Federal complaint record · Nissan Sentra · model year 2003

2003 Nissan Sentra

Owners submitted 180 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 15th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2001 to 2005 compact sedan cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 46% · group n = 111Electrical · 15% · group n = 37Fuel system · 8% · group n = 18Airbags · 7% · group n = 16Other · 5% · group n = 12
180
Complaint records on file
69,023
Median mileage at the reported problem · 137 complaints reported mileage
46%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 111
15th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 30 model years

Engine · 5 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine46%

Engine reports

Nissan Sentra · model year 2003

Reports in this group111
Share of classified reports46%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2002
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
304 matched incidents
This car
2003
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
180 matched incidents
2004
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
197 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Stalling or shutdown · 60 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 1 of 32003 Nissan Sentra
Airbag concerns · 13 reports

Reports describe airbag warning or deployment concerns

Cluster 2 of 32003 Nissan Sentra
Fire or smoke · 12 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 3 of 32003 Nissan Sentra

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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