2013 Nissan Leaf
This year drew an ordinary 81 complaints for a Nissan Leaf — the model's median is 52. What they were about is the unusual part: 34.6% of them mention brake, against 10.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 81 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 52 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 115 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake — 34.6% of this year's complaints, against 10.6% across the model's other years (3.3×).
- brakes — 30.9% of this year's complaints, against 11.7% across the model's other years (2.6×).
- without warning — 13.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.3% across the model's other years (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: without warning, brakes failed, sustained, warning vehicle.
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.
What owners wrote
THE BRAKES FAILED WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER WHERE THE TECHNICIAN DIAGNOSED THAT THERE WAS BRAKE FLUID LEAKAGE. THE VEHICLE RECEIVED UNKNOWN REPAIRS AND THE BRAKE FLUID WAS REPLACED. THE [VIN] WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILUR…
The left curtain and driver seat airbags were spontaneously deployed while driving. The driver seatbelt pre-tensioner was engaged and locked. There was no collision or abrupt motion. My wife sustained minor abrasions to her left arm and swerved to the right sh…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V119000 SERVICE BRAKES Fixed free of charge.
- 14V138000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V244000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V069000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 23V296000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Leaf 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 Leaf? What happened to yours?
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