2017 Nissan Leaf problems
NHTSA has received 27 complaints about the 2017 Nissan Leaf, and 15% of them involve air bags. Next are electrical system (15%) and drivetrain & axles (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 27 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 15% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 3 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 30,000 miles 13 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 4 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 0 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 13 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 30,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 3 complaints mention a crash; 1 injury reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2017 ranks 13th most-complained-about out of 13 model years of the Nissan Leaf with enough data (17 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
When turning left the visibility is very poor for a 5' 1" driver. The double "a" pillar and large side view mirror block the driver's visibility and caused an accident. Several other people also complained about the visibility almost causing accidents on a leaf blog website. The accident happened when turning left at a busy intersection and an old lady fell because the leaf driver did not see the pedestrian soon enough due to poor visibility on a clear day around noon.
I was driving very slowly in a parking lot, trying to find a place to park. When I was on the 4th floor I found a spot, made a right hand turn, and as I slowly turned into the spot I took my foot of of the accelerator to put my foot on the brake, the car accelerated and caused more than $16,000 worth of damage to my car. I have leased this car since aug, 2017. Before that I leased a 2015 nissan leaf and never had any problems with the care.
My son and I were in a major crash on a freeway, we were hit by a semi-truck, sent into a spin, hit by another vehicle and stopped by slamming into freeway guardrail. The car was totaled. My son was driving and airbags on the drivers side all deployed but nothing deployed on the passenger side at all.
Brake failure at low speeds. In the last eight months I have owned this vehicle, twice the car failed to stop when I applied brakes. I was going at around 20-25 MPH in both the cases.
A sudden loss of propulsion with out an audible warning. The vehicle operates at creep speed. I notice it because the can not accelerate. A moment of confusion sets in in trying to figure out what is going on. A tell tale light of a turtle comes on. I have to work my way through traffic to pull on the side of the road. This is a concern on a busy highway. The tell tale light goes away after cycling the power by turning the car off and starting it all over. It gives me the impression that the trouble went away.