Total Complaints
1 filings
GMC KINGSLEY · 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 1978GMCKINGSLEY 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 1978 KINGSLEY is service brakes 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 1978 KINGSLEY. 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 |
|---|---|
| SERVICE BRAKES | 1 |
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1978 GMC KINGSLEY MOTOR HOME (NA). THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE BRAKES FAILED ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. THE MANUFACTURER SUGGESTED THAT THE CONTACT TAKE THE MOTOR HOME TO TWO SEPARATE DEALERS; HOWEVER, THEY WERE UNABLE TO REMEDY THE FAILURE. THE FIRST DEALER REFERRED THE CONTACT TO A SECOND DEALER WHO INDICATED THAT THE BRAKING SYSTEM WAS NOT APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION TO INSTALL THE DISC UPGRADE SYSTEM WITH A DRUM KIT. THE CONTACT WAITED MORE THAN FIFTEEN MONTHS TO GET THE MOTOR HOME REPAIRED. THE MOTOR HOME WAS REPAIRED VARIOUS TIMES BY THE SECOND REPAIR SHOP, BUT THE BRAKE FAILURE RECURRED. THE EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM WAS OVERHAULED AND NOT RE-INSTALLED. ON MORE THAN TWO OCCASIONS, THERE WAS AIR IN THE BRAKES AND THE CONTACT HAD TO APPLY FORCE TO THE BRAKE PEDAL. THE MOTOR HOME SLID FORWARD UPON DEPRESSING THE BRAKE PEDAL AND DID NOT MAKE A COMPLETE STOP. THE MOTOR HOME WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE CONTACT MADE NUMEROUS ATTEMPTS TO GET THE DEALER AND TH
Mileage: 38,000
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 1978 GMC KINGSLEY; 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.