Soon after I leased my 2013 Altima SDN SV on May 24, 2013, I complained to the service repair mechanic that the transmission was slipping when my vehicle moved from speeds near 50 MPH to 60 MPH, that that the vehicle would glide forward after turning off the engine and placing it in park and at times there was a slight delay in the transmission when I placed the car in reverse.

The mechanic took it for a ride and then reported that the transmission was fine. The John Sisson Motors, Inc salesman assured me that slight shift of the vehicle when in park or in reverse was customary and that it was not a problem.

The transmission quit working when I place it in reverse in Feb 2018. I paid to have it towed to Cochran Nissan on Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh where it was in repair for about three weeks. My total costs were about $4000 for replacing the transmission and other needs related to not having a vehicle.

I've taken my car for TWO transmission issues (recalls) at the Nissan dealer. Not ONCE did they make mention of the numerous issues with their CVT transmissions. My car started to hesitate and then cut off on me. I took it to a local shop who couldn't find any diagnostic readings that indicated anything was wrong. They did an oil change and I filled the tank. THREE days later my car started hesitating to shift into gear. I knew IMMEDIATELY it was the transmission. I called to schedule an appointment and was told it was OUT OF WARRANTY and I would need to pay out of pocket! For a 5 YEAR OLD VEHICLE?!! NEEDLESS to say I am looking to purchase a new vehicle that is NOT A NISSAN.

From the start, this car has been an issue. I bought it initially because I'd had an Xterra for 8 years and never had an issue but wanted a smaller car. I buy a brand new Altima. A month after I buy it, it needs a new alternator. A month later, a new battery. A month after that, the entire electrical panel goes. For years, it's been jerking and the gear shifting has been an issue. I've brought it into several dealers (the one where I bought it has since closed) and they've made miscellaneous repairs thinking those were the issues. Finally, a few weeks ago, it starts shaking to the point where you can barely drive it. We do some research and find it has a CVT recall. We bring it in. They fix it. A few days later, shaking begins again. We bring it back and FINALLY they tell us the entire transmission is bad. IT HAS 45,000 MILES. That is absurd. We're fixing the transmission and selling it asap. Biggest piece of junk I've ever purchased.

I purchased a 2013 Nissan Altima 2.5SL. My transmission went out at 98,000 miles. I kept up all of my maintenance the car required since I had to travel back and forth. I had purchase a 2007 Nissan Altima and never had any issues with it so there for I purchased another Altima. This car is garbage. MY transmission is out and Nissan USA has refused to assist in paying for the transmission even thought there is a recall on it. Now they are making me pay for the transmission. Since Nissan is knowingly sell these Altimas in sub-par conditions I want join the lawsuit against Nissan.

I WILL NEVER IN LIFE PURCHASE ANOTHER NISSAN ANYTHING. THEY ARE SELLING CARS THAT ARE NOT RELIABLE AND THEY DO NOT CARE THAT THEIR CONSUMERS ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH THE PERFORMANCE. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM NISSAN. THEIR CARS ARE A PIECE OF SH*T.

My Nissan Altima 2013 is having severe CVT transmission problems after only 83,987 miles. We brought the car used at 76,430 (+/-10) miles, and are currently having to deal with taking the car back to the dealership right after we apparently had it repaired.

Ever since February, after we took it in and the service center installed a new CVT software update PC4900 we have been noticing more and more rough stops when breaking or delay and/or stutters when trying to accelerate from a full stop. It gets so bad now that the check engine light, battery light, and break light come on after the car shutters while breaking. Even restarting the engine doesn't fix it, the lights just come back after shifting into drive and trying to accelerate with the car remaining unresponsive.

We had it brought to the dealership and got a goodwill deal for the effort, but they only replace the control valve assembly. Now we find the lights are back after only driving 4 (YES 4) miles to our parking lot, making their repair ineffective. We will be taking it back to get this problem address, but below I have something to share beyond my experience.

There is a petition for this vehicle model, because Nissan has addressed the issue regarding the CVT transmission with older models (before 2010) for the same issue. This is a URL to sign the petition. https://www.thepetitionsite.com/884/888/747/make-it-right-nissan/

I also found a website mentioning this issue. URL is http://www.nissancvtfail.com/

I hope this helps anyone else on this site to either take action or take heed when looking into Nissan for a new or used car!

