Owners filed 1,762 complaints about the 2015–2025 Nissan Sentra with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the 59th-most of any vehicle in our Car Problem Index. The 2015 model year drew the most (351), and the single most-reported problem area is transmission / powertrain, named in 29% of complaints.
Key findings
- Worst model year: 2015, with 351 complaints, led by transmission / powertrain (172).
- Spike years: 2015 (1.9× the typical year).
- Earliest-failing area: automatic emergency braking / collision warning complaints came at a median of 19k mi on the odometer.
- Fire and crash reports: 16 complaints mention a fire and 139 mention a crash; owners reported 113 injuries and 1 deaths.
Nissan Sentra complaints by model year
| Model year | Complaints | Top problem areas | Median mileage | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 351 | Transmission / powertrain (172), Engine (68), Speed control / acceleration (49) | 56k mi | 23 | 3 |
| 2016 | 270 | Transmission / powertrain (127), Engine (48), Electrical system (45) | 61k mi | 18 | 2 |
| 2017 | 230 | Transmission / powertrain (76), Engine (48), Electrical system (33) | 44k mi | 29 | 6 |
| 2018 | 185 | Transmission / powertrain (46), Brakes (38), Electrical system (32) | 40k mi | 17 | 3 |
| 2019 | 222 | Electrical system (64), Transmission / powertrain (54), Brakes (37) | 35k mi | 16 | 1 |
| 2020 | 204 | Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (60), Steering (55), Electrical system (44) | 29k mi | 8 | 0 |
| 2021 | 131 | Steering (40), Electrical system (38), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (38) | 23k mi | 14 | 1 |
| 2022 | 81 | Steering (31), Electrical system (24), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (13) | 36k mi | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | 19 | Electrical system (8), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (5), Steering (4) | 75k mi | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | 39 | Steering (10), Transmission / powertrain (9), Electrical system (9) | 30k mi | 6 | 0 |
| 2025 | 30 | Electrical system (4), Engine (4), Transmission / powertrain (4) | 10k mi | 6 | 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 Sentra problems, and what they cost to fix
| Problem area | Complaints | Share | Median mileage | Repair estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission / powertrain | 509 | 29% | 75k mi | Transmission repair cost |
| Electrical system | 326 | 19% | 38k mi | Alternator / electrical repair cost |
| Engine | 239 | 14% | 51k mi | Engine repair cost |
| Brakes | 191 | 11% | 26k mi | Brake repair cost |
| Automatic emergency braking / collision warning | 186 | 11% | 19k mi | — |
| Steering | 176 | 10% | 40k mi | Power steering repair cost |
| Speed control / acceleration | 160 | 9% | 32k mi | — |
| Air bags | 122 | 7% | 26k 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 Altima (2,684)
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.