2016 Gmc SIERRA 1500 - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 has an outstanding overall safety rating of 5 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It received top scores in front crash, side crash, and rollover ratings, making it a highly secure choice for drivers and passengers alike. Additionally, this vehicle comes equipped with electronic stability control for enhanced handling on the road. It also offers optional features such as forward collision warning and lane departure warning, further enhancing the safety features of the car.

Despite its high safety ratings, it is important to note that there have been 311 complaints filed for this vehicle and 9 recalls issued. While the safety features of the Sierra 1500 provide reassurance on the road, it is recommended that owners stay informed about any potential issues and address them promptly to ensure continued safety and optimal performance.

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Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

311

Recall Count

9

Investigation Count

1

Safety Rating

5/5

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Safety Features

2016 GMC Sierra 1500 PU/RC 4WD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 PU/RC 4WD

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

Optional
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

Optional

2016 GMC Sierra 1500 PU/RC 4WD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2016 GMC Sierra 1500 PU/RC 4WD Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2009 Score 2016 Score 2024 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated 5 Not Rated
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 5 5 Not Rated
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5 Not Rated

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2009 Score 2016 Score 2024 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 5 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated 5 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2009 Score 2016 Score 2024 Score
Rollover Rating 4 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated 4 5

Complaints for the 2016 Gmc SIERRA 1500

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2016 gmc sierra denali. the contact stated that while the vehicle was being reversed at under 5 mph, the brake pedal was depressed but failed to operate as intended. the contact crashed into a tree which caused damage to the passenger's side door, fender and side mirror. there was no injuries. the vehicle was taken to van buren buick gmc located at 2257 jericho turnpike, garden city park, ny 11040, (516) 535-9508, to be diagnosed which was still pending. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was contacted and informed of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 78,000."
Components Involved: SERVICE BRAKES
Date of incident: 2021-05-07
Complaint:
"the brakes did not work at slow speed going forward or in reverse"
Components Involved: SERVICE BRAKES
Date of incident: 2019-06-05
Complaint:
"at 44,972 miles i began to experience loss of braking at slow speeds (10-15 mph) on multiple occasions. the brake pedal lost its spongy feel and felt hard and dead. no matter how much pressure i applied to the brake pedal, my truck continued to roll forward. it was a scary feeling to lose control of the vehicle especially because i had my 10 year old daughter in my truck the first time it happened. i had to depress my emergency brake to bring the vehicle to a stop. i pulled the truck over and turned off and on the ignition and the brake pedal regained its spongy, normal pressure and feel. the brakes felt normal for about a week or so and i felt maybe it was an isolated incident until the same problem occurred when i was driving home from work in city stop and go traffic. i was driving about 5-10 mph trying to come to a stop behind the car in front of me when the truck continued to roll forward. i barely had enough time to depress the emergency brake to stop and came very close to hitting the car in front of me. it would have been at very low speed, but nonetheless a collision. i took the truck to the dealer to have the problem checked out and ended up having to replace the vacuum pump assembly for $656.50, parts and labor. i definitely feel this is a valid safety issue that deserves investigating and doing either a safety notice to vehicle owners that could be effected or a recall. had i known about the potential issue i would have been better able to deal with it. it really shook me up the first time it happened. i didn't feel safe driving the truck even 10 feet afterwards."
Components Involved: SERVICE BRAKES
Date of incident: 2019-10-03
Complaint:
"at 38,200 miles, the truck experienced a loss of break pressure while in a parking garage traveling at low speed causing the vehicle to narrowly miss hitting a concrete upright. after realizing there was a break issue, vehicle was able to be carefully moved from the parking garage by coasting on the break. after restarting the vehicle, the first depress of the break seemed to give full pressure, but each subsequent depress gave less and less pressure. vehicle had to be towed to nearest dealership and is currently awaiting diagnostic. problem appears to be part of ongoing investigation into brake vacuum pump failure (nhtsa action number: pe18012)."
Components Involved: SERVICE BRAKES
Date of incident: 2020-11-02
Complaint:
"on several occasions i have had difficulty with the braking system. the braking system becomes unresponsive after pumping the brakes a few times. on several occasions i've had the brake peddle pushed to the floor in an attempt to stop the vehicle. this seems to happen mostly at slow speeds, a good example is when you are in a traffic jam and are primarily using the brakes to edge forward and stop."
Components Involved: SERVICE BRAKES
Date of incident: 2018-06-12

Recalls for the 2016 Gmc SIERRA 1500

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"general motors llc (gm) is recalling certain model year 2015-2017 chevrolet silverado 2500 hd, 3500 hd, tahoe, suburban, gmc sierra 2500 hd and 3500 hd, gmc yukon, gmc yukon xl, cadillac escalade and cadillac escalade esv vehicles and 2014-2017 chevrolet corvette, silverado 1500, trax, caprice police pursuit vehicle, gmc sierra 1500, buick encore, and 2014-2016 buick lacrosse, chevrolet spark ev and ss vehicles. in the affected vehicles, certain driving conditions may cause the air bag sensing and diagnostic module (sdm) software to activate a diagnostic test. during this test, deployment of the frontal air bags and the seat belt pretensioners would not occur in the event of a crash."
Consequence:
A failure of the front air bags or seat belt pretensioners to deploy in the event of a crash necessitating deployment increases the risk of injury to the driver and front passenger.
Remedy:

GM will notify owners, and dealers will reflash the SDM software. Vehicles that have had a previous air bag deployment will have the SDM replaced. These repairs will be performed free of charge. The recall began on October 13, 2016. Owners may contact Buick customer service at 1-800-521-7300, Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006, Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 16007.

Component(s) Involved: AIR BAGS > FRONTAL
Date of incident: 2016-09-08
Recall:
"general motors llc (gm) is recalling certain model year 2014-2016 buick lacrosse and chevrolet spark ev, caprice ppv and ss vehicles, 2014-2017 buick encore and chevrolet corvette, silverado 1500 and gmc sierra 1500 vehicles, 2015-2016 cadillac escalade and escalade esv, chevrolet tahoe, trax, suburban and silverado 2500 and 3500 and gmc yukon and yukon xl vehicles, and 2015-2017 gmc sierra hd 2500 and 3500 vehicles. while being previously remedied for recall 16v-651, the affected vehicles may not have received the complete software update necessary to remedy the recall condition. without the update, certain driving conditions may cause the air bag sensing and diagnostic module (sdm) software to activate a diagnostic test. during this test, deployment of the frontal air bags and the seat belt pretensioners would not occur in the event of a crash."
Consequence:
A failure of the front air bags or seat belt pretensioners to deploy in the event of a crash necessitating deployment increases the risk of injury to the driver and front passenger.
Remedy:

GM will notify owners, and dealers will reflash the SDM software. Vehicles that have had a previous air bag deployment will have the SDM replaced. These repairs will be performed free of charge. The recall began on August 4, 2017. Owners may contact Buick customer service at 1-800-521-7300, Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006, Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020, or GMC customer service at 1-800-462-8782. GM's number for this recall is 17287.

Component(s) Involved: AIR BAGS > FRONTAL
Date of incident: 2017-07-10

GMC Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

GMC ranks 8 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

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