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.
While driving down the highway at 60mph, a warning light came on'reduced engine speed' and the car slowed way down to 30mph in seconds, I was almost hit by the car behind me.
I was driving on the highway today going around 70 mph and my car displayed "reduced engine power" and immediately lost power and decelerated. It is not the first time that it has done this but it was the first time driving at that high rate of speed. The other times it has happened on city streets when I was going more than maybe 40 mph. Each time if I turn the car off and then wait a few seconds and start it again, the reduced engine power display is gone and I dont have anymore immediate issues with it, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. I have noticed online that several people have experienced something similar with their 2017 Chevrolet Malibu.
When I push the button to turn off the vehicle while having my foot on the brake it displays a message saying 'shift to park'. it will not let you turn off the car. I have to push the button to 'restart the engine' then slam it into park. It typically takes 3 repeats of this before the car finally allows me to shut it off. It's frustrating, time consuming and noisy as if you do not see the message and go to open the door, it beeps noisily notifying you that the car is not off. Apparently quite a few drivers have this issue, as I have read the complaints listed. My local dealership quoted me at repair costs of over $700 to fix this. This seems unfair since clearly it is a manufacturer issue.
Lately when I stop at a light or intersection my vehicle auto stops but when I try to go the vehicle shuts off and will not start. I have to put on my flashers while in traffic and shut the vehicle on and off until it restarts. One of the warnings read stabil and another reads power shut off as well as battery saver active. I have taken it in but have been told they do not know what is wrong so they reset the system however, this dangerous issue remains. This started the beginning of March and has continued.
While driving 60mph on the highway, my car began beeping and displayed 'reduced engine power' on the screen. The traction light and engine light also came on. The cars speed was immediately reduced almost causing a serious accident as I was in the left lane on the highway with a semi behind and beside me. I was able to maneuver to the shoulder. I had to restart the car twice in order to be able drive it home. This was an absolutely terrifying situation. The check engine light is still on. Upon googling this issue, many people have had this problem and there has not been a recall! if my reaction time wasn't a fast as it was today, I would have been seriously hurt, or worse. GM needs to address this.
- Grain Valley, MO, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Well I'm driving in the freeway and the car star lossing power I almost crash then the check engine light turn on and it's say something about the stability somentihin like that and that I have to be becarfull driving
I was on a highway in Warren oh driving to work traveling at 65 mph in the left lane. A message appeared and said loss of engine power and the at went from 65 to 20 in 1 second. There were vehicles behind me and beside me. I was almost rear ended and when I tried to get over to the side of the road I was almost smashed by a semi. As well as that message it then stated steering assist inactive so it was then hard to turn my wheel as if there wasn't enough of a problem. Thank god I am ok but someone else may not be so lucky. There are numerous complaints that I see on the internet about this issue. How is there not a recall. GM should be responsible for these repairs. I just purchased this vehicle in Nov 2019.
In August of 2019 my car wouldn't shift out of park. I had to have my car towed to a local Chevrolet dealership at night where it was there for a week this visit was for the gear shift to be replaced. October 2019 my car start stop feature made my car shut off in the middle of rush hour morning traffic this trip was said to be the charging system and the battery. In January 2020 I started to have the same issue with the car just stopping this time it was the electrical module I also had the oil changed and a all wheel alignment and I picked up my car and 10 days later my engine light came on so back to the Chevy dealership 2 days they say we fixed it. 48 hours later the engine light is back on. I was told that we just cleared the engine light in hope's that would just fix the problem so now 2 and half weeks later they still have my car. They have no clue of what's happening.
On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, I was traveling on they highway when suddenly my car reduced speed. And the engine power reduce light came on. This was at approximately 5:30 pm during rush hour on the highway. There was no alert prior to this happening and a vehicle behind me had to quickly go around me. I could not go over 20 mph. Once I got back on the highway and then I had to pay to have my vehicle towed to the dealership.
