2013 Nissan Altima
Complaints about this year name night far more often than the other years of this generation — 14% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 3.1%.
First year of a new generation. The Nissan Altima was redesigned for 2013. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,307 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 390 |
| Involving a crash | 63 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 12 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- arm — 13% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation (6.3×). Owners wrote it as: arm, control arm, broke, lower control.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- control arm — 8% of complaints, 12× usual
- headlights — 13% of complaints, 3× usual
- low — 12% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS ARE VERY DIM AND MAKES DRIVING AT NIGHT EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS.
MY LOW BEAMS ON MY HEADLIGHTS ARE DANGEROUSLY LOW AT NIGHT I CAN BARELY SEE A FOOT AHEAD WHETHER DRIVING ARE PARKED.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15V681000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V911000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V486000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 14V138000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V244000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V029000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 14V565000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 15V116000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 12. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Altima was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2013 Nissan Altima? What happened to yours?
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