2013 Nissan Sentra
Complaints about this year name pull far more often than the other years of this generation — 6% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 2.2%.
First year of a new generation. The Nissan Sentra 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 | 638 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 154 |
| Involving a crash | 24 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 33 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- passenger seat — 7.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (5.5×). Owners wrote it as: passenger seat, passenger airbag, adult, ocs.
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
ENGINE CUTS OFF WITHOUT WARNING NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT RESTARTS RIGHT AWAY AFTER PULLING OFF ROAD WHEN IT STALLS, MAY ALSO STALL COMING TO A STOP WITHOUT WARNING, SYMPTOMS OCCUR RANDOMLY.
TRANSMISSION IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY, SLIPPING, GETTING STUCK IN LOW GEAR WITH OUT SHIFTING, ALMOST CAUSED SEVERAL ACCIDENTS DRIVING AS CAR WILL NOT KEEP UP SPEED, WILL NOT PULL OUT IN INTERSECTIONS ETC...
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V242000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V681000 AIR BAGS 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.
- 13V068000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 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 2013 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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