all vehicles · every Altima year · method

Nissan Altima 2013

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

1.78 per 1,000

6.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 556 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2313 ever. 95% lower bound 1.64.

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.

Air Bags 514 complaints

sitting	90	18%
adult	86	17%
airbag off	48	9%
bag off	46	9%
lbs	44	9%
off light	39	8%

Power Train 505 complaints

cvt	151	30%
cvt transmission	82	16%
move	67	13%
stalled	65	13%
middle	45	9%
rpm	38	8%

Exterior Lighting 442 complaints

dim	258	58%
headlights are	131	29%
are dim	99	22%
see night	53	12%
extremely dim	48	11%
use high	38	9%

When it breaks

28% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 65,000 miles, from 1677 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

5 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 283 complaints about this component over roughly 32 months before an investigation opened.

Occupant Classification System Failure

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:

10471844 · 10473050 · 10474264 · 10474303 · 10476575 · 10476614

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.