Reduced engine power first time this happened I was making a U turn at slow speeds when my dash displayed ' reduced engine power' check engine light came on as well as traction control light. I pulled over turned my car off and back on a few mins later later lights went away and car drove fine. ( November 2019 ) second time was mid February 2020 I was driving about 40 mph when same thing happened. Dash lights came on reduced engine power came back on and car slowed down to less the 20 mph within seconds. Once again I had to pull over turned my car on/off about 3 times in 20 mins for light to go away and car drive normal again. Third time today 2/27/20 at maybe 10 mph my dash lit up once again check engine light did not go away this time. But car drove fine afterwords luckily it hasn't happened on highway speeds or with my daughter in the car. All this in the last 3 months I bought my car with 20 miles June 1st 2017 and currently has 38K miles. This definitely has to be fixed before it causes serious accidents !
Reduced engine power started popping up on the dashboard and forcefully reduces speed to 20mph. Hundreds of Chevy owners are reporting this abnormalities recently and Chevrolet is concealing this manufacture defect.
My Chevy Malibu currently has about 20K miles on it in addition to that it is up to date on oil changes etc. About 20 mins ago while I was driving my vehicle messages me saying "engine power reduced" and all of a sudden my vehicles power was reduced. Thankfully I wasnt driving on a highway or anything but this was very dangerous and alarming to me. I researched this problem online and found numerous complaints about this for my particular model and find that very irresponsible of GM to not take responsibility on this issue and fix it. I ask that you please look into this someone is going to get hurt. Thank you
My Chevy Malibu has stopped several times on the highway more often durning traffic time it always stops when it enters auto stop then it cuts all the way off and I have to restart it I called in about this last year. Also it makes it really tough to push my breaks when I start the car up it does make the sound like it wants to start then it dies out
When driving the vehicle, a warning will randomly appear saying 'reduced engine power' and will reduce speed to about 20mph and will not accelerate any faster.
When driving down a highway to drop off kid at school, the car sometimes slows down on its own and a message comes on stating engine power reduced. At 6:30 am in the morning when it's still dark, this is going to cause a car crash sooner or later. But dealer says there is no recall.
I bought my 2017 Malibu in July of 2019 from a Chevy dealership. Since I've bought it my car has rapidly slowed down with now warning and my dashboard reading engine power reduced. It's happened 5 times since I got the car one being I was on the highway and almost got hit by a semi on my way to work in morning traffic. I looked up this issue to see what could be causing it and turns out other 2016-2018 Malibu's have the same issues. I took it to autozone for a diagnosis and it's the throttle pedal position being farther apart than allowed. The dealership is charging me $200 to fix the issue and I have only had this car for 6 months.
I was traveling in my vehicle on the highway going at least 65 to 75 mph and all of a sudden my vehicle beats two or three times and across the screen came the words 'reduce engine speed'. at that moment I was traveling in the middle lane and I had to safely get over to the far right median in the middle of traffic safely turn off and wait at least 10 minutes to start it back up. When I started my vehicle back up again I still received the same message. I then waited even longer and everything was ok but eventually the same issue continued to happen several times. I took my vehicle to get coded and the codes that were given to me were 2122, 2123, 2101. It's unsafe for this to happen especially I have a child this is no safe for me.
The car will not start sometimes. Yesterday the lights and radio came on randomly while sitting in the garage with the fob in the house. Randomly shuts down while driving. The last time it was half way through an busy intersection. Had to push the car off the road.
While driving on freeway going 70 mph, my traction control, check engine light, and a warning flash across my dashboard saying engine speed reduced. My car went from going 70 mph to 40 mph and wouldn't go any higher. I immediately got off the freeway took pictures of the lights. Luckily I have a anti left device that reads off codes for my check engine like code P2138 is what came up. This is extremely dangerous, I had my [xxx] child in the car with me and was almost rear ended due to loss of power from such a high speed. Parts of this document have been redacted to protect personally identifiable information pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Driving at about 55mph then without warning message on instrument cluster showed low power engine mode with emission warning icon illuminated. Speed dropped almost instantly from 55mph to about 35mph!!!!! setting stage for possible rear end collision but was lucky this time.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Hardin, MO, USA