Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Nissan Versa
2 crashes 2 of the 78 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Nissan Versa report other powertrain problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles, from 64 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 106,033 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
20% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,667 miles | 47,500 miles | 69,554 miles | 87,250 miles | 110,700 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 1,700 miles, and latest on the 2018 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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 versa. The contact was driving approximately 10 MPH approaching a traffic signal with the brake engaged, the vehicle jerked with force in reverse for a few seconds. The brake pedal was applied repeatedly before coming to a stop. The identical failure occurred twice. Currently, the vehicle was being diagnosed at an authorized dealer and the data recorder would be used to determine the cause of failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 78.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 nissan versa. The contact stated the gear was not locking in park tight enough; therefore, it began to shift into other gears whether the key was is in the ignition or not. The key also could not be removed from the ignition when the engine was turned off or on. The vehicle was taken to the dealer previously for twenty days where they inspected the failure and replaced the shift assembly; however, the failure continued to occur. The manufacturer was notified and the contact requested they buy the vehicle back but the manufacturer refused and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 1,037 and the current mileage was 1, 217.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 nissan versa. The contact stated that the key was unable to be removed from the ignition. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing where the technicians were unable to duplicate the failure. The technician did however advised the contact that the gear shifter could possibly have been moving slightly into reverse while parked, interfering with the removal of the key. The contact was unaware of the specific repairs that would be performed to the vehicle but she believed a plastic piece in the gear shifter assembly would be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 350. Updated 02/15/12*lj the consumer stated the vehicle was repaired. 02/17/12
Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Versa
Airbag inflator rupture
CVT failure
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 78 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Nissan Versa?
Across 64 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Nissan Versa?
78 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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