all vehicles · every Altima year · method

Nissan Altima 2008

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.43 per 1,000

1.5 times this nameplate’s own median · from 117 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1045 ever. 95% lower bound 0.35.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.43	117
2009	0.32	76
2010	0.30	64
2011	0.16	40
2012	0.24	70
2013	1.78	556
2014	0.76	249
2015	0.60	202
2016	0.29	94
2017	0.25	70
2018	0.47	110
2019	0.36	76
2020	0.29	51
2021	0.18	22
2022	0.10	12
2023	0.16	21

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Structure 312 complaints

dashboard	262	84%
melting	222	71%
glare	202	64%
sticky	130	42%
dashboard melting	120	38%
glare windshield	57	18%

Unknown Or Other 199 complaints

melting	118	59%
glare	103	52%
sticky	86	43%
dashboard melting	64	32%
glare windshield	30	15%
melting dashboard	25	13%

Visibility/Wiper 168 complaints

dashboard	143	85%
glare	118	70%
melting	114	68%
dashboard melting	56	33%
coupe	27	16%
melting causing	17	10%

When it breaks

18% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 70,000 miles, from 701 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

2 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 50 complaints about this component over roughly 30 months before an investigation opened.

Brake Master Cylinder Internal Leak

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10207922 · 10212958 · 10213262 · 10216021 · 10216478 · 10216658

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is verified against a published figure.