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Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2020 Nissan Altima — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 179 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

179

Complaints

filed with NHTSA

Involved a Crash

owner-reported

Involved Fire

owner-reported

15 / 1

Injuries / Deaths

across all reports

Years to Avoid

Nissan Altima — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

2013 Nissan Altima AVOID

2,312 complaints

2014 Nissan Altima AVOID

1,113 complaints

2015 Nissan Altima AVOID

954 complaints

2016 Nissan Altima

553 complaints

2017 Nissan Altima

391 complaints

2018 Nissan Altima

226 complaints

2019 Nissan Altima

232 complaints

2020 Nissan Altima

179 complaints

2021 Nissan Altima

70 complaints

2022 Nissan Altima

20 complaints

2023 Nissan Altima

29 complaints

2024 Nissan Altima

41 complaints

2025 Nissan Altima

7 complaints

2026 Nissan Altima

0 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Electrical System 45 reports

Engine 36 reports

Unknown Or Other 35 reports

Forward Collision Avoidance 29 reports

Steering 20 reports

Service Brakes 18 reports

Power Train 17 reports

Visibility/wiper 10 reports

In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Engine ODI 11707102 12/26/2025

Need a new engine / gasket confirmed by pep boys. Been at the dealership a lot more than usual lately and they kept telling me everything is fine with my vehicle

Power Train ODI 11561957 12/26/2023

Transmission went out at 145k miles

Air Bags ODI 11705488 12/17/2025

On October 31, 2025, I noticed the Check engine light was on, after inspecting the car at the closest car shop the technician noticed white powder on the driver side knee airbag cover. Next morning I brought my vehicle to Temecula Nissan telling about airbag powder leakage. But this issue was completely ignored by the Advisor, who for some reason decided to fix another issue b…

Steering ODI 11559839 12/13/2023

1. Power steering cuts off while driving. Occurs intermittently -- once every two weeks or so. I am guessing that the intermittent nature of this is why more have not reported it. Warning lights show on dash indicating ABS, etc. but codes disappear when car is turned off and back on. Yes, you can inspect this. We bought a BlueDriver OBDII with an app because we couldn't captur…

Engine And Engine Cooling ODI 11703886 12/09/2025

The contact owns a 2020 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while driving at 55 MPH, the vehicle stalled in the middle of the expressway. The contact turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the engine started knocking significantly. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact was able to slowly pull over to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to the reside…

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2020 Nissan Altima, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

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Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2020 Nissan Altima reliable?

Owners have filed 179 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2020 Nissan Altima, most often about electrical system. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.

Which Nissan Altima years should I avoid?

The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.

Where do these complaints come from?

Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.

Do complaints mean a recall is coming?

Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.