Nissan · Altima · 2016
2016 Nissan Altima: problems & reliability
NHTSA has logged 555 owner complaints and 4 safety recalls for the 2016 Nissan Altima. The most-reported problem area is the transmission & powertrain (42% of complaints), followed by engine and airbags. Make sure every open recall has been fixed by a dealer before you buy.
Common 2016 Nissan Altima problems
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Transmission & powertrain problems
235 owner complaints to NHTSA (42% of all complaints for this model year) involve the transmission & powertrain, including 3 crashes, 1 injury. One owner reported: “I purchased this vehicle from Drivetime in Las Vegas off Decatur Blvd in December of 2021. I was not advised these particular make and models could have CVT Transmission failure. It has the SR Sports Model transmission, so I always thought…”
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Engine problems
86 owner complaints to NHTSA (15% of all complaints for this model year) involve the engine, including 3 crashes, 4 injuries. One owner reported: “Vehicle starts fine once the entire engine heats up is when problems start the loss of engine power until engine is able to restart resetting errors this would gradually get worse and the finaly the engine completely stalls out at one…”
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Airbags problems
72 owner complaints to NHTSA (13% of all complaints for this model year) involve the airbags, including 12 crashes, 1 fire, 15 injuries. One owner reported: “As we were getting the highway the breaks had failed and then we some were able to get off the highway but the steering wheel cruise control decided it was gonna work by itself it was a very accident. And not only that my identity has been…”
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Speed control & acceleration problems
65 owner complaints to NHTSA (12% of all complaints for this model year) involve the speed control & acceleration, including 4 crashes, 5 injuries. One owner reported: “At random times while driving vehicle will shut off causing sudden decrease in speed, then restart on it's own within 10-15 seconds. When car shuts off all dash lights turn off and there's no throttle response. The last time it shut off I…”
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Electrical system problems
42 owner complaints to NHTSA (8% of all complaints for this model year) involve the electrical system, including 2 crashes, 1 fire. One owner reported: “The contact was an administrator for the child death review for la county. The contact stated that the owner of a 2016 nissan altima, exited the vehicle with the heater activated and left her 2-year-old child in a car seat located in the…”
Owner complaints by area
| Area | Complaints | Share | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission & powertrain | 235 | 42% | |
| Engine | 86 | 15% | |
| Airbags | 72 | 13% | |
| Speed control & acceleration | 65 | 12% | |
| Electrical system | 42 | 8% | |
| Exterior lighting | 42 | 8% | |
| Fuel system | 30 | 5% | |
| Body & structure | 29 | 5% |
555 complaints filed with NHTSA in total, reporting 28 crashes, 3 fires, 32 injuries, 1 death. A complaint can involve more than one area.
2016 Nissan Altima recalls
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Latches/locks/linkages › Hood › Latch
Risk: Corrosion to the secondary latch may cause it to bind and remain in the unlatched position when the hood is closed. If the primary latch is inadvertently released again and the secondary latch is not engaged, the hood could unexpectedly open while driving, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will install a stronger release spring in the hood release lever, a warning label near the secondary hood latch, and an Owners Manual addendum card with instructions on how to lubricate and maintain the secondary hood latch mechanism, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed June 30, 2021. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Note: Recall 16V-029 remains open for any unremedied 2013-2015 Altimas and this recall applies to all vehicles covered by 16V-029 even if those repairs have already been performed.
Full recall summary
Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2018 Nissan Altima vehicles. If the primary hood latch is inadvertently released, there is an increased likelihood that the secondary hood latch may corrode over time.
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Structure › Emergency › Escape/egress/exit
Risk: If the rear passenger door opens while the vehicle is moving, the rear passengers have an increased risk of injury.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will secure the latch-lock cables in the correct position using the new remedy procedure, free of charge. The recall began February 5, 2019. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7669.
Full recall summary
Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2015-2017 Altima vehicles, previously remedied under recall number 17V-040. The door latch-lock cable may not have been routed properly in the rear door when the remedy was applied. As a result, the cable may interfere with the window regulator causing the rear passenger door to unlatch and inadvertently open without warning when the window is lowered.
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Latches/locks/linkages › Doors › Latch
Risk: If the rear passenger doors inadvertently open while the vehicle is in motion, it may increase the risk of injury to the rear passengers.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will correct the rear door latch/lock cable routing, free of charge. The recall began on February 16, 2017. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.
Full recall summary
Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2015-2017 Altima vehicles. The rear door latch/lock cable on the vehicles may have been improperly routed. As a result, lowering a rear window may inadvertently cause that door to unlatch and open.
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Air bags › Sensor › Occupant classification
Risk: If the passenger frontal air bag does not deploy as intended in the event of a crash, the passenger is at an increased risk of injury.
Remedy: Nissan will notify their owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge. Interim notices were sent to owners on May 31, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.
Full recall summary
Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano Hybrid, and Chevrolet City Express, 2014-2015 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles. In these vehicles, the front seat passenger Occupant Classification System (OCS) may incorrectly classify an adult passenger as a child or classify the seat as empty despite it being occupied. As a result, the passenger frontal air bag may be turned off and not deploy in the event of a crash.
Recall repairs are free at any franchised dealer. To check whether a specific car’s recalls have been repaired, enter its VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
2016 Nissan Altima crash-test ratings
NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings for the 2016 Nissan Altima 4 DR FWD. Ratings can differ between body styles and drivetrains.
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Specifications
- Drivetrains
- FWD
- Body styles
- 4-door
Other Nissan Altima years
About this data
Problems, complaint counts, recalls and crash-test ratings come from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) public databases, last checked 2026-11-03. Complaints are reports from owners and have not all been verified by NHTSA.
How we score reliability: every model year starts at 100. Points come off for the number of owner complaints (on a log scale, up to 40 points), for each safety recall (2 points each, up to 15) and for complaints involving crashes, fires, injuries or deaths (up to 15). Popular vehicles get more complaints simply because more are on the road, so compare scores between similar vehicles. More about our method.
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