1999 Chevrolet Corvette problems
Owners have filed 389 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Chevrolet Corvette. Steering is the most reported problem area, at 53% of complaints. Next are electrical system (8%) and brakes (6%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 389 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 53% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 19 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 15 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 45,000 miles 156 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 18 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 46 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 49 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 13 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 16 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 7 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 5 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 156 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 44,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 42,000 miles (83 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 19 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 15 injuries reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 4th most-complained-about out of 32 model years of the Chevrolet Corvette with enough data (202 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My son was driving on the interstate and the steering wheel locked and he crossed the median and was hit by another car and was killed, his passenger was injured critically and remembers that an instant before the crash and the crossing of the median that the car steering was locked.
Both front seats broke upon impact with tree. A deer jumped out and car went into a skid at 28MPH. It hit a tree while going in reverse. Both sport seat frames broke at the upper opening in seat back and were torn off tracks. Since rear back seat failure is in the news, this report was submitted. Car was not repaired and was totalled. The insurance sold it off for 'parts'
I was the owner of a 1999 c-5 corvette sport coup with 12,924 miles and in mint condition. On nov.17,04 at 7:50pm, I was pulling away from a stop sign. As I made a right hand turn around a corner I accelerated the car in a normal manner. All of a sudden the engine went to the full throttle position and the rear of the car jumped to the left. I tried to correct and then the car jumped to the right and I hit a palm tree.
Column lock recall has been performed on my manual 1999 corvette two times and has only resulted in the column locking up more frequently. The automatic corvettes received a different recall in which the column locking mechanism was removed so it could no longer lock and cause problems. This same proceedure should have been performed on the manual transmission corvette.
My steering wheel locked up when pulling out of a parking space. I took it to the dealer for the factory recall. They said that the factory recall procedure had already been done on the car once. They said that because it has been more than 12 months since the first repair was done they will not cover the expense of fixing the problem.