Owners have filed 2,544 complaints on the Nissan Xterra, covering 2000–2015. The system named most often is Fuel System (640 reports). Worst years by volume: 2005, 2006, 2007; cleanest: 2013, 2015, 2014. 104 reports describe a crash, 29 a fire, 19 a death. On average the car was 6.6 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Nissan Xterra
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 2,544 Xterra complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Fuel System 640 Read
The contact owns a 2005 Nissan Xterra. The contact that while stopped at a traffic light the vehicle stalled. The contact was immediately able to restart the vehicle however, the vehicle kept stalling. The contact restarted the vehicle however while entering a parking garage the vehicle stalled again. After several…
2005 nissan xterra stalled causing the vehicle to jerk while in reverse. The vehicle had struck a steel beam causing significant damage. The fuel gauge was misreading, showing my truck had gas while in reality it was empty
In a 2000 nissan xterra an event similar to the recent toyota problems occurred (several times) about 7-8 years ago. In one case the car jumped a curb and hit a tree. It was drivable, so no police report was filed- as no damage was done to anything other than the car- which had about $2000 body damage. The car was…
Power Train 615 Read
My 2013 nissan xterra pro4x accelerated on its own with me standing next to it. It is a manual transmission and the emergency brake was on. It reversed rapidly and caught me under it. I suffered permanent nerve damage in my arm and extreme scaring on both legs. After it ran me over, it crashed into my garage. Nissan…
I started the car to let it warm up. The manual gearshift was in neutral and the emergency brake was engaged. As I got out of the vehicle, it lurched forward and I attempted to get back into the vehicle to apply the brake. It lurched a second time before I was able to get inside. I attempted to get inside the vehicle…
Noticed shuddering at first, then a stumbling upon hitting gas 120000 miles took truck in and had ext. Cooler put on, flushed out tranny fluid, new radiator, new gaskets and filters in tranny $1,100.00 job. 1 month later service engine soon light came on and truck wouldn't start. TCM module in tranny started blowing…
Engine And Engine Cooling 349 Read
I was traveling at 25 (no more than 30) mph when another vehicle collided with mine. The other vehicle did clip the middle 1/3 and entire passenger side of my xterra. The hood was crushed to the first third of the front passenger wheel well, transmission and radiator fluids were leaking from the SUV, grill was…
2006 nissan xterra off-road model. Vehicle had surged forward unexpectedly on a number of occasions (6) in the past while stopped or coming to a stop at intersections. Dealer had inspected the vehicle and could not find the source of the problem. This happened most recently in a parking lot resulting in a collision…
The contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. While driving at 35 mph, the vehicle seized and smoke emitted from the engine. The vehicle was taken to a dealer, where it was diagnosed that the transmission, radiator, and another component needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of…
Air Bags 133 Read
The nissan was in a severe accident and the air bag never deployed. There were 4 people in car when the accident occured. The passenger side air bag did deploy and those two people receved injuries but not life threating. The drivers side where the air bag did not deploy caused significant injuries the driver had…
I believe that my airbag deployed on it's own for no apparent reason resulting in knocking me unconscious thereby causing an accident
Air bags in my SUV didn't deploy when I got in accident driving @45mph front in wreck twice and neither time it came out
Engine 121 Read
The contact owns a 2008 nissan xterra. While driving 70 mph, the vehicle began to lose power and all the warning indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact coasted the vehicle to the side of the road where it began to smoke under the hood. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was…
The contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated that the transmission failed, causing the vehicle to decelerate while the contact was attempting to accelerate. The contact's personal mechanic inspected the vehicle and found the radiator smoking. The mechanic also noticed that the radiator fluid had mixed…
Vehicle's engine seized while being operated at a low rate of speed. Reason given by dealership when towed in was no oil in the engine however there was no warning light for either oil or engine issue displayed at any time leading up to engine failure. There had been a previous oil leak approximately 10 months earlier…
Fuel/propulsion System 117 Read
The contact owns a 2000 nissan xterra. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 mph when the vehicle suddenly shut off. The contact was able to coast to the side shoulder where they got out the vehicle. The contact noticed smoke coming from underneath the front end of the vehicle. The contact opened the…
Extreme smell of gas after filling gas tank while out of town. Odor was so strong it required all windows to be down to drive without feeling affected by fumes and I was terrified that someone would fluck a cigarette out of a car somewhere, especially at a stop light, and cause an explosion. Once the gas tank was only…
My service engine light came on and had the system diagnosed. It was a bad fuel sending unit. I only had 37200 miles on the vehicle. I contacted nissan and surrounding dealerships and got the "it's out of warranty" speech. The shop that performed the work mentioned they have had a lot of nissans with the same problem.…
Electrical System 107 Read
Plastic tray that the battery sits on broke, causing the bar that holds the battery in place to arch over and set the plastic fuse holder on the battery to catch fire. The vehicle stalled the died. I saw what I thought was "steam" coming from under the hood. I popped to hood from inside and saw flames. I got out and…
On 6/12/2018 pulled into my garage at home and on turning engine off saw electrical spark under hood and SUV went up in flames. Fire department report available
2005 nissan xterra had an electrical wire problem. Consumer states that the vehicle fire completely destroy it
Steering 95 Read
The contact owns a 2010 nissan xterra. The contact stated that while driving 50 mph pulling a small trailer he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the guard rail causing the trailer to roll over. The contact suffered injuries to the back and psychological damage as well. The vehicle started shaking before he…
I was going aprox. 15 mph on a straight way off of a dirt road and started to slow down before approaching a stop sign a little way from it , applied the brake like normal, when I heard my engine sound like the accelerator was being romped on, and realized it was in fact speeding up rapidly. I then started thinking…
This is in regards to a 2006 nissan xterra. The vehicle had a catastrophic failure of the power steering system which resulted in the truck veering off a bridge. There were no obvious issued with the vehicle leading up to the event. The truck had just received its 30,000 mile service and was in great mechanical…
Xterra 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Power Train | — | — | |
| 2014 | Air Bags | — | — | |
| 2013 | Power Train,engine | 1 | — | |
| 2012 | Air Bags | — | — | |
| 2011 | Air Bags | — | — | |
| 2010 | Air Bags | 4 | — | |
| 2009 | Air Bags | — | — | |
| 2008 | Air Bags | 8 | 3 | |
| 2007 | Air Bags | 3 | 2 | |
| 2006 | Air Bags | 11 | 2 | |
| 2005 | Air Bags | 7 | 6 | |
| 2004 | Air Bags | 8 | 3 | |
| 2003 | Air Bags | 15 | 1 | |
| 2002 | Air Bags | 15 | 5 | |
| 2001 | Air Bags | 12 | 4 | |
| 2000 | Air Bags | 20 | 3 |
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 | 323 |
| Average complaints per series | 7.9 |
| Worst single series | 50 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 6.6 years |
A model average of 7.9 hides a worst series at 50. 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.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
- No ads, on every page
- No ads, no tracking — and much more
How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 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 Xterra?
By complaint volume, 2005, 2006, 2007 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 Xterra years are the cleanest?
2013, 2015, 2014 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Nissan Xterra have?
2,544 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2000–2015. Of those, 104 describe a crash and 29 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.