Other visibility problem on the 2012 Nissan Leaf
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other visibility problem gets reported
There are 3 reports of other visibility problem on the 2012 Nissan Leaf, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 20,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure, every year of the Nissan Leaf
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 nissan leaf. The contact stated that the windshield washer sprays the rear edge of the hood and not the glass. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure and current mileage was 2,500. The VIN was not available.
Serious safety defect in many modern cars - huge window pillar blockage!!! I am a retired engineer after almost 34 years of federal service for the us army mostly at fort monmouth nj. About a year ago I almost hit a pedestrian who was walking very close to the front left of my car at night. Yesterday I looked left but did not see a large black SUV transiting from my right in broad daylight. I looked left and then started to slowly turn left as I looked right again and wow...it passed right in front! To my perspective, it literally came out of nowhere!!! Both of these incidents were due to me looking quickly, not dwelling for a couple seconds. A vehicle or person must be in just the right spot and traveling slowly, so it happens only about once a year. I measured the front windshield pillar support width of about 30 cars in a parking lot. Most old cars and some modern ones have small window pillar blockage of 4 to 5 inches. However many modern cars have window pillar blockages of 5 to 6 inches, hiding much view! The nissan leaf has the worst about 5.5 inches up high, but a phenomenal 8 inches at side mirror level. Unfortunately…
Nhtsa must pass regulations requiring vehicle manufacturers to drastically improve a-pillar obscuration angle! This is a serious safety defect of many modern vehicles that must have been a factor in many accidents, the extent to which is probably unquantified & largely unknown due to the fact that most people do not even know about the problem. The only remedy is for the driver to move his head from side to side every time the vehicle starts from a stopped position to ascertain that there are no people or vehicles hiding in or transiting the a-pilar blockage. This is a well known problem in the industry, as proven by the paper published by pipkorn bengt of autoliv research (sweden) entitled safety & vision improvements by expandable a-pillars (undated), which is in the NHTSA database/website, where a 25% improvement in a-pillar obscuration angle is demonstrated by the use of experimental expandable a-pillars. The number of people already injured or killed by this common modern car defect will probably never be known, with the unfortunate drivers being disbelieved when they say they never saw anyone/thing due to the obscure nature…
Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Leaf
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 3 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2012 Nissan Leaf?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2012 Nissan Leaf?
3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
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