Traveling about 2 mph and turning either right or left and applying throttle the truck does not respond until the throttle is increased steeply. The transmission does then shift to a much lower gear and acceleration is dramatic.
2,400 miles and this vehicle has been back to the dealer four times for "chugging and shuttering" in heavy traffic. Driving though an intersection with heavy traffic it will not keep up with traffic but tends to bog down almost getting rear ended from behind. If you try to smoothly accelerate it will rapidly downshift and jump forward almost rear ending any vehicle in front. Very unsafe to drive. Trying to drive with the flow of traffic at 35-40 mph the truck shutters as if the spark plugs are worn out. Also trying to accelerate into on coming traffic it will sometimes chug to where you wonder if it's going make make the merge. Very frustrating to drive for a brand new truck, the dealer replaced the torque converter at 500 miles, then has preformed service bulletin #pip5342B three times with absolutely no improvement. GM states in the bulletin "note: Preforming this calibration update may not totally address the shudder or chugging concerns" how can new vehicles continue to be sold with this known problem? not only is it frustrating trying to drive smoothly, but it is also a safety concern. Due to the poor performance the mileage is about 13 mpg in city traffic, not even close to the mileage rating of 17 mpg.
While driving on a hilly highway at 55 mph, the truck suddenly lurched into an extreme downshift as I was going downhill. I had not been making any significant braking or acceleration motions--just driving normally with the flow of traffic and I had nothing in tow. The truck decelerated quickly and the rpms climbed significantly. This occurred twice: Once around 2,800 miles and a second time at 3,400 miles, under the same conditions - dry roads, daytime, going downhill on a highway. There were not any warnings, and none of the service lights came on. It would not shift out of this gear. Each time, I had to avoid being hit from behind, and pulled over to the side of the road to stop completely. Then I was able to proceed with normal functioning of the transmission. The cause is unknown.
While driving the 2016 Colorado, the transmission/engine seems to have trouble shifting and accelerating and the shift patterns are erratic it seems, maybe its the fuel efficient crap that shuts down cylinders, maybe its the trans?. experienced it on highways and lower speeds, stop and go traffic, truck's transmission clunks, shifts hard at random and stutters allot. It's aggrivating. When trying to pass, seems to be zero acceleration felt when flooring it then suddenly kicks in (roughly)..like oh hey-I need to go.. I could get in a wreck-ended because of this and I better not try to pass anyone.. I feel my safety could be at risk with as much hesitation then suddenly lurches as it has. I see quite a few complaints already concerning this and/or describing just about the same ordeal. Daily - but random - city and highway, turning, straight etc. Basically any situation but idle.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Harwich, MA, USA