Owners have filed 525 complaints on the Nissan Kicks, covering 2018–2026. The system named most often is Electrical System (106 reports). Worst years by volume: 2019, 2020, 2018; cleanest: 2026, 2022, 2023. 26 reports describe a crash, 1 a fire. On average the car was 2.8 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Nissan Kicks
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 525 Kicks complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Electrical System 106 Read
The contact owns a 2025 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated that she had remotely started the vehicle, preparing to drive her children to school. The contact stated that one child had forgotten a school item inside the home. The contact exited the vehicle with the key fob and had left the vehicle turned on. The contact…
The contact owns a 2021 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated while driving approximately 15 MPH, she pulled over and put the vehicle in park. Once the vehicle was parked, it continued to roll forward. The vehicle hit a concrete light pole in the parking lot and damaged the driver's side front fender and headlights. No…
Side impacted by 52 year old jeep. Both driver side doors caved in, windows shattered, air bags did not deploy
Power Train 67 Read
The contact owns a 2021 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated while driving approximately 45 MPH, there was a loud boom coming from the engine compartment with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the traffic light turned red, and the contact stopped the vehicle, and the vehicle failed to…
Front crash sensor comes on occassionally, drive train is now knocking, and radio now has a mind of its own won't display will just randomly increase volume
The contact owns a 2025 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60 MPH, there was a loud vibrating sound coming from the rear driver’s side of the vehicle, with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that on several occasions, the vehicle wobbled unexpectedly, with a…
Service Brakes 39 Read
Vehicle: 2023 Nissan Kicks SR Incident Detail: On April 1, my son was involved in an auto accident. According to my son, he was traveling at approximately 20–30 mph. Upon approaching slowed traffic, my son applied the service brakes; however, the vehicle failed to decelerate or stop. To mitigate the impact, my son…
I am the owner of the vehicle but my daughter was the driver and I am making the complaint on her behalf but she can provide additional details. The vehicle began making a grinding sound at times that sounds similar to the anti-lock braking. Then on Oct 29 the vehicle locked down the brakes as she was pulling into the…
The Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Radar System is faulty which makes the vehicle suddenly brakes on it's own. My daughter reported that the alert light began coming on about a week ago. Then the yesterday (9/26/2021) the vehicle suddenly braked on its own while she was driving. She added that there was no…
Engine 34 Read
Vehicle will overheat and stall intermittently. Coolant and water are in the oil. Nissan failed to address the issue under warranty and I had to pay over $1400 for repairs
I took my 2024 Nissan Kicks SV to the dealership with approximately 2000 miles on it. The vehicle as an increased concerning issue where, while idling in park with no one in the vehicle, the engine will have a continuous revving then loud click/clunk noise, return to normal, then start again. It’s been getting…
While driving at about 25mph, the engine suddenly shut off without any warning. After the engine shut off the collision warning, battery and oil light indicators came on. The car remained in drive and started to roll backwards. When pressing the engine start button, nothing happened. After a few minutes the car was…
Structure 32 Read
The passenger door opens while driving and at times will not open. The dealership has a back order for a part in which I was told it could take months to receive.The part is a door accentuator. Corporation and dealership refused to provide a loaner or rental vehicle
Trim from passenger rear side flew off while driving today
Upon inspection by a certified technician, the windshield was found to have a stress crack. The repair evaluation confirmed there is no visible point of strike or impact from road debris. Although similar issues are commonly reported, the manufacturer denied knowledge of any widespread problem and refused to cover the…
Steering 28 Read
The contact owns a 2022 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated while driving at 65 MPH, the steering wheel turned all the way to the left independently. The contact stated that upon steering, the steering wheel veered to the right and he lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle veered to the right and crashed into a…
The contact owns a 2020 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated that while the fiancé was driving approximately 30 MPH, and turning left the power steering and power brake suddenly failed causing the fiancé to loose control of the steering and and crash to a traffic pole. The contact indicated that prior to the incident the…
The contact owns 2026 Nissan Kicks. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. The brakes and steering wheel were locked. All the warning lights were illuminated. The local dealer was contacted, who confirmed there was a total communication failure across the modules. The vehicle was not diagnosed or…
Forward Collision Avoidance 27 Read
Problem with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB). I'm driving on a road with 2 lanes in my direction at about 35 mph. Approached a curve that makes a slight left turn in the road. There happens to be a bicyclist on the curve. As the car reaches a position where the bicyclist is in direct frontal view of the vehicles…
I use the adaptive cruise control a lot because I had ankle surgery and it bothers it to drive and use it a lot. The cruise control is fantastic I love it but it started giving me a warning light at the end of drive. I drive from [XXX] to [XXX] 4 days a week. The warning light will pop up randomly sometimes it will do…
The AEB system activated without cause (phantom braking incident). While driving on a neighborhood street (25-30 mph), the car seized up, came to a near complete stop, and a red (outline) and white (background) triangle containing a bold red exclamation mark appeared on the dash display. There were no other cars…
Air Bags 13 Read
I was stopped at a red light waiting for the light to turn green. It turned green and I slowly went out and a car went through a red light hit my front left car. The guy was going at at least 30 to 40 miles and not one airbag went off
The vehcile was in a munor accicent. There was a rock in the road on a roundabout. The rock popped the front left tire causing vehichle to go out of control. There was some undercarriage damage to the control arms. There was no body damage. No rollover. No other vehicle involved. There was some wheel damage on the…
Another vehicle failed to stop at a stop sign and ran into the front driver side of my vehicle. Air bags were supposed to be deployed on my vehicle due to the impact of the collision, however, they were not. Air bags could have prevented injury if they had functioned properly. Vehicle is now a total loss
Kicks years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Electrical System, Wheels, Unknown Or Other | — | — | |
| 2025 | Air Bags | 2 | 1 | |
| 2024 | Air Bags | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | Back Over Prevention, Forward Collision Avoidance | 2 | — | |
| 2021 | Air Bags | 6 | — | |
| 2020 | Air Bags | 6 | — | |
| 2019 | Air Bags | 5 | — | |
| 2018 | Air Bags | 1 | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 167 |
| Average complaints per series | 3.1 |
| Worst single series | 16 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 2.8 years |
A model average of 3.1 hides a worst series at 16. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,115,966 of them, covering 2,019 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Kicks?
By complaint volume, 2019, 2020, 2018 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Kicks years are the cleanest?
2026, 2022, 2023 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Nissan Kicks have?
525 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2018–2026. Of those, 26 describe a crash and 1 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.
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