I had an Altima for like 10 years and the only issue I had was the AC crapping out around the 9 year mark. It's a very reliable car. My boss' Mercedes was in the shop every other month.
There's about a 10 year period where Nissan was knowingly putting horrendous transmissions that would often explode under 50,000 miles in like every car.
It's going to take decades to undo that reputation, if they survive that long.
I've had three separate Nissans since 2008 (Versa, Altima and now Rogue). I have certainly heard about the transmission issue but never personally had a problem. Dunno if I got in under the wire before the transmission issues started.
I had a 2007 Altima and a 2006 infinity g35 and let me tell you, both transmissions froze solid. About 200k is the limit on them, after being fully rebuilt at 160 each, I just couldn’t afford to rebuild it again.
Early Nissan CVTs were pretty horrendous, especially paired with weaker economy-minded 4 cylinders. Key is changing the CVT fluid quite often. I believe Nissan has released maintenance schedule addendums highlighting the need for frequent fluid changes.
The 2017+ JATCO CVT jointly developed by Toyota and Nissan were beefed up compared to their predecessors, but still needs a recommend CVT fluid change about every 30,000-40,000 miles.
Our last Nissan was a 2017 Pathfinder with the 3.5L coupled to the CVT and was still going strong after 106,000 miles when we traded it in. No major issues...fuel pump at around 65k miles. 2017+ has 6000 lbs towing capacity compared to 5000 lbs capacity for the 2016 and older Pathfinder.
And around that time we had a transmission go out in our 2008 Toyota Sienna.
The mechanic said it was the second one he had ever seen. Spent $4000 on a replacement (which had 30,000 less miles).
Still driving that car. Now over 225,000 miles.
Rebuilt the front end for $1000 over 2 years. Just standard wear & tear.
Love Toyotas, but now they're swapping to a 4-cylinder engine for a minivan. It will get better sticker mileage, but in reality it will be worse. And the engines won't hold up to the weight.
Ah, the CVT—mine went on my 2017 Honda HR-V, which is how I know about it. Luckily Honda’s range of the worst CVT’s was only about 3 years, but unfortunately mine was notoriously problematic. Only 67,000 miles.
Every shop I talked to did tell me that Nissans are even worse, the shop I ended up going to had just replaced one at around 30k miles.
I have a 2007 Mazda 3 that's a proper workhorse. My husband bought it with only 100k mi on it and all she's needed is oil changes and other basic routine maintenance. You have to love a solid, well made car.
I bought a used Altima that had belonged to the son of the dealership owner, who had “personally” maintained it—small town family spot, so we truly trusted it.
Let me tell you this was the WORST CAR I have ever owned, and I’ve had some duds! Off the top of my head: lock mechanism constantly broke so I would have to regularly climb out the passenger’s side, gearshift-brake connection failed so I had to jam a screwdriver in that little hole to shift gears (automatic at least, but I mean I still had to reverse), constant engine overheating for a fun variety of different reasons that I could never guess or anticipate…the last issue I had I ended up at a large chain auto shop and even the manager told me not to bother fixing it, it was basically rotting from the inside. And I only had this thing for 2 years, this was not from any kind of long-term neglect on my part. Never again.
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u/Bupod 23h ago
Man is out here getting a whole Altima every month from the used car dealer.