2012 Nissan Sentra
This year drew an ordinary 180 complaints for a Nissan Sentra — the model's median is 154. What they were about is the unusual part: 33.3% of them mention transmission, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Nissan Sentra ran from 2007 to 2012, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 180 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 154 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 33.3% of this year's complaints, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation (3.7×).
- happens — 11.7% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: happens, miles vehicle, driving freeway, car move.
- accelerating — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (6×). Owners wrote it as: accelerating, taking off, haven, makes clunking.
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 TROUBLE ACCELERATING AND WHILE ACCELERATING ITS BEGAN MAKING NOISES WITH THE TRANSMISSION AFTER GOING 70 MPH OR MORE. AT TIMES IT SHAKES AS I BEGIN ACCELERATING. I JUST BOUGHT THIS VEHIVLE AND IT HAS ONLY 46000 MILES.
WHILE DRIVING AT APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH, THE TRANSMISSION FAILED WHILE ACCELERATING. THE CHECK ENGINE WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A DEALER WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE TRANSMISSION NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. T…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2012 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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