2025 Nissan Altima: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2025 Nissan Altima
On the 2025 Nissan Altima, the failure owners report most often is other body or interior problem, with 3 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 90,000 miles.
What breaks on the 2025 Nissan Altima
Owners have reported 7 named failure modes on the 2025 Nissan Altima, and the three most-reported carry 50% of everything filed.
Other body or interior problem leads with 3 reports and about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles.
Complete transmission failure follows with 1 report, median 180,000 miles.
CVT failure follows with 1 report.
By system, the reports fall mostly into body (3), transmission (3) and electrical (1).
At what mileage it happens
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 2 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
Severity, and what it costs
Across the named modes, 2 mention a crash and 2 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 8.40, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: other body or interior problem at $200–$2,000, complete transmission failure at $2,800–$8,000, CVT failure at $3,000–$8,500 and torque converter failure at $1,100–$3,200. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
30% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other body or interior problem | body | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.6 | $200–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Complete transmission failure | transmission | 1 | 1 | — | 179k | — | 0.2 | $2,800–$8,000 | Critical |
| CVT failure | transmission | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | $3,000–$8,500 | Critical |
| Torque converter failure | transmission | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | $1,100–$3,200 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other wheel or tire problem | wheels | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | $200–$1,500 | High |
| Other driver assistance problem | adas | 1 | 1 | — | 145 | — | 0.2 | $250–$1,800 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.2 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2025 Nissan Altima draws about 1.9 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 82nd percentile of complaint rates among 2025 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 5,286 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2025 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
Recalls on the 2025 model year
NHTSA has issued 2 recall campaigns covering the 2025 Nissan Altima, affecting an estimated 5,435 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover air bags:critical fasteners and latches/locks/linkages:doors:latch. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
AIR BAGS:CRITICAL FASTENERS
149 vehicles 2026-08-12- Defect
- Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2025 Altima vehicles. The front passenger air bag and front passenger knee air bag may have been installed with incorrect mounting fasteners, which can cause the air bags not to deploy as intended.
- Consequence
- Air bags that do not deploy as intended increase the risk of injury in a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the air bag mounting fasteners, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed September 25, 2026. Owners may contact Nissan’s customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is PD202. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall became searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning August 17, 2026.
LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:DOORS:LATCH
26,432 vehicles 2026-01-20- Defect
- Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2025 Altima, Sentra, 2025-2026 Frontier, and 2026 Kicks vehicles. The door strikers may have been improperly welded and break, allowing the door to open while moving. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 206, "Door Locks and Door Retention Components."
- Consequence
- A door that opens unexpectedly while the vehicle is in motion increases the risk of injury or a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the door strikers, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 17, 2026. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 800-647-7261. Nissan's numbers for this recall are PD185 and PMA61. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning January 28, 2026.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
Better and worse years of the same car
Across the 29 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2018 comes out best at 63 and 2024 worst at 83.
Within the 2019–2025 generation specifically, 2023 is the strongest year at 66 and 2024 the weakest at 83.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 2019-2025 generation, 2023 Nissan Altima scores best at 66 and 2024 Nissan Altima worst at 83.
The limits of complaint data
10 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 10 reports, 2 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 20% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2025 Nissan Altima?
The most-reported failures are other body or interior problem (3 reports), complete transmission failure (1 report, median 180,000 miles) and cvt failure (1 report). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Which year of the Nissan Altima is best?
Within the 2019–2025 generation, 2023 scores best at 66 out of 100 and 2024 worst at 83. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed