2008 Nissan Maxima
This year drew an ordinary 78 complaints for a Nissan Maxima — the model's median is 103. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.8% of them mention enough, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Nissan Maxima ran from 2004 to 2008, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 78 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 103 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- enough — 12.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: enough, large, tell, moved.
- inside — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: inside, spot, pressing.
- floorboards — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (7.4×). Owners wrote it as: floorboards, rusting.
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
RUSTING IN THEIR CARS' FLOORBOARDS. RUSTING LARGE ENOUGH TO SEE THROUGH THE CAR FLOOR.
AIR BAG WARNING LIGHT CAME ON. I TOOK SAME TO NISSAN DEALERSHIP SERVICE CENTER AND HAD A DIAGNOSTIC TEST DONE ON IT WHICH COST ME $98.00 AND THE ADVISED ME THAT THE AIR BAG SPRING IS WEAK, AIR BAG HAS NEVER BEEN DEPLOY AND THEN THE TELL ME IF IN AN ACCIDENT IT…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Maxima 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 2008 Nissan Maxima? What happened to yours?
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