2009 Nissan ALTIMA - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2009 Nissan Altima has received impressive crash test ratings, with a perfect score of 5 in the front and side crash tests for both the driver and passenger sides. Although the overall rating is not specified, the high scores in individual categories indicate strong safety performance. Additionally, this model offers optional electronic stability control, which can greatly enhance vehicle control in hazardous driving conditions. However, it does not come with forward collision warning or lane departure warning systems.

On the downside, there have been 1535 complaints filed for this vehicle, which might indicate potential issues with reliability or performance. Furthermore, there have been 4 recalls on the 2009 Nissan Altima, which could suggest manufacturing defects that need to be addressed. Overall, while the crash test ratings and optional stability control are positive aspects of this car's safety features, the high number of complaints and recalls are areas of concern that potential buyers should be aware of.

auto generated summary, may be inaccurate.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

1,535

Recall Count

4

Investigation Count

0

Safety Rating

Not Rated

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Safety Features

2009 Nissan Altima 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2009 Nissan Altima 4-DR. w/SAB

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Optional
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

No
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

No

2009 Nissan Altima 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2009 Nissan Altima 4-DR. w/SAB Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2005 Score 2009 Score 2024 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated 4
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 5 5 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5 4

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2005 Score 2009 Score 2024 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 3 5 4
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 3 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated Not Rated 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated Not Rated 5
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated Not Rated 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2005 Score 2009 Score 2024 Score
Rollover Rating Not Rated Not Rated 5
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated 5

Complaints for the 2009 Nissan ALTIMA

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"parked car at a coffee shop, turned off engine, exited and locked doors. upon coming back to vehicle, the vehicle would not start. we tried jumping the vehicle battery, that did not work. we tried replacing the battery in the key fobs, that did not work. we inserted the fob into the a lot near the steering column and that did not work. we had the car towed to an auto repair shop who stated the key fobs needed to be reprogrammed, but they didn’t have the equipment to do so. we called a locksmith the reprogram the fobs, but the locksmith was not able to do so. he said the vehicle returned 6 bcm codes. he was able to remove all but 2 and recommended i take care to nissan. had car towed to nissan and they stated the steering column module lock needed to be replaced (quoted $1425 + tax). i mentioned the service campaign from 2017, but i was told my car’s vin was not eligible for the campaign and repair would be my responsibility. why is a known issue not being covered by nissan??"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2023-01-11
Complaint:
"car was working perfectly. drove to school, nothing acting weird. went to leave school and would not start. this is a push start ignition and it is stuck on lock with the key lights on. one orange/yellow stays on for a while and the other is the red flashing light. this is a steering lock module defect. i have read where this is a reocurring problem and nissan has still not performed a recall and this obviously should have been done years ago. now i am going to be out over $500 for a piece that nissan should cover. this is unacceptable."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2024-11-01
Complaint:
"steering column locks, causing key fob to not be recognized. hence, car will not start. this s/b recalled for a fix."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2022-01-12
Complaint:
"my daughter drove the car to a gas station, pumped gas, came back out and the car wouldnt start. she was left stranded by a car that had to be towed. had she been out of town without resources nearby she would have been in a very difficult situation. the engine randomly fails to start using push-button no manual workaround, leaving drivers stranded failure to jumpstart using cables or a jump box and new battery the new replacement part wiped out the memory of the body control system causing more costs. $1200 - just to make the car start"
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2023-05-11
Complaint:
"my vehicle suddenly failed to start due to a defective escl, which locked the steering column. the vehicle needed to be towed to a nissan dealership to replace the part at a cost of $1500. defective escls are a known issue and a service campaign was implemented by nissan to replace these defective parts in 2009-2010 altimas and maximas. unfortunately, the campaign expired in 2020 and nissan refuses to fix this part after the expiration. i never received notification of this issue despite purchasing and owning the vehicle throughout the entire 2017-2020 campaign. despite nissan referring to this as a non-safety issue because the part is not known to fail during operation of the vehicle, this problem can cause operators to be suddenly stranded with no option of immediate repair. i believe the nissan campaign to replace these defective parts should be reopened with no expiration, as there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles impacted."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2022-01-05
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2009 nissan altima. the contact stated that while his son was attempting to start the vehicle, the vehicle failed to start. the contact mentioned that the vehicle failed to start and was given a jump start by another vehicle. the contact stated that the steering column box needed to be tapped in order for the vehicle to operate. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer. the vehicle was not repaired, and the failure recurred. the manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was not included in technical service bulletin: 10119195. the approximate failure mileage was 80,000."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2022-11-01
Complaint:
"my vehicle is inoperable due to electronic steering column box. this locking mechanism is not engaging and has caused the vehicle to stop operation. i have been told this system is an anti theft device. it stopped working all of the sudden and i had to have the vehicle towed home thankfully i did not get into an an accident due to this mechanical failure."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2022-03-01
Complaint:
"2009 nissan altima it's relating to the steering assembly lock that was defective. i have this vehicle and  this issue came up in 2013 and it was fixed.  i had this issue come up again in late 2021 and i need to fix it again out of pocket.  i read in your article that in 2017  nissan issued a fix to this.  i paid about $600 in 2013 and now they're quoting $1800 plus tax. would i still be eligible to have this covered by nissan as it's a known recurring problem? thanks,  [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2023-05-12
Complaint:
"steering column is locked not allowing the car to turn on."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2023-03-11
Complaint:
"drove car to to store came back 20 minutes later car would not start. red key appear on dash - had to have car towed. informed steering wheel lockout. nissian award of problem, but never issue recall. base on my research found out they did a voluntary bring in your car to fix problem, but no recall. who is going to know they have a problem until it happens< the bring in your cechile program ended may 2020 during the pandemic. now it's going to cost $1300 to repair, not counting money spent for tow and car rental. i have bought 3 nissian never will i buy another one."
Components Involved: STEERING
Date of incident: 2022-03-10

Recalls for the 2009 Nissan ALTIMA

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"nissan is recalling 3,403 my 2009 altima vehicles equipped with 16-inch alloy wheels. some these wheels may not have been manufactured to specification. this could cause one or more of the five lug nuts attaching the wheel to the vehicle to become loose."
Consequence:
IF THE LUG NUTS BECOME LOOSE, IT COULD EVENTUALLY RESULT IN A LOSS OF CONTROL AND A CRASH WITHOUT WARNING.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL INSPECT THE VEHICLE TO DETERMINE IF IT IS EQUIPPED WITH ONE OF THE AFFECTED WHEELS. IF IT IS, THE WHEELS WILL BE REPLACED WITH NEW ONES THAT HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURED TO THE CORRECT SPECIFICATION. THE RECALL IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN DURING SEPTEMBER 2008. OWNERS MAY CONTACT NISSAN AT 1-800-647-7261.

Component(s) Involved: WHEELS
Date of incident: 2008-09-15

NISSAN Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

NISSAN ranks 5 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

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