2011 Nissan Sentra
This year drew an ordinary 142 complaints for a Nissan Sentra — the model's median is 167. What they were about is the unusual part: 13.4% of them mention battery, against 5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Nissan Sentra, which began in 2007 and ran to 2012. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 142 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 167 |
| Involving a crash | 19 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- battery — 13.4% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: battery, electrical system, terminal, battery terminal.
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
WHILE DRIVING AT 55 MPH, THERE WAS A SUDDEN LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE CONTACT MENTIONED THAT THE MAIN FUSE AND THE BATTERY HARNESS FAILED. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A DEALER WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE MAIN FUSE ON THE POSITIVE BATTERY TERMINAL NEEDED TO BE…
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 35 MPH THE VEHICLE SUDDENLY STALLED. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO THE DEALER FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING. THE TECHNICIAN STATED THE BLOT/WASHER ON THE END OF THE BATTERY TERMINAL AND THE ENGINE HAD TO BE REPLACED. NHTSA RECALL CAMPAIGN ID NU…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 11V579000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 10V555000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Sentra 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 2011 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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