Nissan says torque converter is bad, needs new transmission. Estimated cost is $4200.00. In September my car started stalling out, jumping and sputtering. We took it to Nissan dealership, my car has only ever been serviced at Nissan dealership I purchased it from, they told me it was a "valve" and I paid 200$ to have it fixed , now this. It stalled out on my husband as he was on his way to the dealership to have the oil changed. We had it towed to dealership, 20 mins later... Needs new transmission! No recall on my year model.

Update from Jul 2, 2018: Nissan Corporate consumer affairs agreed to pay 70% of cost to "rebuild" my transmission, which leaves me with $683 out of my pocket. Nissan dealership recommended a new transmission but corporate says if it's on their dime it will only be rebuilt. 12 mo, 12k mi warranty. I'm still not confident that Nissan can fix it. I'm looking to sell it and buy something else.

It is ridiculous how Nissan states to take care of their customers!!! I have had my vehicle only for 1 1/2 yrs and the transmission goes out!! Very frustrating that they cannot give assistance to repair their so called reputable name.

I had a Honda from college for 12 years with no problems!! If I would have known this, I would have never gotten into this mess!! Nissan has been very unprofessional!

PLEASE THINK TWICE ON BUYING NISSAN!! I know the Roadside Operator said she almost did, but thanks to my story, she wouldn't.

I purchased this car less than a year ago. The car started stalling out while at stop lights. I took it into the dealership and the service managers never mentioned it could be a transmission problem. They did $500 worth of unnecessary work on the car. It started doing the same thing 5 weeks later and the transmission totally failed.

I had it towed back to the same dealership and was told it would cost $3800 to replace the transmission. I contacted Nissan consumer affairs. I waited for over 3 weeks for an answer and then was denied any extended warranty. Now I have a $500 rental car bill along with the repair bill that they will not help with. I was denied due to mileage and loyalty.

I guess my loyalty of owning only Nissan's since 1986 is not good enough. There seems to be thousands of complaints about the transmission failing early in this model. It is a shame that Nissan will not make things right for me.

2013 Altima 2.5 S experienced CVT failure at 92,000 miles in March 2018. A year earlier, in March 2017, I received a letter (see attachment) from Nissan urging me to have the TCM reprogrammed at the dealer as soon as possible. "Failure to have the reprogramming performed in a timely manner could result in damage to the transmission." I had the recall performed within 2 weeks of receiving the letter. Over the months after the TCM reprogram, I started to notice more jerkiness and shuddering than I had before.

Fast forward to March 2018, and the CVT failed in ugly fashion, as seen in the video. I was already aware of the widespread CVT problem reports, so I made sure to film the breakdown. Despite the video, the recall letter (which essentially admits Nissan knows there's a fault with the TCM that could've damaged the transmission for years before the recall), and the fact that Nissan extended the CVT warranty on 2007-2010 Altimas to 120,000 miles due to high failure rates, Nissan Consumer Affairs has repeatedly brushed off my requests for assistance. Not even a courtesy $500 or $1000 toward the $3840 quote.

IMPORTANT FOR OTHER 2013-2014 ALTIMA OWNERS: one of the Regional Specialists at Nissan I spoke with on the phone explicitly stated that the 120k-mile CVT warranty extension on older Altimas was done because of their high failure rates (I recorded the conversation). If the failure rates on the 2013 Altima aren't staggeringly high (see this site and NHTSA database), I don't know what is.

As you can see in the NHTSA powertrain complaint rate comparison I attached for 2013 midsize sedans, the Altima CVT issue is historically bad -- probably the worst single problem on any popular vehicle of the 2010s, from what I can tell online. I've noticed the rate of complaints has only accelerated over the past year or so as the 2013s get closer to 100k miles (on average), so who knows how bad it really is. There are enough reports on the 2014-2015 Altimas that I'd absolutely avoid those like the plague, too. The only question is whether the latest Altimas have done anything to mitigate the problem. Judging by Nissan's steadfast refusal to admit there's even a problem with the 2013 CVT, we have know way of knowing that until a few more years pass.

