2008 Nissan Altima
Complaints about this year name dashboard far more often than the other years of this generation — 43% of them, about 5× the usual rate of 9.5%.
Generation 1 of the Nissan Altima, 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 | 1,028 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 390 |
| Involving a crash | 53 |
| Involving a fire | 13 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- dashboard — 43.1% of this year's complaints, against 9.5% across the other years of this generation (4.5×).
- melting — 35.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the other years of this generation (6.5×).
- glare — 32.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the other years of this generation (5.8×). Owners wrote it as: glare, glare windshield, causing glare, due glare.
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.
Also unusual this year
- melting — 35% of complaints, 7× usual
- glare — 33% of complaints, 6× usual
- sticky — 22% of complaints, 5× usual
What owners wrote
DASHBOARD IS MELTING AND VERY STICKY BOTH OF WHICH CAUSE A HORRIFIC GLARE IN THE SUN.
DASHBOARD IS MELTING,GETTING STICKY AND SHINY AND CAUSING A VERY DANGEROUS GLARE ON THE WINDSHIELD.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 08V363000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 08V521000 AIR BAGS
- 10V401000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 07V599000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Altima 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 Altima? What happened to yours?
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