2013 Nissan Maxima
This year drew an ordinary 62 complaints for a Nissan Maxima — the model's median is 103. What they were about is the unusual part: 16.1% of them mention dangerous, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Nissan Maxima, which began in 2009 and ran to 2015. 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 | 62 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 103 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- dangerous — 16.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (5.7×).
- concerned — 9.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: concerned, fail, pounds.
- myself — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the other years of this generation (3.6×).
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
WHEN TRANSPORTING SOME ADULT PASSENGERS IN THE FRONT PASSENGER SEAT, THE "PASSENGER AIRBAG OFF" LIGHT REMAINS ON THROUGHOUT THE TRIP. THIS WOULD SEEM TO ME TO INDICATE THAT IN THE EVENT OF A FRONT-END COLLISION, THE AIRBAG WOULD FAIL TO DEPLOY BECAUSE IT IS OF…
THE DIM LIGHTS APPEAR NOT TO BE ON WHEN DRIVING AT NIGHT OR EARLY MORNING. I HAVE TO DRIVE WITH MY BRIGHT LIGHTS ON. I THOUGHT THE BULB CASE WAS CLOUDY BUT THAT IS NOT THE SITUATION. THE DIM LIGHTS SIMPLY DO NOT SHINE AS THEY SHOULD. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS TO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Maxima 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 Maxima? What happened to yours?
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