Complete transmission failure on the 2012 Nissan Rogue
When complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Nissan Rogue report complete transmission failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 77,500 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles, from 29 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 70,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 56,548 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 69,319 miles | 76,920 miles | 99,000 miles | 113,000 miles | 125,867 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 48 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 61; the 2012 has 36. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
I was driving on the freeway on my way home from work. The car started to decelerate from about 68 MPH down to 40 MPH. I was pressing the pedal down more and more to try and accelerate but the car would not accelerate. It just kept going slower and slower as the minutes passed by. Soon I was driving slower than the big semi's and I had to pull to the last lane (slowest lane) because I could not keep up with the regular flowing traffic. This is not the first time it happens to me. I had this problem last year and nissan had to replace the transmission. Now with a new transmission and 30,000 miles into it, the same thing is beginning to happen. I truly believe the CVT transmissions in nissan are defective and unreliable. I cannot drive my car for 2 hours before this problem begins. Everything on the panel indicates that the car is performing fine but then it goes into this "auto shut off" mode and the car stops performing correctly.
2012 nissan rogue CVT transmission failed while accelerating on a 2 lane merge from one interstate onto another putting the occupants at risk while attempting to get to the side of the road. Nissan has a long standing issue with the CVT transmission that allegedly was resolved after a redesign. Nissan acknowledged the issue (not covered by warranty d/t mileage but declined to apply an extended warranty that was in place for earlier models). Dealer repaired at a cost of 1/4 of the vehicle cost was for a rebuild, warranty for this only covers 1 year/12k. Not much comfort regarding longevity or personal safety within this vehicle.
Transmission went out in the middle of the highway I-75 southbound 37.5 mile. Two adults and kids 6 and 4 yrs old were present in the car. We had to get other people to help push the car over to the resting area and off the highway. We had to tow the car twice to the location were we were going and back to sarasota area where we live. The car was on the highway going 75 MPH when it broke and could not move anymore. I called nissan and created a case, but they refused help with anything. Nissan transmissions were recalled to year 2010. Ours is 2012 and they still made bad transmissions. It should be recalled.
Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Rogue
CVT failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 36 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2012 Nissan Rogue?
Across 29 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 77,500 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2012 Nissan Rogue?
36 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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