all vehicles · every Altima year · method

Nissan Altima 2015

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

0.60 per 1,000

2.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 202 complaints filed in the first three years, of 954 ever. 95% lower bound 0.52.

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.

Exterior Lighting 270 complaints

dim	159	59%
are dim	58	22%
see night	30	11%
extremely dim	25	9%
class	24	9%
class action	23	9%

Air Bags 177 complaints

sitting	20	11%
adult	18	10%
bag off	12	7%
where diagnosed	12	7%
ocs	11	6%
occupied	11	6%

Power Train 161 complaints

accelerate	48	30%
cvt	37	23%
cvt transmission	21	13%
gas pedal	18	11%
rpm	17	11%
seconds	15	10%

When it breaks

29% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 57,000 miles, from 545 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

3 investigations covering this model year, 0 of which list a recall campaign.

Rear Suspension Control Arm 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:

10640005 · 10669168 · 10669320 · 10672274 · 10681780 · 10689850

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.