What 191 owners told NHTSA about the 2020 Chevrolet Malibu Eco

May 7, 2026 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Washington, DC 20590 RE: Safety Defect Complaint – Brake System / Vehicle Control Concerns 2020 Chevrolet Malibu Dear NHTSA, I am submitting a safety complaint regarding persistent braking and vehicle control issues involving my 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. Prior to December 31, 2025, the vehicle exhibited jerking during braking, all dashboard gauges go to the left, warning lights, reduced power (20-25mph), and inconsistent braking behavior. This situation happens without warning, at any given time, even in the flow of traffic. An independent inspection indicated the brake system was in proper condition, suggesting a more complex underlying safety issue. The vehicle was taken to Reed-Lallier Chevrolet for diagnosis and remained there for approximately five months. During that time, I was not provided documentation confirming completion of a brake system diagnostic or a clear resolution path. Due to the extended delay without diagnosis, I no longer feel safe operating the vehicle. I am also concerned that prolonged inactivity without proper repair may have worsened the condition and increased risk of failure. Given the nature of the symptoms involving braking and vehicle control, I request review for potential safety-related investigation. Vehicle Information: 2020 Chevrolet Malibu VIN: Mileage:

NHTSA ODI 11736449

The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH, an unknown warning light illuminated, and the vehicle started to lose motive power. The contact stopped at a traffic signal and after depressing the accelerator pedal when the light changed, the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was restarted after several attempts, but the vehicle failed to exceed 5 MPH while accelerating. The contact stopped and the vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The vehicle was diagnosed, the battery was replaced, and the system was reset; however, the failure reoccurred and the vehicle was towed to a dealer. The vehicle was diagnosed, and it was determined that the front wiring harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 23,000.

NHTSA ODI 11730116

Several things have been going wrong with this car. I have only had it for about 7 months. Minimal driving. Got the car with 84,000 miles and it now has 88,000 miles. About 2 months ago the check engine light came on. Got it into a shop and they said an oil change may possibly help with this. Got the oil change, cleared the code, drove it around and check engine light came back on. Brought it back to the shop and now the entire valve cover needs replaced. It’s been about 2 weeks since then haven’t had it fixed due to low funds. A couple days ago I was driving with two [XXX] olds in the car and was at a stop light. After about a minute the cars engine turned completely off lost all power including the center screen that displays your settings and radio, all lights, and the screen behind the wheel all with my foot on the break at a stop light. Due to this situation I was unable to turn my hazards on to alert the cars coming up being me at a green light absolutely panicked that we were going to get into an accident. A little while after the car turned back on, but unfortunately when trying to push down on the gas pedal nothing was happening. No revving sound and no movement of the car. Car still in drive. A police officer pulled up behind me to check if we were okay. He stayed to keep us safe until people came to push the car off to the side. During the push the wheel was almost completely locked up as well as the breaks. This is not the first time the breaks have locked up on me. Next day we got the car to a safe area to be parked. A couple days later went to try and turn the car on and immediately the car is shaking violently and making horrible noises. The car is unsafe for me to drive and unsafe for people on the road. This car is completely unable to be driven now also due to the horrible shaking. No recalls were found under my VIN, but all of these signs seem to be a problem for other people. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11718928

Got this car Oct 16 2025 and check engine lights on the place in Greenbriar dreka passed emmission and the shop explicit auto sold me car for 7500 been having problems with car since owner told me to do what I need to do no refund nothing in writing saying as is this car needs axles ball joint lower arm control and more car not safe for me and my kids this car go get emission passed so when u take title to DMV you can get a tag for a car that not passing emissions also purchase a second car same day Oct 16 2025 and this car need oil pump oil sensor brake sensor brake caliber and more and explicit auto wont fix cars the man that sell these cars are on Instagram and dolufree and explicit auto is the name of both Names if you look you'll see light on in every car he post and sell to people for high price and no results when you bring car back every car sold from them need to be investigated. We need help I have two cases that I cannot drive and I was charged 13,500 for both cars and this is illegal for someone to use someone else access and get these cars and sell them under someone else license the address for business have a old national address but cars being sold at 2263 metropolitan pkwy and I don't know what to do at this point

