Total Complaints
1 filings
GMC C/K SUBURBAN (GMC) · model year
1 NHTSA complaints. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 1998GMCC/K SUBURBAN (GMC) carries 1 consumer safety complaint in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 1998 C/K SUBURBAN (GMC) is steering:electric power assist system with 1 filings. Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause.
NHTSA currently has 2 investigation files overlapping the 1998 C/K SUBURBAN (GMC). Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
Total Complaints
1 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| STEERING:ELECTRIC POWER ASSIST SYSTEM | 1 |
IN THE LAST WEEK (NO CHANGES IN DRIVING OR RECENT REPAIRS)I HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME VERY SCARY TURNING IN MY 1998 GMC SUBURBAN. BETWEEN 11 AND 1 'O'CLOCK ON THE STEERING WHEEL AT SPEEDS OF BETWEEN 20-35MPH (APPROX), THE FRONT WHEELS SEEM TO SLIP AWAY FROM THEIR INTENDED "LINE'- AS IF I HIT A PATCH OF BLACK ICE. I THOUGHT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE FIRST TIME- THERE WERE SOME PATCHES AROUND; BUT NOW THE PAVEMENT IS CLEAR AND THE PROBLEM IS GETTING WORSE- MORE FREQUENT. OFTEN AFTER EXPERIENCING THIS I TEND TO OVER CORRECT AS IT SEEMS I MAY BE SLIPPING INTO THE SHOULDER OR DITCH. I HAVE NEARLY HIT PARKED CARS AND CARS WAITING TO ENTER THE INTERSECTION I AM LEAVING (AND VICE VERSA). I HAVE BEEN DRIVING SINCE 1973 AND HAVE NEVER HAD A CAR FEEL SO SCARY IN THE FRONT END- LIKE THE STEERING LINKAGE MAY DROP OUT AT THE NEXT TURN. I HAVE NOT CAUSED ANY PROPERTY DAMAGE YET... A SEARCH OF THE PROBLEM ON THE NET POINTS TO AN EPIDEMIC OF THIS PROBLEM IN THE GM LINE-UP. MOST DIY MECHANICS ARE BEING TOLD
Mileage: 153,000
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 1998 GMC C/K SUBURBAN (GMC); no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.