all vehicles · every Sierra year · method

GMC Sierra 2017

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.52 per 1,000

1.1 times this nameplate’s own median · from 114 complaints filed in the first three years, of 480 ever. 95% lower bound 0.42.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.23	38
2009	0.19	27
2010	0.13	16
2011	0.24	33
2012	0.16	25
2013	0.19	33
2014	1.33	264
2015	1.13	247
2016	0.41	92
2017	0.52	114
2018	0.48	106
2019	0.80	181
2020	0.58	141
2021	0.45	113
2022	0.73	178
2023	1.22	328

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Power Train 153 complaints

truck	51	33%
hard	40	26%
torque converter	21	14%
torque	21	14%
converter	21	14%
shudder	14	9%

Service Brakes 140 complaints

vacuum	31	22%
trailer	28	20%
vacuum pump	23	17%
trailer brake	21	15%
brake assist	18	13%
service trailer	14	10%

Engine 72 complaints

truck	24	34%
lifters	12	17%

When it breaks

40% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 37,000 miles, from 222 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10944223 · 10953974 · 10970415 · 10978630 · 10990885 · 10992896

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.