NHTSA ODI 11711718

This is a 2020 Malibu with only 18,000 miles on it now. We are having intermittent loss of power. Car will be moving fine when suddenly it looses power when pulling into traffic from a stop. It has also happened on the highway(right after leaving the dealer service department) when going to pass a vehicle…all of a sudden power drops and rpms go up and car slows up. When it suddenly happens, pulling into traffic is very slow. The only way to get power back is to turn off traction control via a button. It is back at the dealer now. They have had it the last two weeks. They fixed a shift to park issue but cannot duplicate the loss of power. So they are saying it is ready to pick up. Once, recently, a check engine light come on along with a message saying something like low power mode. We went straight to the dealer with the vehicle. They had the car for three five out of six weeks and were able to duplicate the loss of power once. We wanted them to contact Chevy to help resolve this, but we are unsure if they actually did. These problems first were serviced in April of 2024. This car is very scary to be in, the way this happens and when it is happening.

NHTSA ODI 11706146

The shifter will not read when the vehicle has been placed in park.

NHTSA ODI 11696906

Th e brakes are not working at all. We have to go slow then the brakes are hard to press. Th I s makes it keep driving anc brake pedal doesn't stop it.

NHTSA ODI 11679673

A liAdjustmentght came on my dashboard. State power engine reduce period then it stalls when I press my foot down on the accelerator not giving it any power to go period then when I try to break it actually pushes my foot back off and it's hard to break period and when I press the start button to turn the engine on. It turns right back off after about.Maybe four or five seconds and no I just had to have a towed to my home. The special Coverage adjustment code in 182188250 is what my vehicle would apply to, but that code only covers the 2016 and 2018 models. What can I do now? Because it is under that code. But the dealerships won't cover it because they're saying my model is not but twenty twenty I need help please. I have 132k miles. Good condition. Why wouldn't letter models be covered under the same act?What would make it stop if it's doing the same thing?It did for those twenty sixteen and twenty eighteen models

NHTSA ODI 11678201

Shift to park

NHTSA ODI 11672776

Will not shift into park with out hitting the shifting lever

NHTSA ODI 11671156

Shift to park

NHTSA ODI 11665500

When putting my car in park and turning the car off I get a shift to park message.

NHTSA ODI 11664982

After pressing the button to turn the vehicle off the message board displays a "shift to park" alert. The vehicle will not completely turn off until you clear the message. I do not know how to clear the message so the vehicle will completely turn off and to keep this from happening again. It requires me to turn the vehicle off, restart it, put it in drive, stop, put it in park, then turn it off. Simply turning the vehicle off and back on does not clear the message. It takes me at least 3 tries to get the vehicle to finally turn off normally without the "shift to park" message. This does not happen every single time when I turn the vehicle off and at no particular frequency. It is very annoying because it happens when you least expect it. When you are on a time schedule you do not have 5-10 minutes to re-start and turn off the vehicle again numerous times to get the message to disappear. It is also not good for the engine and transmission components to keep having to go through this process. This issue has been occuring for approximately 1 year. I thought it was fixed because the message stopped coming up for awhile but the issue is occurring again at no particular frequency. Please check into this and issue a recall. From what I can see, I am not the only one having this issue.

NHTSA ODI 11663888

I was driving in the interstate at about 4pm on May 16th and the check engine light came on. Thus is nothing new because since I bought the car on Feb. 14th, 2024 the check engine light is on about 75% of the time. I went to use my brakes and the pedal was hard as a rock. I had to use both feet to depress the pedal to get the car to slow down. I brought the car to Autozone and they did a scan and it showed the Power Brake Booster Vacuum Sensor needed replacement. I ordered it and had a friend who is a mechanic replace it and the problem still persisted. My friend thought it was the Power Brake Booster Vacuum Pump. I ordered it and he replaced it and the brakes are back to normal. My research regarding this has found that his is a VERY common issue with this vehicle which has lead to costly repairs for many people and has resulted in a class action lawsuit. This is a SERIOUS safety issue! When a person can’t hardly press their brakes when driving that endangers the lives of the driver, the occupants of the car and every other person on the road. Why do we have to wait for people to be killed before this is fixed?

