2012 Nissan Leaf
This year drew an ordinary 57 complaints for a Nissan Leaf — the model's median is 52. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.8% of them mention seat, against 2.8% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 57 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 52 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 99 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 22.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (8.2×).
- brakes — 33.3% of this year's complaints, against 11.7% across the model's other years (2.8×).
- brake — 31.6% of this year's complaints, against 10.6% across the model's other years (3×).
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
THIS IS AN ALL ELECTRIC VEHICLE. WHEN APPLYING THE BRAKES AT SLOW SPEEDS THE VEHICLE PULSATES. THIS IS A PROBLEM WITH THE REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM SINCE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN WHEN THE VEHICLE IS FULLY CHARGED AND NOT REGENERATING THROUGH THE BRAKING SYSTEM.
When applying the brakes at low speed the brakes grab suddenly causing the car to lurch to a stop. The problem is intermittent, and therefore difficult to predict, but occurs frequently. This behavior is an ongoing hazard to the driver and passengers while als…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Leaf 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 Leaf? What happened to yours?
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