Selling a damaged or dead Chevrolet SS

Holden built every SS at Elizabeth, near Adelaide in Australia, as a VF Commodore wearing a Chevrolet badge, for the 2014 through 2017 model years. Its NHTSA file is short, and more than half of it is about one fault: power steering assist that cuts out.

What the SS is

There was one engine, the 6.2-liter LS3 V8 with 415 hp, driving the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic or a Tremec six-speed manual. The 2014 came only as an automatic, and Chevrolet billed it as its first car with automatic parking assist. The manual arrived for 2015, along with standard Magnetic Ride Control. For 2016 the car got the Series II facelift: new front and rear fascias, LED lights, quad exhaust tips, hood vents and red Brembo calipers. Production at Elizabeth ended in 2017 with no successor, and the 2017 was the last SS.

Chevrolet rationed the car, tying each dealer's allocation to its Corvette and Camaro sales. U.S. sales for calendar 2014 through 2017 add up to 12,442.

The steering fault

Steering accounts for 57 of the SS's 103 complaints, and 38 of the 51 filed on the 2014. One 2014 owner lost assist while turning left at an intersection; a warning came up and the assist returned seconds later. Another said the steering failed and the car hit another car's bumper.

GM's first answer was Customer Satisfaction Program 14804, in February 2015, for 2014 SS and Caprice cars. Its bulletin says a message and chime warn of lost assist, the steering turns heavy at low speed, and it usually comes back at the next start. Dealers inspected the steering gear module connector and coated it with dielectric lubricant.

That was not the end of it. In June 2017, GM filed recall 17V382. Its report blames fretting corrosion on the connector between the power steering module and the torque sensor, a part from Mando Corporation of Korea. Dealers check the steering gear's part number and, if it is not the latest, fit a gear with gold-plated terminals. GM's report says it reimburses owners who paid for that repair themselves. The recall covered 6,204 cars: 2014 SS built May 14, 2013 through March 4, 2014, plus some 2015 and 2016 cars.

Two follow-ups widened it:

• 19V801 (November 2019): 476 cars that had only been inspected under 17V382 got a replacement steering gear.
• 20V254 (May 2020): 2,281 more vehicles, 2015-2016 SS and Caprice Police Pursuit Vehicles, got new gears for the same corrosion.

One 2015 owner told NHTSA the dealer skipped steps in the 17V382 procedure. A 2017 owner described steering that tends to fail and gets very hard to control at speed, though no steering recall names the 2017.

The other recalls

Seat belts. Getting in and out could bend the driver's seat belt tensioner cable over the seat side shield until it broke. Recall 16V518, in July 2016, covered 15,486 SS and Caprice police cars from 2014-2016. In 2020, recall 20V638 went back to 1,788 of them where the earlier repair may have been done incorrectly. A 2017 owner said two shops traced an air bag light to that cable.

Air bag software. Recalls 16V651 and 17V437 reflashed the sensing module so the front air bags and belt pretensioners would deploy. Both were large multi-model GM campaigns, 3,640,162 and 40,683 vehicles, with 2014-2016 SS cars among them.

Early 2014 cars. Recall 14V375 replaced wiper motors whose gear teeth could strip, on 2014 SS built September 13, 2013 through March 4, 2014 and on 2013-2014 Caprice cars, 4,794 vehicles in all. Recall 14V446 dealt with an incomplete weld on the front seat hook bracket across 124,007 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles. Recall 15V636 reached 23 cars whose replacement seat bases went in without the seat position target bracket, so an air bag could deploy harder than intended.

Complaints and recalls by model year

Our count date is October 10, 2026. Any recall covering two or more years is listed under each of them. Our pull listed two recalls for the 2017, but both are Nissan campaigns and are left out here.

Fix or sell?

Begin with a VIN check on NHTSA's site. If a steering recall is still open, the new gear comes from a Chevrolet dealer at no charge.

Past that, weigh the repair bill against the car's value once it runs again. After a crash, wait for the full written estimate, not the first number, before you decide. Our guide to what a junk car is worth explains how a car that can't be driven gets priced.

Selling it

Ask for an offer online or call (877) 421-6008. Have the VIN, the mileage and the transmission type ready, and say what's wrong and what's been changed from stock.

Describe where the SS is sitting, in a garage, on a driveway or at a body shop, and say if it rolls. Don't pull parts first: the wheels and catalytic converter should still be on it when the truck arrives, and if anything's missing, say what. On pickup day, the title and your ID are what the driver needs, along with any keys. For what to do with the plates, see after you sell.

Comparing Chevrolets? See the Camaro, the Corvette and the older Caprice, or all of Chevrolet.