Good thing I had my 100,000 miles extended warranty, bought from Nissan Dealership at 12k miles 1 year old. 4 years later I can't believe this happened. The day before the tranny went I got my transmission fluid changed. First time doing so at 94k. Everything seemed fine, then the next day on my commute home the engine would surge forward a little after giving it a little throttle, then the power would slightly cut out. Got worse and worse as I went, eventually got to my exit and the power completely cut out when I went to go at the light, no power, I would floor it and change gears, put it in overdrive, nothing... until about 30 seconds later, it finally got full power, giving out and kicking back in... everyone honking at me and yelling out their windows(I did put my hazards on).

I managed to barely get into my spot at home and it was not drivable after that, got it towed to the dealership. The tech's said the transmission flush was not the cause, it was just bad timing, so I didn't get the flush refunded, I paid a $50 deductible, they rebuilt the tranny.

Feels perfect now, however the shifter doesn't lock into Drive, it's like floating in between Drive and Neutral. I want to bring it back to Nissan, but they said it's probably not because of the tranny work they did on it... yeah... BS...it didn't do that before. I don't want to pay for this to be fixed, because they did poor job rebuilding it. Have 1 year/12k warranty on the work. Hopefully something will happen again, so they can fully replace the tranny.

Just had my 2013 Nissan Altima 3.5SL transmission go out on me at 3am on the interstate 8 miles from home in 30 degree weather. Of course I took it to Nissan a couple of times to tell them that something was wrong with the transmission but you know they can never duplicate the problem. Well, the problem finally duplicated itself and now I am without a car. It has 184000 miles on it and I use it for LYFT but up until the transmission went out I had no problem with this vehicle.

What I have a problem with now is that the extended warranty is out and I am stuck now having to pay for a transmission that may or may not last even if its from the dealer.

Anyone in the Southern Dallas area know of a reputable transmission repair shop who can beat the dealership? For some reason, I just don't trust the dealerships anymore since I am reading the complaints about the transmissions in this model and year car and it appears Nissan is aware of the complaints but has stuck its head in the sand on repairing them.

I kept my 1988 Acura Legend for 8 years and had 204000 miles and never had a transmission problem. I kept my Acura Vigor for 7 years, 187000 miles and never had a transmission problem. So guess where I am going back too?

Thanks Nissan but I don't want cars with good taste. I want a car that tastes good. In these new CVT types you're going to ruin your reputation just as Hyundai did when they unloaded all of their brake defective cars in the US back in the late 80 to early 90s.

Firstly, I have purchased 4 Nissans from Carraige Nissan. A 1999 Pathfinder, a 1996 used Altima, and a 2012 and 2013 new Altima. I still have the Pathfinder, with 207,000 miles on it, and it's the BEST car that I've owned in my 62 years of driving.

I bought the 2012 Altima, and had no problems with it during the year and 12,000 miles that I owned it. Traded it for the 2013, and was content with the car, save for a troublesome passenger seat belt warning light.

About 3 weeks ago, the transmission started to give problems. It stalled several times at traffic lights. As Carraige Nissan was 30 miles away, I took it to a local repair shop that I've used for 18 years. They could find no problems.

Took it on a trip of about 40 miles, and started giving problems at about the 30 mile mark. Starting from a red light, the engine revved to about 2000 revs before the car moved..about 2-3 seconds after applying the gas. This happened several times when driving more than a few miles.

The last time, while driving in moderate traffic, the engine revved to 6000 RPM and the car was moving at 20 MPH. I had it towed to the new local dealership, Nally Nissan. I was told that I needed the transmission replaced and the cost was $3700.

I have reported this to Nissan HQ, and hope to have a decision this week.

I am reporting a dangerous condition with 2013 Nissan CVT transmission. With no warning indicator the car's transmission failed while driving on the turnpike at 60 - 70 mph. Driver was able to coast through traffic to the shoulder and turn off the car and start again and was able to again proceed. This happened several times. After parking overnight, it would no longer move in forward or reverse. The car was towed to a Nissan dealership and was diagnosed with a failed transmission that will cost approx. $3700 to replace. The car is 4.5 years old but has 75,000 miles so just outside of the 5 yr/60k power train warranty. I filed a case with Nissan customer care to appeal to them due to the relatively low miles for such a catastrophic failure. We learned today that they are providing no coverage for us due to the car being out of warranty. And while we are loyal customers in that we own two Nissan's and have owned a third in the past, this is not loyal enough for them to extend the warranty for us. We owe over $8000 on the car so are stuck with no option but to pay for a new transmission that will come with only a one year warranty. I have filed a complaint with the NHTSA and hope others with this problem do the same so that Nissan can be forced to take responsibility for this dangerously defective transmission.

