2012 Nissan FRONTIER - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD does not have an overall safety rating available. However, in terms of specific crash ratings, it received a 3 out of 5 for rollover safety. The vehicle is equipped with standard electronic stability control, which enhances its safety features by helping to prevent skidding and loss of control. Unfortunately, it does not have forward collision warning or lane departure warning systems.

In terms of complaints and recalls, the vehicle has had 73 complaints reported and 3 recalls. While the rollover rating is decent, potential buyers should consider the lack of specific crash ratings and safety features such as collision warning and lane departure warning when evaluating the overall safety of the 2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD.

auto generated summary, may be inaccurate.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

73

Recall Count

3

Investigation Count

0

Safety Rating

Not Rated

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Safety Features

2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD

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.

Standard
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

2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2012 Nissan Frontier King Cab PU/EC RWD 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 2011 Score 2012 Score 2022 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Front Crash Driver Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated

Side Crash Ratings

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

Test 2011 Score 2012 Score 2022 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated

Rollover Ratings

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

Test 2011 Score 2012 Score 2022 Score
Rollover Rating 3 3 3
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated Not Rated Not Rated

Complaints for the 2012 Nissan FRONTIER

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:
"tl* the contact called on behalf of his son who owns a 2012 nissan frontier. the contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would shuddered without warning. the vehicle resumed normal operation after experiencing the failure. the vehicle was taken to metro nissan of montclair 9440 autoplex st, montclair, ca 91763, but was not diagnosed nor repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the failure mileage was approximately 63,000."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2021-01-01
Complaint:
"both rear axle seals failed due to a faulty rear axle housing breather valve. gear oil began leaking on to rear brake pads creating a safety issue. also, seals and bearings could not be replaced independently. a $15 part failure (breather valve) caused both rear axles to be replaced in excess of $1000. nissan would not provide any consideration of good will help unless i paid a diagnostic fee at local dealer. this came with no guarantee of help."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2020-02-07
Complaint:
"i noticed a leak in the rear end of my 2012 frontier, coming from the rack & pinion seal. i purchased the extended warranty on the vehicle. it turns out that a breather/screen had rusted and caused pressure to build, causing the seal to leak. i brought it to my local nissan service center and they refused to repair it under warranty, saying that nissan considers it "environmental causes". i know of other makes and models that go 100,000 or 200,000+ miles without read end issues. i have talked to other frontier owners and found that they have had similar issues, with as little as 13,000 miles and trucks only 2 years old. i feel that this is a design flaw and nissan should repair this defect under warranty."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-10-08
Complaint:
"vehicle became hard to put into gear, especially when cold. took car to the dealer, and they said something must have spilled down by the shifter linkage. i am the only driver, and i do not think that was the case, but could not be absolutely sure. i am only submitting this, because i saw several other posts where people could not shift their vehicles out of park, nissan would not help out with the expense of repair since they were out of warranty. anyone reading this should think long and hard before purchasing a nissan. they are not the high quality vehicles they were at one time."
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2013-07-11
Complaint:
"transmission shifter will not go into drive, stranding driver and vehicle in customer's driveway. this is a defective assembly that has failed on several other frontiers with automatic transmissions. vehicle is disabled until repaired. parts for the repair are dealer only and the repair is over $600!"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-02-03
Complaint:
"transmission shifter will not go into drive, stranding driver and vehicle in customer's driveway. this is a defective assembly that has failed on several other frontiers with automatic transmissions. vehicle is disabled until repaired. parts for the repair are dealer only and the repair is over $600! *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-02-03
Complaint:
"shifter for the transmission would not go into drive standing the driver and vehicle. shifter assembly found defective and was replaced at nissan dealership. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-02-01
Complaint:
"shifter for the transmission would not go into drive standing the driver and vehicle. shifter assembly found defective and was replaced at nissan dealership. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2014-04-12
Complaint:
"vehicle would not shift into drive and stranded the driver. vehicle shifter found to be defective and was replaced. the shifter can stop operating at any time, leaving the vehicle unable to drive. i have had 8 of these shifters replaced on 8 different 2012 nissan frontiers and counting. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-12-03
Complaint:
"shifter for the transmission would not go into drive standing the driver and vehicle. shifter assembly found defective and was replaced at nissan dealership. *tr"
Components Involved: POWER TRAIN
Date of incident: 2015-04-02

Recalls for the 2012 Nissan FRONTIER

Component Recalls

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

Recall:
"nissan north america, inc. (nissan) is recalling certain model year 2012 through 2014 frontier vehicles manufactured from november 28, 2012, through december 17, 2013. in the affected vehicles, a circuit breaker may have been installed incorrectly causing the main wire harness connected to the circuit breaker to face outward, potentially contacting a metal bolt located on the a-pillar."
Consequence:
The bolt may wear through the wire harness covering, resulting in an electrical short which could cause a fire.
Remedy:

Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the circuit breaker orientation. If the circuit breaker orientation is incorrect, dealers will repair the vehicles free of charge. The recall began on March 17, 2014. Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM > WIRING > FUSES AND CIRCUIT BREAKERS
Date of incident: 2014-02-12

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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