2003 Nissan Altima S from North America - Comments

Well let's see...

When I first got it (51k miles), my car had a bumpy ride, especially when running into bumps. Seemed like the engine "bounced" around the chassis of car. Needed shocks and/or a motor mount.

Rear brakes were giving up at 62000 miles.

Heard tons of that "water rushing" sound in dash board area!

Sometimes I could smell a little anti-freeze.

When engine was running, when I turned it off, I could hear some strange gear sound. As of today it had 62k miles.

No catalyst or head gasket problems here! NOT YET anyway!!

Happiness is HAVING SOLD MY 03 ALTIMA!!

The style of this car is so unbelievably NICE! Loved it! It's very strong! And love the color burgundy I had, SHINY! It's roomy and comfortable!!

What I don't like; the engine is noisy in the cabin, and the wide turning circle, AND THE VERY CLUMSY reputation these 02 03 Altimas have. Being famous for pre-cat failures and no start issues. IT'S ALL I HEAR about these. It's ALL I hear. It's ALL I hear. It's ALL I hear again & again & again GEE

I decided I AM NOT GOING TO BE A VICTIM HERE! No thanks Nissan. After having read ALL these comments, I decided I need to RID as soon as possible, before Nissan's problem with catalyst GET'S ME!!! Ha ha Nissan, you won't be able to GET me here, haha. I'm SO HAPPY!! I got $9500 for my 03 with 62000 miles.

With my car however, I was NOT experiencing the oil consumption problem or the no starting issues. BUT I was able to SEE those problems coming soon, and SMACK in my face! NOPE it's NOT going to happen here. Thank God!

One other thing, ever since I first heard nothing but BAD things about the 02 03 Altimas. ****How I wished I would have THOROUGHLY read all the reviews about these 03 Altima's BEFORE buying mines. The WORST thing of all, I read these comments ONLY the NEXT DAY I just bought my 03 Altima... OH GEE, just one day after I got mines.***** From the very day I bought my car until NOW (11-12-07), I was suffering the worst drama of WORRYING! The worst drama ever in my life! Worrying if my car is going to blow up because of the stupid pre cat! I mean EVERY DAY, for the first month, I was checking the oil to see if my car was going to be one of these defective cars. This put way TOO MUCH drama in my state of mind and causing TONs upon TONs of anxiety on me! My gosh! I was even diagnosed with anxiety at my doctor's.

Just think about it, after having just spending $14500 for my 3 year old Altima, THEN to read all these bad things about the 02 03 Altimas, UNBELIEVABLE! All this car (and Nissan corp) did for me was make me wonder and worry whether if I just bought a lemon or not. And certainly would have wanted to "commit suicide" if I have found the engine need to be replaced only a couple thousand miles later! THIS worrying was way TOO MUCH for me! (I ought to sue Nissan for my anxiety! haha LOL)

But evidently, luckily my Altima did NOT have a problem. I had thoughts of keeping the car... NOPE I NOT GOING TO KEEP. Knowing my luck I probably will need a new engine in the next few thousand miles... I'm NOT going to chance it!!

I can tell you one thing. The year and half I owned my 03 Alima. I DEFINITELY did NOT enjoy this 03 Altima AT ALL, NONE AT ALL. All the experience I had was WORRY WORRY WORRY!

Now that I sold my 03 Altima, this will be the MERRIEST Christmas I will EVER have! This will GREATLY help my anxiety, thank you lord!

As far as I'm concerned, I WILL NEVER BUY A NISSAN EVER AGAIN! After hearing all this S*&^ about it, FORGET IT NISSAN! I WANT MY 05 Honda Civic BACK!!

I bought my 2003 brand new in Sept 2002. It has been the bane of my existence and I will say to anyone who cares to hear, don't buy a Nissan for 2 reasons. The quality of the car and the quality of service.

Immediately after buying the car the car started to pull to the right. The Nissan service fellow talked about this being natural as roads slope to the right for drainage reasons. I'm sorry, but I'm in my 40's and I've owned quite a few cars since the day I turned 16, and there was nothing natural about this pulling to the right. The dealer rotated the tires for free (how kind) and said that should fix it.

At around 20,000 km (12,500 miles) the seat-belts started squeaking unbearably. The dealer replaced one, but said they couldn't detect it in the other. (The unbearable squeak has since returned, and I just live with it.)