NHTSA ODI 11663572

When the car was turned off a message appeared that said shift the park the gear indicator already stated the car was in park and the car gear shift was already in park. Looked into this issue and apparently there is an open recall for the year and make of my car but it for some reason does not include my vin number

NHTSA ODI 11648208

"Shift to park" error message and "engine power is reduced" error message

NHTSA ODI 11644621

My car is in Park. But the dash board is flashing Shift to park. I need to turn it off and on multiple times until it finally stops. I can not lock my car if this is happening and I can’t just let it go because it will drain my battery.

NHTSA ODI 11638965

Malibu displays “shift to park” message because of a known issue with the electronic shifter. The shifter fails to detect when the vehicle is properly in park, requiring adjustments until the system recognizes the correct gear position. Informed by dealer to just move gear shift back and forth until message clears then can turn off vehicle. This can take up to 10-15 minutes. Also advised to keep emergency break on or vehicle could roll away!!! Apparently this is a known issue per the mechanic. Said the electronic shifter may or may not resolve this and if it doesn't resolve the problem can also affect the transmission.

NHTSA ODI 11634445

“shift to park” message appears after car has already been shifted to park. Will not allow car to be turned off as the car thinks it’s still not in park. Known issue with earlier models of the malibu that warranted a recall of models 2019 and before. Seems like this is a continued issue in the 2020 model

NHTSA ODI 11633722

Shift to park detected when I have gear in park

NHTSA ODI 11628415

The problems listed in my vehicle are the following • U0073: Control Module Communication Bus A Off • U0100: Lost Communication With Engine Control Module • U0121: Lost Communication with Electronic Brake Control Module • U0140: Lost Communication With Body Control Module • P0700: Transmission Control Module Requested MIL Illumination I believe this is due to a bad design in the wiring. Also the electric brake vacuum broke which is a common problem.

NHTSA ODI 11607742

Yes my car has just started to displaying a shift to park message on the message center when you shift the car into park. I know there are recalls on 2016-2019 Malibu and now it’s doing it on my 2020. Come on Chevy

NHTSA ODI 11606221

So far it is only once in a while when I shift into park and turn off the engine the ‘Shift to Park’ message will be displayed in the dash. Sometimes I can jiggle the shift lever a little to make it go out, other times I have to start/stop engine , shift out and into park several times to make it go out. I don’t want to leave the vehicle without making sure it’s in park. I read in another complaint that the doors won’t lock, and that it goes into accessory mode and could drain the battery down if left that way, but I did not check if that happens on my vehicle. It just started doing this a few weeks ago. I have not contacted the dealership yet, but I understand that GM has put out a recall on the Malibu and other models concerning this issue. I am hoping it will cover my VIN. number soon. Thank you for taking time to read my complaint.

NHTSA ODI 11601594

The contact owns a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated while attempting to shift into park(P), the gear shifter failed to function as intended. The message to shift into park(P) was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the failure had previously occurred; however, the failure was diagnosed as an electrical failure and the vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.

NHTSA ODI 11599222

When this issue first started. My display said put the driver window down then back up. Seconds after following this prompt my car display says shift to park. I was already in park and had shut the engine off. When I open the driver door my horn beeps 2 times and my start button is yellow not allowing me to turn the vehicle completely off. As the days pass my 2020 Chevy Malibu now says shift to park Everytime I go to get out of it. Today when this happened I was trying to get it to read my vehicle was in park for about 20-30 minutes. Finally after wiggling my shifter the display disappeared.

NHTSA ODI 11592962