Owners filed 2,684 complaints about the 2015–2025 Nissan Altima with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the 34th-most of any vehicle in our Car Problem Index. The 2015 model year drew the most (950), and the single most-reported problem area is transmission / powertrain, named in 22% of complaints.
Key findings
- Worst model year: 2015, with 950 complaints, led by exterior lights (270).
- Spike years: 2015 (6.0× the typical year), 2016 (3.5× the typical year), 2017 (2.5× the typical year).
- Earliest-failing area: automatic emergency braking / collision warning complaints came at a median of 18k mi on the odometer.
- Fire and crash reports: 29 complaints mention a fire and 171 mention a crash; owners reported 130 injuries and 2 deaths.
Nissan Altima complaints by model year
| Model year | Complaints | Top problem areas | Median mileage | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 950 | Exterior lights (270), Air bags (177), Transmission / powertrain (160) | 57k mi | 46 | 5 |
| 2016 | 553 | Transmission / powertrain (235), Engine (86), Air bags (70) | 58k mi | 28 | 3 |
| 2017 | 391 | Transmission / powertrain (133), Air bags (73), Speed control / acceleration (41) | 55k mi | 24 | 7 |
| 2018 | 225 | Brakes (48), Electrical system (37), Air bags (36) | 36k mi | 11 | 0 |
| 2019 | 231 | Electrical system (58), Engine (48), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (41) | 20k mi | 22 | 5 |
| 2020 | 158 | Electrical system (42), Engine (33), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (28) | 15k mi | 15 | 5 |
| 2021 | 70 | Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (22), Electrical system (21), Brakes (18) | 45k mi | 7 | 1 |
| 2022 | 30 | Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (10), Engine (7), Electrical system (7) | 55k mi | 5 | 1 |
| 2023 | 29 | Electrical system (10), Engine (6), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (4) | 65k mi | 5 | 1 |
| 2024 | 41 | Brakes (5), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (5), Steering (5) | 15k mi | 7 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | Air bags (1), Seats (1), Body structure (1) | 0k mi | 1 | 0 |
Newer model years have had less time on the road, so their counts are lower partly because owners have had fewer years to report problems.
Most-reported Nissan Altima problems, and what they cost to fix
| Problem area | Complaints | Share | Median mileage | Repair estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission / powertrain | 590 | 22% | 64k mi | Transmission repair cost |
| Air bags | 383 | 14% | 37k mi | — |
| Exterior lights | 346 | 13% | 69k mi | Headlight replacement cost |
| Engine | 309 | 12% | 51k mi | Engine repair cost |
| Electrical system | 303 | 11% | 31k mi | Alternator / electrical repair cost |
| Brakes | 180 | 7% | 24k mi | Brake repair cost |
| Speed control / acceleration | 170 | 6% | 56k mi | — |
| Automatic emergency braking / collision warning | 139 | 5% | 18k mi | — |
One complaint can name several problem areas, so shares add up to more than 100%.
What this data can and can't tell you
These are unverified reports that owners submitted to NHTSA, counted by model year. They are not defect findings, and they aren't adjusted for sales: a best-selling vehicle collects more complaints simply because more of them are on the road. Use the counts to compare model years of the same vehicle and to see which systems owners complain about most, not to compare how reliable two different models are. See the full methodology.
Other Nissan models in the index
- Nissan Rogue (4,457)
- Nissan Sentra (1,762)
Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, consumer complaint files (nhtsa.gov), model years 2015–2025, retrieved 2026-09-23. Free to cite with a link to this page.