Nissan Reliability Overview

Nissan has 95,423 NHTSA consumer complaints across 29 distinct models in the VinItel database (1995–present). 5.8% of those complaints involved a crash, and 212 involved a fatality. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation via VinItel.

By total complaint volume, the top Nissan models are: Nissan Altima (20,099 complaints), Nissan Pathfinder (10,175 complaints), Nissan Rogue (9,867 complaints). Note that higher-volume models naturally accumulate more complaints, so per-model severity depends on sales volume and crash rate. See the full sortable ranking at vinitel.com/stats/nhtsa-complaints/nissan.

Across all Nissan models in the NHTSA database, the most-reported issue categories are: Transmission / Drivetrain (12,489 complaints, 1.6% crash rate); Engine Problems (7,107 complaints, 2.0% crash rate); Electrical Faults (6,792 complaints, 2.4% crash rate). Crash percentages indicate how often that component failure resulted in an accident — higher percentages are safety-critical.

Nissan models with the highest severity scores include Nissan Rogue Sport and Nissan 300Zx. Specific model years to avoid depend on the model — click any Nissan model to see its year-by-year breakdown with complaint counts, crash rates, and recalls. Our AVOID label is applied when a year's normalized complaint rate exceeds 1.5× the model's median.

Among Nissan models with at least 200 NHTSA complaints (enough data for a confident comparison), the lowest severity scores are: Nissan Kicks (812 complaints), Nissan Rogue (9,867 complaints), Nissan Frontier (4,449 complaints). Lower complaint volume plus lower crash/fire/injury rates indicates fewer reported safety issues per vehicle on the road.

NHTSA complaint data shows reliability varies significantly by model and year within every major brand — including Nissan. A brand-level reliability verdict is misleading because it averages a bad year of one model with a great year of another. VinItel's approach: pick your target Nissan model + year and view that specific page for actionable reliability data. See vinitel.com/stats/nhtsa-complaints/nissan to browse all 29 Nissan models.

Buying used requires two checks: (1) research the specific model + year for known problems using the NHTSA data on this page, and (2) run a VIN report on the exact car to check for hidden accidents, title issues, and odometer rollbacks. VinItel offers both — reliability research is free, individual VIN reports are $4.99 (vs. Carfax $44.99). Common Nissan issues to ask about during inspection include transmission / drivetrain.