2021 Nissan Sentra
This year drew an ordinary 129 complaints for a Nissan Sentra — the model's median is 167. What they were about is the unusual part: 26.4% of them mention battery, against 10.3% across the model's other years.
Generation 3 of the Nissan Sentra, which began in 2020. 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 | 129 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 167 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- battery — 26.4% of this year's complaints, against 10.3% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: battery, jump, system malfunction, happened car.
- steering however — 7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (34.9×).
- causing — 16.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (3.1×).
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
Vehicle has a inconsistent overnight battery drain. Called Auto Club for a jump start and technician said some Nissans have been experiencing this issue. Drove the vehicle to get the battery and charging system tested, it passed and no problems were found. The…
I got in the car to start it and it would not start. This happened at the car wash one morning. It didn’t give me any warnings of a bad battery and the only way I started it was to have someone jump it. This has happened 4 times now. It takes several minutes f…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V461000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V581000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V628000 BACK OVER PREVENTION 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 2021 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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