CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2012 Altima has a defect trend of CVT transmission failure showing up around the 100,000 mile mark.

It's an expensive repair at nearly $2,000 average repair cost. For more information see Nissan Altima CVT defect info on NissanProblems.com.

8.0

pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
176,350 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. not sure (1 reports)
2012 Nissan Altima steering problems

steering problem

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2012 Nissan Altima Owner Comments

problem #1

Apr 252019

Altima S 2.5L 4 cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 176,329 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Bought this vehicle used and with high miles (175540) but have always had good experience with Nissans - all the ones my parents had while I was growing up have 200,000 to 300,000 miles on them and are still running today. So after checking the maintenance records were up to date and the vehicle had a clean title, I went ahead and bought it. Noticed approximately a month later the vehicle started to handle a little rough, bumps were definitely noticeable especially in pothole filled Omaha during feb/mar. Took the Altima to my moms mechanic and he gave me a quote on the suspension but advised it wasn't absolutely necessary for me to get done, told it wouldn't cause a safety issue.

About a year later my Altima seems to do things that feel really unsafe, had someone else drive it to see what they thought and they said undercarriage seems off, but not unsafely. So as a single parent of two that doesn't have a ton of money, I continue to drive the car for a month and problems seem to get worse daily, the vehicle seems to hobble and jumps when turning like it literally feels like I hit a curb when I definitely hadn't. Vehicle constantly has extreme vibration under the hood that seems to cause the problem to be worse, also the car smells like something is burning (only smelled upon exiting the car). Running the air conditioner seems to also cause the problem to increase and its summertime, so too hot not to have kids in the vehicle, weirdly though the veh seems to have slightly less problems when it's raining.

Vehicles dash lights brake and traction control lights are usually always on and some days they aren't, but that's a rare thing. Just in last few days I have been losing control of the steering mostly when I go over a bump on the passenger side the steering wheel turns harshly in that direction and when driving on roads paved with vertical indents to help with winter ice breaking my wheel turns itself back and forth so it's a struggle to keep control.

I have no idea of the exact cause of all of my issues with the vehicle other than what different mechanics have told me and estimated for me and no two were the same I literally hate my Altima and almost never want to drive one again (this is my 2nd and the first was amazing 2016) I would just like to know what is really wrong with it to determine if putting the money to repair is worth it? Vehicle is not even worth $2000 & I have already put $1000 into it.

- Nichole C., Omaha, NE, US

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