2008 Gmc SIERRA - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab with side airbags has a solid safety rating, with 5 stars for the front crash driver side and passenger side, and 5 stars for the side crash driver's side. However, other aspects such as overall side crash rating and rollover rating are not rated. The vehicle does not have stability control, collision warning, or lane departure warning systems. In terms of complaints and recalls, there have been 456 complaints and 4 recalls reported for this particular model. It is essential for drivers to keep these factors in mind while considering the overall safety of the vehicle.

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Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

456

Recall Count

4

Investigation Count

3

Safety Rating

Not Rated

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Safety Features

2008 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab w/SAB Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab w/SAB

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.

No
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.

No
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.

No

2008 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab w/SAB Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2008 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab w/SAB 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 2005 Score 2008 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 4 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 3 5

Side Crash Ratings

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

Test 2005 Score 2008 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating Not Rated 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated Not Rated
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated Not Rated

Rollover Ratings

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

Test 2005 Score 2008 Score
Rollover Rating 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated

Complaints for the 2008 Gmc SIERRA

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:
"the contact owns a 2008 gmc sierra 1500. the contact stated that while the vehicle was parked and turned off at the residence, the front windshield cracked. upon inspection, the contact noticed that the front driver's and passenger's side air bags had deployed without impact. the vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed, and it was determined that a short circuit was caused by water damage in the air bag modules underneath the front driver's and passenger's side seats. the vehicle was then towed to a body shop for the air bags to be replaced; however, the replacement parts were on backorder. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the failure mileage was approximately 38,000."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2025-04-03
Complaint:
"2008 gmc sierra. consumer writes in regards to takata airbag safety recall."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-10-09
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2009 gmc sierra 1500. the contact stated while driving 30 mph, the steering wheel air bag and driver seat belt air bag were inadvertently deployed. there were no warning lights illuminated. the contact stated she veered to the side of the road and cut the air bags. the contact also stated she could no longer use the driver's seat belt as it was locked. the vehicle was taken to the dealer who advised the contact that they could not determine the cause of the failure. however, the manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not share the diagnostic of the vehicle because it was confidential. the manufacturer also offered to buy back the vehicle. the vehicle was not repaired. the approximate failure mileage was 138,000."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-03-08
Complaint:
"takata recall. the contact owns a 2008 gmc sierra 1500. the contact received a recall notification for nhtsa campaign number: 21v050000 (air bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. the contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the manufacturer was not notified of the issue. the part was not available for repair. the contact had not experienced a failure. parts distribution disconnect."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2023-02-07
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2008 gmc sierra. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign number: 21v052000 (air bags) the vehicle was taken to a local dealer where the recall was serviced; but, a week later the air bag warning light was illuminated. the vehicle was not taken to a local dealer or independent mechanic to have it diagnosed. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. the failure mileage was approximately 159,398."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-07-06
Complaint:
"i'm frustrated with the dash being cracked. the big issue is that i believe it is a safety issue. the dash is cracked around the airbag area. if this airbag should deploy someone could be hurt or killed. i would like to get this corrected because i'm afraid to operate the vehicle. thank you for your attention in this matter. regards, [xxx] 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) *cc"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-08-05
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2008 gmc sierra 1500. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign number: 21v052000 (air bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. the contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the dealer and the manufacturer were made aware of the issue. the contact had not experienced a failure. vin tool confirms parts not available."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2021-05-02
Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2008 gmc sierra 1500. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign number: 21v050000 (air bags). the contact stated that the vehicle had experienced the failure listed in the recall two years prior. the contact stated that while stopped at traffic light, the front passenger's side air bag deployed without warning or impact. the vehicle was taken to king buick gmc (1700 w evans st, florence, sc 29501) and a case was opened with the manufacturer however, the manufacturer informed the contact that gmc was unable to assume responsibility for damages and to resolve matters through the insurance provider. the contact took the vehicle to an independent mechanic and the front passenger's side air bag was replaced. the contact notified the manufacturer when she received the recall notification. the manufacturer informed the contact that they were sticking by the results from the investigation in 2019, that produced no merit for the allegations. the failure mileage was 85,735. ## vin passed ## gmc 2008 sierra ##"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2019-09-04
Complaint:
"in the city stopped at a left turn lane waiting for the green. light turned green, i stated to turn left and was hit on right front hard enough to send me two lanes over, onto the sidewalk and into a brick wall cause major damage to brick building. i do not remember being hit or hitting the brick wall. no airbags deployed. i went to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-02-02
Complaint:
"the nhtsa recall number: 21v050 has been in limbo for years. this has been the recall status for years with no updates: recall status: recall incomplete. remedy not yet available"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-10-02

Recalls for the 2008 Gmc SIERRA

Component Recalls

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

Recall:
"gm is recalling 857,735 my 2006-2008 buick lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; my 2007-2008 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl, saturn outlook; and my 2008 buick enclave vehicles equipped with a heated wiper washer fluid system. a short circuit on the printed circuit board for the washer fluid heater may overheat the control-circuit ground wire."
Consequence:
THIS MAY CAUSE OTHER ELECTRICAL FEATURES TO MALFUNCTION, CREATE AN ODOR, OR CAUSE SMOKE INCREASING THE RISK OF A FIRE.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL INSTALL A WIRE HARNESS WITH AN IN-LINE FUSE FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2008. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BUICK AT 1-866-608-8080; CADILLAC AT 1-800-982-2339 OR HTTP://WWW.CADILLAC.COM; CHEVROLET AT 1-800-630-2438; SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876 OR HTTP://WWW.SATURN.COM, GMC AT 1-866-996-9436; OR HUMMER AT 1-800-732-5493; OR THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE AT <A HREF=HTTP://WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM>HTTP://WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM</A> .

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Date of incident: 2008-08-28
Recall:
"gm is recalling certain model year 2006-2009 buick, lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; model year 2008-2009 buick enclave; cadillac cts; model year 2007-2009 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl; saturn outlook; and model year 2009 chevrolet traverse vehicles equipped with a heated washer fluid system (hwfs). a recall was implemented in 2008 to add a fuse to the control circuit harness to address the potential consequences of a printed circuit board (pcb) electrical short. however, there have been new reports of thermal incidents on hwfs modules after this improvement was installed. these incidents resulted from a new failure mode attributed to the device's thermal protection feature. the significance varies from minor distortion to considerable melting of the plastic around the hwfs fluid chamber."
Consequence:
IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE HEATED WASHER MODULE TO IGNITE AND A FIRE MAY OCCUR.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL PERMANENTLY DISABLE AND REMOVE THE HEATED WASHER FLUID MODULE. AN UPDATED PAGE FOR THE OWNER MANUAL WILL BE PROVIDED AND INSERTED IN THE OWNER MANUAL TO DOCUMENT THAT THE FEATURE HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY DISABLED AND REMOVED FROM THE VEHICLE. THE SAFETY RECALL BEGAN ON JUNE 11, 2010. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BUICK AT 1-866-608-8080, CADILLAC AT 1-866-982-2339, CHEVROLET AT 1-800-630-2438, SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876, GMC AT 1-866-996-9463 AND HUMMER AT 1-800-732-5493 OR AT THE OWNER CENTER AT WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM.

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Date of incident: 2010-06-04

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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