At about 28,000 km (17,750 miles) the pulling to the right resumed and the steering wheel vibrated constantly. The dealer checked the tires and said there were "chatter marks" on the tires and asked if I drove on gravel roads. They said that this caused the wear on the tires and that they needed to be replaced. The fact is that I rarely ever drove on gravel roads, and 28,000 km to replace tires is absurd. The dealer said replacing tires every 25 to 30 thousand kilometers was common. She also said that if I had have bought the 3.5 instead of the cheaper 2.5S I would have gotten Bridgestone instead of Continental Tires. (I'm sorry, but I paid over $25,000 + taxes + delivery for this car. It was the most expensive car I ever bought. I thought that I was buying a good car! Go figure. (Why does the dealer think I'm dumb? Perhaps because I bought the car in the first place?) I bought 4 new Michelins (not from the dealer!) and they have proven to be very good.

At around 35,000 the rear brakes made awful noises. The dealer said the rear brakes seized due to the fact that I didn't have them serviced every 20,000 km (12,500 miles). I paid the dealer to replace them (pads and rotors was required). In less than 20,000 km I had to replace them again! This time I did them myself and applied sylglide lubricant to the caliper slide bolt. These are the rear brakes, not the front!

On my way to work I stopped to do the business banking. Came out to my car and couldn't get the key to turn in the ignition as the steering wheel locked up. I called the dealer. They advised me to turn the steering wheel as hard as I could to the right while trying to turn the ignition. That didn't work. They said to tow the car in. The tow truck driver tried his darnedest to get the ignition to unlock, but no such luck. He towed me to the dealer. They took the ignition switch out and sent it to the locksmith who took it apart and put it back together with the same components. I used up a vacation day from work! The dealer said if it happens again I should have the ignition switch replaced. Hey, I go camping in provincial parks in the middle of nowhere. What if my ignition locks up again??? At this time the car had maybe 80,000 km (50,000 miles).

Here's another problem. The wheels typically seize on the car. I'm not talking about the nuts that hold the wheels on. I mean, even after removing all the nuts the wheel won't budge. Whenever I need the tires rotated I take it to a tire company who have to pound the wheels off the car with a sledge. I don't know what I'll do if I ever get a flat. After all, it's not wise to pound a wheel on a car that's up on a flimsy jack.

My car now has 120,000 km (75,000 miles) and in the past summer I'm getting an error code saying that there is a leak in the air conditioning system. Since the hot days are over, I think I'll have to wait until next summer to fix this one.

But winter's upon us, and with this car, on very cold days the automatic transmission won't shift into high gear until the engine is warmed up. Should I be worried??? Well, I am.

And the car seems to have started to burn oil. At least the oil never reads higher than half full after an oil change. Perhaps I shouldn't go to the dealership for oil changes?

I went for a car wash a month ago. The darned passenger side plastic mirror cover came off. The dealer said that's a problem with the car wash. I suggested that they shouldn't give free coupons to that particular car was if it results in damage to the vehicle. They wanted $75 for a new plastic cover. I glued the busted one back rather than give Nissan $75.

Oh, and I too hear the rushing water sound in the dash, and the back end is clunky whenever I hit a bump.

I've spent too much on this vehicle in repairs, and I've spent too much personal anguish over this vehicle.

Given other owner's inputs on the Nissan Altima, I don't believe mine is a lemon. To call it a lemon suggests that it is outside the norm for the vehicle. I think my 2003 Nissan Altima is quite the norm among Nissan Altimas.

I've owned North American and Japanese vehicles in the past. None have compared to this Nissan.

I'd love to trade it in on something other than a Nissan, but the trade-in value is pitiful.

Hello people. I'm the original poster of "Sold my Altima"

Ever since I got rid of my 03, my anxiety level went down tremedously! WOW! I would say I'm experiencing about 15% ONLY of what I was before I sold my 03! Big difference!

I remember some of the things I didn't like about the 03 Altima. I didn't like the wide turning circle. Makes it difficult to maneuver this big car in tight places. I didn't like the loud buzzy engine sound in the cabin. This car definitely does NOT feel solid, not at all! For me, I'm much more satisfied with a car that has a very quiet and muffled ride, you know the ones where we don't "hear" the engine running!! I didn't like the cheap looking plastics. Too bad stock radio has no aux inputs for mp3 player etc. I don't like the sagging look on the back axle area of car.

I just have to agree with the poster who said that the cars are cheap and the service is bad. I had a Maxima and it was the worst experience of my life. I dumped it after two years too. My cousin bought the '03 Altima SE thinking my Maxima was a cool car so why not... His has literally fallen apart inside and it is the cheapest quality car I have ever seen... even worse than Hyundai or Kia. I will never buy anything Nissan again... or Niss-OFF as we have come to call them.