all vehicles · every Altima year · method

Nissan Altima 2009

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.32 per 1,000

1.1 times this nameplate’s own median · from 76 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1601 ever. 95% lower bound 0.25.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.43	117
2009	0.32	76
2010	0.30	64
2011	0.16	40
2012	0.24	70
2013	1.78	556
2014	0.76	249
2015	0.60	202
2016	0.29	94
2017	0.25	70
2018	0.47	110
2019	0.36	76
2020	0.29	51
2021	0.18	22
2022	0.10	12
2023	0.16	21

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Steering 885 complaints

lock	694	78%
start	678	76%
steering lock	433	49%
lock mechanism	91	10%
start towed	74	8%
escl	69	8%

Electrical System 487 complaints

lock	312	64%
steering lock	162	33%
electronic steering	88	18%
column lock	72	15%
intelligent	49	10%
intelligent key	48	10%

Unknown Or Other 151 complaints

steering lock	33	22%
glare	22	15%
column	20	13%
column lock	17	12%
electronic steering	17	12%
steering column	17	12%

When it breaks

9% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 78,862 miles, from 1290 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

1 investigation covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign.

Pedestrian alert sounds

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10248971 · 10253536 · 10255329 · 10256444 · 10256858 · 10257070

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is verified against a published figure.