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Nissan problems by generation and mileage

27 generations across 8 models, built from 35,493 complaints that record mileage at failure.

Nissan models and generations

Pick your car. Each generation has its own page: what owners reported breaking, at what mileage, year by year, and its recalls.

How long do Nissans last?

Complaint records can’t measure how long a car lasts; they show when reported failures happened. Across the 27 Nissan generations here — 16 of the 27 generations here left production more than ten years ago, and older ones have had longer to reach high mileage, so read the figure against that mix — half of the 35,493 complaints that record an odometer reading were filed by 70,000 miles and 90% by 132,000 miles. 2,081 came in past 150,000 miles and 366 past 200,000 — each one a car that got there, not one that failed there.

At what mileage do Nissans start having problems? A quarter of those reports came by 38,000 miles, and 13% within the first 12,000 — the window this site treats as manufacturing defects rather than wear. That is the start of the reports, not the onset of problems on any one car.

For one car, open its generation in the list above: each page gives its own figures, year by year.

Mileage at failure, generation by generation

Each strip places that generation’s mileage-tagged reports on a linear 0–200,000-mile scale: whisker = middle 80%, box = middle half, line = median. † marks recent generations — their fleets are young, so their reports can only have come at low mileages. Compare generations of similar age.

Altima

• 1998–200124278,000
• 2002–20063,30186,000
• 2007–20123,14572,000
• 2013–20183,51060,000
• 2019–2025†14723,000too few reports to chart

Frontier

• 1998–200440674,000
• 2005–20211,96078,000

Maxima

• 1995–199918790,000
• 2000–200362368,000
• 2004–20082,67981,000
• 2009–201477865,000
• 2016–2023†15530,000

Murano

• 2003–20073,32970,000
• 2009–20141,01277,000
• 2015–2024†36420,000

Pathfinder

• 1996–2004713110,000
• 2005–20122,56895,000
• 2013–20201,52035,000

Rogue

• 2008–20131,78377,000
• 2014–20201,77930,000
• 2021–2025†32340,000

Sentra

• 2000–200689870,000
• 2007–201264165,000
• 2013–20191,39656,000
• 2020–2025†10126,000too few reports to chart

Versa

• 2007–20111,06361,000
• 2012–201987051,000

What the strips show across Nissan

Of the 27 Nissan generations here, 20 with failures spread across the mileage range; 6 with failures concentrated early; 1 with failures concentrated late. The shape matters more than the median: a generation whose reports cluster tightly at one mileage is describing a part that fails, while one spread across the whole range is describing ordinary wear, and the two need different decisions from a buyer. The most common shape across this make is failures spread across the mileage range, on 20 of 27.

Comparing generations of the same age

Medians fall as generations get newer, and that is age, not decline: a car built three years ago has not had time to reach a high odometer reading, so its reports cannot come from one. The only honest comparison is inside an age band, and here is this make split into three. The spread inside a band is a comparison worth making; the same numbers set against a generation from another band are not.

Nissan built in the last decade

11 generations, median of medians 35,000 miles. Among those built in the last decade, the earliest reports belong to the Murano 2015–2024 at 20,000, the latest to the Frontier 2005–2021 at 78,000: a spread of 58,000 miles.

Nissan built between ten and twenty years ago

11 generations, median of medians 72,000 miles. Among those built between ten and twenty years ago, the earliest reports belong to the Versa 2007–2011 at 61,000, the latest to the Pathfinder 2005–2012 at 95,000: a spread of 34,000 miles.

Nissan older than twenty years

5 generations, median of medians 78,000 miles. Among those older than twenty years, the earliest reports belong to the Maxima 2000–2003 at 68,000, the latest to the Pathfinder 1996–2004 at 110,000: a spread of 42,000 miles.

Where the reports concentrate

The middle half of the reports — between the 25th and 75th percentile — is the part of the curve that says most. On the Maxima 2004–2008 it spans 39,000 miles, the tightest of any Nissan generation here: half the reports arrive inside that window, which is what a single failing part looks like in this data. On the Pathfinder 1996–2004 the same half spans 81,000 miles — a curve that wide is describing a fleet ageing, not a part failing.

The largest body of evidence for this make is the Altima 2013–2018, with 3,510 reports that record an odometer reading. Generations with a few hundred reports describe their own owners more loosely, and every number on this page carries that weight with it.

Model by model

Within one model the generations are the fairest comparison this data allows: same maker, same intent, often the same platform carried forward. Where a median moves sharply between two generations of the same model, it is worth asking whether the newer one is simply younger. Where the generation reporting later is also the older one, part of the gap is age rather than build; where it is the newer one, age alone does not explain it. The latest-reporting cell says which case each model is.

Swipe the table sideways for every column.

What fails across Nissan, and when

Summed across every Nissan generation on this site, the most-reported system is Power Train: 12,286 reports, 24% of the 52,051 that name a system, and it appears among the leading systems on 24 of the 27 generations here, reporting at a median of 77,000 miles.

The right-hand column is a median of medians, not an average: a generation with three thousand reports and one with two hundred would otherwise carry the same weight in a mean, and they do not describe the same amount of evidence. Read it as the middle of the range this make reports at, not as a prediction for one car.

Recalls across Nissan

NHTSA has issued 203 recall campaigns against the Nissan generations on this site, spread over 27 of 27. A recall is not a reliability score: it means a defect was found and a free repair is owed, and a make watched closely can collect more campaigns than one nobody examined. What it does mean for a buyer is concrete — the work is free at an authorized dealer, for any owner, and whether a given car is included depends on its VIN rather than on its model year.

• Rogue 2014–2020 — 20 campaigns
• Rogue 2021–2025 — 19 campaigns
• Pathfinder 2013–2020 — 18 campaigns
• Frontier 2005–2021 — 18 campaigns
• Altima 2013–2018 — 16 campaigns
• Sentra 2000–2006 — 16 campaigns

What this page cannot tell you

These are complaints, not failures. A complaint exists because an owner chose to file one with NHTSA, and nothing here counts the owners who did not. That makes the counts a measure of reporting as much as of breaking, and it is why this site never ranks one car against another: it describes what happens to a given car, and when.

Nor is any of this a rate. A rate needs a denominator — how many of these cars were sold — and no free model-level production figure exists. The obvious substitute, the affected-vehicle count on recall campaigns, was tested here and rejected: it overstates by a median factor of 7.6, because most campaigns span several model years. So a generation with more reports than another may simply be a generation with more cars on the road. The method page sets out every step.

Every page here is generated from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation dataset. How this is built · All makes