AutoUtility currently tracks 55 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2018 Nissan Versa. Electrical System issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 17 complaints (30.9% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 11 filings cite a crash, 7 report one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 55 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Electrical System (17 reports • 30.9% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Engine & Cooling (14), Air Bags & Restraints (13)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 11 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 7 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
55
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
11
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
7
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2018 Nissan Versa

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 30.9% of complaints

Electrical System

17 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 25.5% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

14 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 2 crash reports 🩹 3 injury report entries
#3 Problem Area 23.6% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

13 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 7 crash reports 🩹 5 injury report entries
#4 Problem Area 18.2% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

10 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 10.9% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

6 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2018 Nissan Versa

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11760083
Filed: 08/27/2026

"Car jerks and doesn’t go into gear right away. Never know when it will happen. There is a notice from Nissan that it happens because of short in tail light. Happened approx 3 yrs ago and has started again but worse. It is available for inspection No recall but very unsafe. While attempting to cross..."

Incident Date: 08/01/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11740282
Filed: 05/27/2026

"2018 Nissan Versa transmission issues. i have 2018 Nissan Versa with 116,993 miles. Transmission is starting to skip and slip. it was diagnosed as a possible chain slip. there was bulletin out for this issue in which Nissan has known about. Nissan was contacted to see if they could warranty the..."

Incident Date: 05/20/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN
Visibility, Wipers & Glass NHTSA ODI ID: #11735379
Filed: 05/03/2026

"My car was parked out front my house. Weather has been in the 60’s no major differences. I walked outside ant 1pm and noticed the entire back windshield was shattered. There was no impact marks, no hole in the window. I’m not sure how this has happened and thankfully we were at home and not driving."

Incident Date: 05/02/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: VISIBILITY/WIPER
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11723880
Filed: 03/12/2026

"The contact owns a 2018 Nissan Versa. The contact stated that while driving approximately 4 MPH, the vehicle was shaking violently. There were no warning lights illuminated. When the heater was activated, there was a loud clanking sound coming from the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an..."

Incident Date: 02/26/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11710587
Filed: 01/13/2026

"Out of nowhere my airbag light start blinking, I ran the code and got a P2096 which apparently is not related to the airbag I took it to Firestone to get it checked out and they told me they cannot do anything about the airbag light I would have to go to my dealership for help with that. No one..."

Incident Date: 01/12/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Nissan Versa

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2025)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Nissan Versa 168 18 1 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Nissan Versa 80 13 0 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Nissan Versa 62 9 3 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Nissan Versa Current Page 55 11 2 Current
2019 Nissan Versa 24 2 1 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Nissan Versa 64 5 2 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Nissan Versa 31 5 3 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Nissan Versa 20 0 0 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Nissan Versa 37 0 1 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Nissan Versa 95 1 1 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Nissan Versa 11 2 0 View 2025 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2018 Nissan Versa

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 27 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 10 5 0 5 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 6 2 0 2 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 5 0 0 0 0
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 4 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 4 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 3 1 0 2 0
STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 2 0 0 0 0
AIR BAGS,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 1 0 0 0
AIR BAGS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 1 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
EXTERIOR LIGHTING,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,AIR BAGS 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE 1 1 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 1 0 0 1 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,WHEELS,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
Wheels & Hubs NHTSA category: WHEELS 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (55). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)

1 OPEN

Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)

Official Federal Inquiries: NHTSA opens a defect investigation when safety screening or consumer defect trends indicate a potential unreasonable safety risk. An open investigation is a formal inquiry and does not by itself confirm a defect or result in a mandatory recall.
OPEN Engineering Analysis (EA) ODI Action #EA21002
Opened: 2021-09-17 • Currently Active

Desiccated Air Bag Inflator Rupture

Affected Component: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE

From 2000 through 2017, Takata produced millions of air bag inflators using two types of phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate ("PSAN") propellant -- propellant 2004 and propellant 2004L. After prolonged exposure to high temperature cycles and humidity, inflators using propellant 2004 can degrade, causing the propellant to burn too quickly when ignited. The rapid burning can cause the inflator to rupture during deployment, potentially causing serious...

Active federal investigation. Official NHTSA File →
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.