2020 Nissan Sentra
This year drew an ordinary 204 complaints for a Nissan Sentra — the model's median is 154. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.1% of them mention malfunction, against 5.6% across the model's other years.
First year of a new generation. The Nissan Sentra was redesigned for 2020. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 204 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 154 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- malfunction — 22.1% of this year's complaints, against 5.6% across the model's other years (4×). Owners wrote it as: malfunction, collision warning, pedestrian, engaged.
- camera — 26.5% of this year's complaints, against 9.9% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: camera, screen, reverse, blue.
- collision — 11.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (6.2×). Owners wrote it as: collision, nothing front, front collision.
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
2020 Nissan Sentra Backup Camera. The camera periodically goes out only displaying a blue screen. Researched and discovered it was a recall. Went to the dealership and asked them and they said my cars recall was marked as completed back in 2023 to which I had…
every since i got this $22,000 car, my backup camera has not worked. when i back up, the screen turns blue. first time i went to the nissan dealership they said there was a recall on the camera but because the one time it works, its at the dealership so they d…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V461000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 22V244000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V581000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V628000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
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 2020 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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