Home · 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer · Complaints

What 181 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (181)Crash / fire / injury (9)Electrical system (38)Transmission & drivetrain (35)Engine (33)Brakes (31)Fuel system (17)Driver assistance (10)Body & structure (8)Steering (6)Speed control (5)Visibility & wipers (4)

4 of 181 complaints match · Brakes · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

Feb 19, 2025BrakesDriver assistanceCrash2 injuries

A loud popping noise heard through the radio when light pressure applied to brakes. Noise loud enough to scare the hell out of all the occupants in the car. Brakes squeaked when car was in reverse. Tried to slow down on wet pavement. Car started to veer to the right. Forward collision warning nor automatic emergency braking worked. Pushed brake all the way to the floor and the car did not slow. Rear ended another car. No airbags deployed. My passenger was okay. I got diagnosed with a concussion. Do not know if the occupants in the other car were injured.

NHTSA ODI 11643617

Jun 20, 2023BrakesDriver assistanceCrash1 injury

Brakes failed and myself and others were in harms way. To my knowledge the car was totaled as the air bags did deploy.

NHTSA ODI 11527819

Jan 5, 2023SteeringBrakesLane DepartureCrash

While traveling down the road at approximatly 35-40 mph with my two minor children, the steering was not responding properly and the car kept attempting to veer to the right. I let off the gas to slow down since the brakes were also not seeming to respond well. Upon attempting to brake and execute a left hand turn, the car would not turn at all despite the steering wheel being as turned as far to the left as possible, the lights began flashing on the dashboard for "PowerSteering" ESC warning. We ended up going through the intersection without stopping and narrowly missed another car in intersection and went completely off the road into a snowbank. Fortunately we were not injured. We drove the vehicle back home (approximately one mile) by overpowering the steering and manually forcing the car to stay on the road. Throughout the lane assist kept attempting to autocorrect and drive us off the road. The car was damaged by the impact and the mechanic said that the tie rod is bent and has no idea what could have caused this to happen. I am somehow now responsible for the situation. I have asked what caused the power steering to fail, and Chevy claims that they have no record of any power steering issues (which research has shown to be untrue) and in order to determine IF it failed and/or why, they need to make the repair and then run additional tests to re-create the issue. This car only has 21,000 miles on it, and has never been in an accident before this.

NHTSA ODI 11500332

Sep 6, 2021Electrical systemBrakesDriver assistanceCrashFire

Was in the middle of a 3 car collision. After about 5 min engine started smoking and a fire started. Fire slowly escalated and fully engulfed the entire car.

NHTSA ODI 11431843

Working with the data? Download all 181 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 14, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer verdict →