I have a 2013 Nissan Altima with 84,000 in which the CVT transmission failed. Because their feeble power train warranty is only 5 years, 60K miles (a number I hit in 3 years). Nissan will not do anything for me in terms of partial reimbursement or an extended warranty on the replacement transmission which carries an unsatisfactory warranty of 12 months or 12K miles. Given that I have been a loyal Nissan customer for 17 years, one would think they might be willing to keep me as a customer, especially with so many competitive alternatives in the marketplace. In addition, they extended the warranty on all CVT transmissions for 2003-2010 Altimas due to reliability issues.

Well, they obviously did not fix the problem because mine crapped out in 4 years and consumer reports gave them low marks for reliability. I was willing to live with the less than average scores from consumer reports due to my prior good experience but I have now lost faith in the product. Nissan now gets an F from me for customer service and they have lost a long-time customer. Time to check out Subaru, Toyota and Mazda or some other reliable brand.

I purchased my white 2013 Nissan Altima used from a lot that a family member worked at in 2015. The process went great, there were plenty of cars to choose from but this car best fit what I was looking for and my lifestyle. The car had about 40K miles on it when I first bought it and was running fine. I had the car fax report, no big issues reported. Things were good.. until I hit over 70k miles. That's when things started going down hill >.<

(Background info – my current commute is 26 miles each way, but I get to work from home at least 1 day a week.

The first major issue I experienced was in Jun 16'. I was on the freeway in socal evening traffic, going about 10-15 mph and my car started to shutter and almost seemed to want to stall. Then a few minutes later.. it actually stalled. I had to turn my car off, then back on to get it going again. I didn't want to get stranded on the fwy so luckily I was able to make my way from the farthest passing lane to the fwy off ramp, I only drove for another 300 feet and then it completely stalled again but this time it wouldn't turn back on. The lights would turn on but the engine wouldn't turn. I called AAA to have them tow my car to the nearest auto shop to diagnose the issue. The auto shop I took it to had great reviews and it turned out those reviews were accurate. The mechanic was able to tell me that the issue was related to the transmission, but informed me that the repairs they do may not fully fix the problem because he wasn’t positive that was the only issue. I told him I had been doing my own research that day (while my car was at the shop) on the issues I was experiencing and that Nissan was acknowledging that these symptoms that I experienced with my car are a result of an issue with the 2013 Nissan Altima CVT’s. And as a result they had a service campaign out for a CVT Reprogramming. He quoted me on how much it would cost for him to fix the issue, but he also suggested that I should take it to the dealership first. Because if his shop does the repairs on the car and it’s still not fixed, then Nissan won’t cover or reimburse me for the labor/repair charges if the issue was in fact related to a manufacturer recall/service campaign.

Because I had limited miles available with AAA I opted to pay for my car to be towed to a local dealership to have them finish diagnosing my car and take it from there..

Here’s the thing though.. I had taken my car my local dealership just a few weeks prior to replace some parts on the top of my battery. When I was paying for their services was the time they chose to mention that they see a recall that can be done on my car. Some time had already passed for them to work on my car and it was a Saturday morning so they were pretty busy. When I asked how long it would take to perform the recalls on my car they gave me about a 2-3 hour estimate which I unfortunately didn’t have time for that day. What Nissan and the service rep failed to mention to me at the time was that the service campaign on my car is extremely important because it’s related to how my transmission will function. And that if I don’t have this done on my car, it could result in the shuttering taking place or worse, and exactly what happened – my car could fully stall and no longer start. (If a CVT service campaign postcard was sent out in Dec of '16 I wouldn’t know.. at the time I was experiencing issues receiving mail at the new apt I had moved to). So again, it would have been extremely helpful for the Nissan reps to help the customer understand how important it would have been for my car to be serviced.

