2012 Nissan Frontier
This year drew an ordinary 78 complaints for a Nissan Frontier — the model's median is 46. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.5% of them mention mph vehicle, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Nissan Frontier, which began in 2005 and ran to 2021. 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 | 78 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 46 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- mph vehicle — 20.5% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: mph vehicle, vehicle stalled, mechanic who, who diagnosed.
- deploy — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the other years of this generation (11.1×).
- end — 9% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: end, rusted, breather.
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 50 MPH, THE VEHICLE STALLED WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED WITH AN UNKNOWN WIRE NEEDING TO BE REPLACED. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE WIRE WAS REPLACED HOWEVER, THE FAILURE RECURRED. THE FAI…
WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, A LOUD NOISE WAS PRESENT COMING FROM THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO NISSAN OF SALEM (33 MAIN ST, SALEM, NH) AND ALL FOUR TIRES WERE REPLACED, BUT THE NOISE GREW LOUDER. LATER, WHILE DRIVING AT AN UNKNOWN SPEED,…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V052000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 11V592000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 12V462000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Frontier 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 2012 Nissan Frontier? What happened to yours?
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