3.8

definitely annoying
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
31,975 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2003 Nissan Frontier:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #4

Mar 182022

Frontier

  • miles
The transmission is not working

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

problem #3

Aug 202006

Frontier

  • Automatic transmission
  • 51,000 miles
A growing problem with our 2003 Nissan Frontier 4X2 purchased new from deland Nissan in Florida. Over the past six months the factory original paint has begun to fail in numerous locations. It begins with a bubbling of the paint in a spot followed by flaking off of the outer color paint from the gray primer. The area of paint failure continues to expand with no end in sight. Attempts to work with our deland dealership have been unsuccessful since the vehicle was within the 3 year warranty but over the mileage allotment. Nissan North America district parts and service managers have both reviewed this situation and earlier photographs of the paint failure and have declined to repair the damage that is occurring from this factory defect in the painting of our vehicle. The failure of the paint in the area affected is growing rapidly. This failure is now occurring in three major areas with other areas showing the early signs of paint failure. We have taken this vehicle to two local paint and body shops to get an opinion as to what may be causing the failure. In both cases these paint experts believe that it is a failure of the exterior paint to effectively bond to the primer paint. This is a problem that occurred during the manufacturing process and not a result of outside elements that may have come in contact with the vehicle. When the paint starts to flake away from the vehicle it does so in a bubbling fashion from underneath the seal of the paint. I have researched the internet and find there are other owners of Nissan vehicles and the 2003 Nissan Frontier who have experienced the same problem with the factory original paint. This appears to be further evidence of a systematic problem in either the painting processes or the chemical combinations used to formulate your primers and paints. We have tried to appeal this local/regional decision on the failure of the paint on our Frontier through customer service operations, but have been unsuccessful.

- Deland, FL, USA

problem #2

Aug 012006

Frontier 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 50,000 miles
2003 Nissan Frontier paint is chipping in 3 places with a 4th area bubbling.

- Deland, FL, USA

problem #1

Dec 102005

Frontier 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 26,900 miles
I own a Frontier 2003 xe crew cab model, and one day running on the highway at about 90+ mph, suddenly it loose the traction that keep the vehicle in motion for a moment and back again. I think that truck chassis suddenly lost the weight that keep the truck aside to the ground caused by the air flow under the truck (aerodynamic effect) so I got very nervous because it could cause to loose control on the truck with causing potential injures to myself furthermore the incident came up with out notice. My first thought was that probably there were some problem with the fuel engine system but no light at the panel came on.

- Laredo, TX, USA