After trying to diagnose the issue I get a call that the dealership and they said they couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong with my car but suggested that they could try to do the CVT reprogramming and hope that would fix it. 3 hours later the reprogramming was done, my car started and the engine was able to turn again. I paid $50 for the diagnoses at the first auto shop, about another $100 for the tow to the dealership and another $134 for the dealership to diagnose my car. As I pulled off the lot I felt it shutter just a little for a few days. I honestly thought the problem had not yet been fixed but a few more days passed and it seemed to be working fine.

Fast forward to today, Monday 8/14/2017. My car has 82K miles on it – I had started my drive home from work on the evening of Friday 8/11 and noticed that my car was a little hesitant when I would try to accelerate, then the RPM’s would shoot up and come down quickly. It seemed to get worse as time was passing.. by the time I got home, it was barely acknowledging my foot on the pedal and also wouldn’t reverse. I needed more gas, and decided to only put about $10 in but noticed that my car wasn’t updating the “miles available” info or acknowledging that I had put in a few gallons of gas… WHAT.

So first thing Sat morning I took my car to the dealership. I arrived at the service center around 10:45am. The rep told me it should take about 2 hours and 45minutes for them to get to my car and call me with the diagnosis. They finally called 5 hours later at 3:45pm (I have the time stamp on my phone) with a brief message. I called back around 5:15 only to find out the service center closes at 5pm and they are closed on Sundays. No one there was currently qualified to tell me what was wrong with my car, wonderful! -_- The person I spoke with offered to take my name and number down so they can request for the rep to call me first thing Mon morning.

They open at 7am, 9:15am rolls around and I haven’t received a call so I called them. Turns out that their computer was able to diagnose that my car was experiencing an “internal issue” with the transmission. BUT.. they couldn’t tell me exactly what the specific “internal issue” was with the transmission because this is a type of transmission that you can’t take apart. Then she proceeded to tell me that I need a new transmission and the cost would be about $4,600…

Um.. WHAT? I need a NEW transmission and my 2013 car has less that 100K miles on it? And Nissan, you made a car with a transmission that you can’t dismember and possibly fix the issue that is contributing to it failing overall??? Instead I have a shell out $4,600 to fix a car that’s only worth about 10K now and probably less now that this is a KNOWN ISSUE with the transition with this make and model (and other models of theirs). AND, even if I do decide to move forward with replacing it.. after reading the other posts here.. it is highly likely that I will continue to have issues!?? How do you people sleep at night? Knowing that people are out spending their hard earned money on a car that is basically a piece of sh*t.

I have created a case with Nissan to inform them of the current condition of my car and the transmission issues. The rep asked what I was looking for exactly, I told him I wanted Nissan to help cover the costs related to the replacement of my transmission. But after thinking about this more, I’ve decided I no longer want to deal with this headache of a car. I want a different car. Something that is actually reliable.

I was told that someone will reach out to me by no later than tomorrow Tuesday 8/15 to let me know what they can do. I hope that Nissan can help make this right, but at this stage - I do not recommend nor will I ever purchase a Nissan car again. To be continued..

Update from Jan 2, 2018: UPDATE: Nissan got back to me about my case in about 4 days. They “approved” the replacement of the CVT giving me the impression that they would cover the full cost – NOPE. They only offered to cover only $3600 of the cost. I had to pay the remaining $1K. I then filed another case asking for them to buy my car back (because I wanted to just get rid of it at this point). They took another 6 days (meanwhile, since my car was at the service center - I was paying for a rental for 10 days out of pocket, they gave me a Sentra which also had shuttering problems! Surprise surprise). They denied my case to buy the car back. The reason they gave was that I didn't take it to the dealer often enough to get serviced (and I explained to them that I have never had a good experience at the dealership, I don't trust them and I had my own mechanic that had great prices, did an amazing job and I trusted them) and they also said it didn't meet the CA Lemon Law requirements. Which is complete BS because that's exactly what the 2013 Nissan Altima model is - a lemon! My total for replacing the CVT and for 10 days of the rental came to $1,300.

