2020 Nissan Altima Reliability Report

From a stop, acceleration lags, sometimes for 3 to 4 seconds, while RPM climbs and the car shudders or jerks. Owners report near misses during left turns and cars lunging forward. Dealers often cannot reproduce the problem. Full transmission failures range from about 17,500 miles to 111,000, and one CVT failure alert sent a car into limp mode on the freeway. Other reports describe repeated limp mode after several throttle body replacements, every dash light coming on with a dead speedometer, and a battery fire while driving.

Nothing deploys in several serious frontal crashes, including one that destroyed the front end and windshield and another that totaled the car. Of 7 complaints, 5 involve crashes, with 4 people injured. One report says the seat belts also failed to engage. In another, a bag with a hole sprayed its chemicals onto a passenger's arm and left a painful burn. Other owners find white powder on the driver's knee airbag cover, or an airbag warning light that stays on.

Automatic emergency braking kicks in with nothing ahead. Some cars come to a full stop on the highway, and one owner says this has gone on for years. The rear system can also stop the car from backing into an empty space until it is switched off. An AEB fault can disable cruise control. One report describes the brake pedal sinking to the floor at a stop light, causing a 5 mph collision. Another describes power loss with several warning lights that a new mass air flow sensor and battery did not fix.

Brakes slam on with no vehicle ahead. This happens when driving into shade, under trees, in parking garages, after school buses pass, and at highway speeds, and trailing drivers nearly hit the car. One report notes a crash. Some cars brake even with the system turned off. Another failure is a "front laser obstructed" message that shuts off emergency braking with nothing blocking the sensor, starting around 50,000 miles in one report. Repeat dealer visits often leave the warning lights unresolved.

Door lock actuators fail one after another, often starting with the rear doors and spreading to the front. The key fob stops unlocking them, the key can be hard to turn by hand, and in one report the driver's door stopped opening at all. Failures show up between about 40,000 and 91,228 miles, and dealers diagnose failed actuators. One crash report with 1 injury combines a loose, rattling hood with sudden emergency braking and hesitation.

Cars speed up on their own while parking, and one hit the parked car ahead. Dealers could not reproduce the problem in another report at 40,000 miles. Other cars slow or stop on their own with no traffic around after an orange warning light comes on, and one went back to the dealer 6 times without a fix. Malfunction and driving-aid warnings remain even after a new speed sensor, CV axle, and hub. A dealer confirmed a twitching speedometer needle and found the same thing on a new Altima.

Both front seats broke at the hinge in a rear-end crash and folded back into the rear passengers. That crash accounts for all 4 injuries in this category: cuts, a bloody nose, and bruised teeth. The other complaint covers a popping noise from the passenger seat's lumbar area. The dealer traced it to shifting springs, found the same noise in three other 2020 Altimas, and called it normal.