2020 Nissan Versa: What to check before buying

The CVT jerks, shudders, slips, or loses power, usually when pulling away from a stop or in stop-and-go traffic. Some cars stall at take-off. Others won't move, or barely creep, after being shifted into drive or reverse, sometimes with ABS and collision-warning lights on. Check engine and transmission lights come on in some cases, but dealers often find no codes and can't reproduce the problem. Transmission replacement is diagnosed around 60,000 to 100,000 miles, and one dealer quoted $7,000. Owners describe near-misses when the car won't accelerate into traffic.

Several dashboard warnings light up at once for no clear reason, including traction control, forward collision, and parking collision lights. When that happens, rear parking assist can stop the car from backing up. Another pattern is code P0101, rough idle, and weak acceleration that keep coming back after repeated mass airflow sensor replacements, sometimes with Key System Error messages. The infotainment screen sometimes stays blank, and Bluetooth audio restarts. Other reports cover automatic braking that kicks in on its own, water leaking past the windshield seal onto the ignition coil, and smoke with a burning smell from under the hood.

Jerking and shuddering while driving are the most common complaints, sometimes at or above 40 mph and often with the check engine light on. Dealers can't always reproduce the jerking, and at least one owner traced the shudder to the transmission. One car stored code P2859. Other reports describe an engine that failed within two years of purchase, and a no-start where the belt squealed, the starter made a gargling noise, and the gauges flickered.

Airbags fail to deploy in some crashes and deploy without a crash in another. Three of the four reports involve crashes, and three involve injuries. In one frontal collision, a passenger curtain airbag stayed stowed and the passenger hit his head. In a multi-car rear-end crash, no airbags deployed and the front seats broke backward. One report describes both side airbags going off at low speed with no impact, trapping and injuring the driver of a car with under 15,000 miles. Another describes an airbag near the floor injuring the driver's leg in a deer strike.

Automatic emergency braking slams on the brakes with no real obstacle ahead. One false activation at highway speed caused a three-car crash with injuries, and the problem came back after repairs. Other reports describe the system braking hard after the car ahead turns off, which creates a rear-end risk, and the warning light flashing for no reason. In another crash, the owner expected the collision warning and automatic braking to act before impact. Two of the four reports involve crashes.

The automatic braking system brakes on its own, either locking up in reverse with nothing behind the car or braking while driving forward. These events come with collision and radar warning lights, and one car spent months at the dealer without a fix. A separate report describes a squeak soon after purchase that was first called brake dust and then traced to missing brake hardware.

Two separate fuel problems appear. In one, driving range on a full tank drops sharply, from about 210 miles to 171 miles, within a week of purchase. In the other, a strong fuel smell fills the cabin and comes back after an earlier dealer repair, and the dealer has no record of what was done. With only two reports, neither problem forms a broad pattern.

Neither of the two reports describes a wheel failure. One combines stalling when pulling out onto a main road with tire pressure readings that don't register correctly. The other concerns the spare tire, which is about 3 inches smaller in diameter than the standard tires, and asks whether it is safe on a front wheel of this front-wheel-drive car. The dealer called it no problem.