The cherry on top: The new CVT they put in only has a warranty for 12K miles. When I first drove it off the lot.. I could feel a little bit of hesitancy and strutting. 2 months later and it's running ok. Just OK.. it doesn’t sound or drive the same. There's a noticeable difference in the performance. I believe they replaced my CVT with the same style CVT so I expect to have problems in the future.

**Now there’s another problem with this crap car! >.<

My gear shift stick is stuck and doesn't want to move out of park. I took it to the dealership to have them look at it (was charged $135 for a diagnostic fee) and they said that the solenoid needs to be replaced, which is about $730. The service guy then said that a mechanic pointed out that the Pathfinders use the same part and the part is cheaper. So I can instead replace it with a part that's only $430. GREAT…. I’m using the shift lock release to move the car out of park for now until I get rid of this piece of crap car.

I purchased a 2013 Nissan Altima in September of 2015 with less than 43,000 miles. The car was really good gas and I was really happy with the purchase. in February of 2016 while me and my husband was driving in traffic we came to a stop and the car shut off. We started the car up fine but as soon as we placed the car in drive it shut off again. We repeated these steps over and over again until he was able to keep the car running while in drive so we could pull on the side of the road. we were very close to the warranty expiring so we took the car to Antioch, CA Nissan dealership. They said that they would have to "duplicate" the problem before moving forward. They kept our car for 3 days to no avail. They said that they could not "duplicate" the problem and to come pick up the car. 2 days later we started experiencing the same problem. We decided to take the car to a different Nissan dealership in Concord, CA hoping that we would get a different outcome. Needless to say they couldn't "duplicate" the problem for 2 weeks!! The guy in Services admitted that they have MANY cars coming in with the same exact problem and he knew how to get the car to act up so that they could move forward. How crazy is that??? He called me 2 weeks later and told me that they had to "reset" the transmission system. He also told me that even though I was very close to my warranty expiring that if the problem occurs again that they would still honor the warranty because the problem pre-existed. Not even a whole 2 months passed when my husband and I were moving from California to Texas did my car started having the exact same problems it had before but this time I noticed that the transmission was slipping. I was going 80 miles per hour on the freeway when my car slowed all the way down to 40 miles per hour while driving in front and on the side of a big rig!!!! I was so scared for my life I had to call my husband who was driving our moving truck to tell him the situation I was in just in case I was in an accident and to pull off on the next exit because the car would not make it any further. after that the car would take a few seconds to pull off when in drive or reverse so we definitely knew that it was the transmission dying. I contacted Nissan Affairs the same day asking them to buy their dangerous car back and opened up a case. I waited several weeks just for them to deny me and not honor their problem to take care of me because my warranty had expired!!! I argued back and forth with them telling them all the stories I had came across VERY similar to mines and they only offered to cover 20% of the cost which is around $3400!!! I have only made 9 payments on this 3 year old car that only has 68,000 miles on it!! This is unbelievable and something needs to be done about it!! this car also had other problems that I did not mention above. The passenger airbag light stayed on while me or my husband would be sitting in the passenger seat, so you can only imagine what would have happened in the case of an accident!! The Bluetooth would work when it wanted too, the idling dropped and jumped while driving and now looking back on it the transmission started slipping right before the car cut off on us in traffic the very first time in Feb 2016. This car is unsafe and a piece of junk!! Does someone has to die before they make these parts safe and reliable??? Why aren't all these complaints I'm reading on the internet reaching Nissan Affairs and the news?! HOW DO WE START A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT???? Us consumers put our trust in Nissan and they completely let us and our families down!! These cars are unsafe to drive!! In my denial letter regarding buying the car back they wrote "As a company interested in winning lifelong customers, Nissan apologizes for any inconvenience you may have experienced." lifelong customers??? they apologize for any inconvenience?? you will NEVER have lifelong customers if you keep up at the rate your company is going and not standing behind your product. Your company is in denial and refusing to see the manufacturer defect in you products. How can Nissan turn a blind eye to all their consumers complaining about the EXACT same problems?! How could your company not do a recall on these CVT transmissions and invest in greater transmissions and invest in safer product for your consumers?! We have to do something about this, better yet NISSAN should do something about this. I will NEVER buy Nissan again. This is my first and last and I will let everyone know about this horrible experience with Nissan.