Buyer Research

2022 Nissan Altima — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $18,000–$23,000. There is 1 high-severity known issue you need to know before handing over a check.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 15 Nissan Altima years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

Twenty complaints and no recalls. That is a thin record, and a thin record is not a reliability rating — it means few people have filed on a car that is still mostly under warranty, not that the car is clean. What the twenty do say lines up with the 2020 and 2021 Altimas: the automatic emergency braking stopping the car on an open highway is the single largest complaint, followed by electrical faults — a car that dies mid-drive, a horn that quits, a fuse that keeps blowing, and one report of smoke from the vents. The CVT that defined older Altimas has two complaints here. We would buy a 2022 at the right price after a test drive under overpasses with no phantom stop and a clean dash at start-up, while being honest that most of what we know about this year is inherited from the years around it rather than read from its own record.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 20 owner complaints for the 2022 Nissan Altima, and no recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 35% of them are about one thing — the driver-assist and automatic braking systems. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2022 Nissan Altima

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Automatic emergency braking stops the car on an open highway; AEB warning light and beep every driveHigh — wallet impact

Seven of twenty complaints, and they read like the 2020 and 2021 records: the car braking suddenly with nothing ahead, on surface streets and highways, one owner counting six stops on the highway in the first months of ownership and another nearly rear-ended with whiplash to show for it. A second version is the AEB warning light coming on with a beep a few minutes into every drive and staying on until shut-off, sensor clean, dealer unable to find a fault — which usually means the radar or its bracket needs recalibrating or replacing. Test it: a highway stretch with overpasses and a road with parked trucks, and watch for the light after ten minutes of driving.

Repair cost (estimate): $200–$600 for a radar recalibration; $900–$1,800 for a radar unit

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the driver-assist and automatic braking systems (7).

Car shuts off mid-drive and restarts; horn dead; fuse that keeps blowing; smoke from the ventsMedium

The electrical and engine clusters overlap almost completely on this year, and neither is really about the engine. Owners describe the car dying in a parking lot a month after purchase, a car that 'constantly turns off mid drive and then turns back on' with every dash light lit at start-up even with a new battery, a horn that stopped working, and an interior-light fuse that blows every few months. One owner reports a short with sparks and smoke from the air vents — the fire report in this record. One complaint just says 'BCM', the body control module, which is a plausible common thread for several of these. Check that the horn works, that no warning lights linger after start-up, and that the car starts cleanly several times cold and hot.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$1,200

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (5), the engine (5).

Highway crash after a dash-light cascade — and non-deployment reports we cannot checkMedium

One owner describes multiple warning lights and chimes at 65–70 mph, then the car veering into a median wall; the three AIR BAGS complaints are all crash reports where airbags did not deploy. We list these because they are in the record, not because an inspection can find them: a buyer cannot test a crash sensor. What you can do is confirm the airbag warning light comes on with the key and goes out after its self-test, and treat any warning-light cascade on the test drive as a reason to stop.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$400 for an SRS diagnostic

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under airbags (3).

CVT that sometimes will not go into drive — two reports, and the fluid still mattersLow

Two POWER TRAIN complaints, one of them a transmission that intermittently would not engage drive on a car that was also phantom-braking. That is not a pattern on this year, and we are not calling it one. But this is a Nissan CVT, the family that dominated the 2012 and 2017 Altima records, so the cheap insurance is the same: a fluid change with Nissan NS-3 by 30,000 miles and a warm test drive with a dozen stop-and-go pulls, listening for a delay from a stop or a shudder at steady throttle.

Repair cost (estimate): $200–$300 for a CVT fluid service

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the transmission and drivetrain (2).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗AEB or forward collision warning light lit after ten minutes of driving
✗Car slows or stops on its own passing under a bridge with nothing ahead
✗Horn that does not sound, or interior lights that are dead
✗Warning lights that stay on after the start-up self-test, or a car that needs a jump despite a good battery

Good Signs

✓Dealer invoice for a radar recalibration or replacement, with no warning since
✓Remaining factory powertrain warranty (5 years/60,000 miles from the in-service date) confirmed by a Nissan dealer
✓CVT fluid changed with NS-3 and a receipt
✓A highway drive under several overpasses with no alarm and no phantom braking
✓Horn, every lock and every interior light working on a walk-around