What 19 owners told NHTSA about the 2022 Nissan Versa Note

I purchased this car from Carvana on 02/25/26, 2022 Nissan Versa S Manual Transmission. On four occasions over the course of two separate days, while under way, I lost power and the car went into a limp mode. Twice I was able to pull off the road, twice I had to stop on the road. After coming to a complete stop I was able to place the car in first gear and continue on driving. This power loss puts me at risk to be rear ended by the following car. I took it to the Nissan Dealer on 03/17/26 expressing my concern. I was told that they could not find any code in the car that indicated the trouble I experienced, nor was there any illumination of the check engine light. Because of that I was told that my car could not be serviced.

NHTSA ODI 11724965

vehicle change to limp mode randomly. i need to stop turn all off wait 1 minute to restables the normal power on engine.

NHTSA ODI 11656681

If the vehicle stalls when starting or depressing the clutch too fast, the vehicle will sometimes enter a low power (limp mode), where the driver can floor the accelerator and the car will barely accelerate. The absolutely max speed when this happens seems to be around 55 and it takes 30 seconds to reach this speed. Turning the car off and letting it sit for 15 seconds, and then restarting the car seems to fix the problem. This has happened to me 3 times over the past 2 years.

NHTSA ODI 11608759

On two separate occasions while driving at night two weeks apart, the car dash lights went out, power dropped real quickly, steering became hard. Barely got off overpass and road to safety. Turned the car off. Waited approximately 5 minutes and car restarted and was fine for two weeks. On second time had the car towed to Fred Haas Nissan. They could not reproduce problem and found no codes. Will have to chance driving until happens again. Very dangerous as I would have been hit if not for no traffic. In December 2022 had minor bumper collision. The collision sign had already been on for about three months. Now the sensor is damaged. However, no problems a year later until now. This is a new problem and hope to get it resolved. Very dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11557791

This manual car puts itself into limp mode any time the engine is killed (If you drop the clutch too quickly because it is a manual transmission) while driving it. Once it is in limp mode (restricted speed and power to protect the engine) it must be pulled over and turned off for at least 15 seconds before restarting the vehicle to reset the computer and get it out of limp mode. This is a huge safety hazard in traffic, on a hill, on a freeway on ramp or many other places. This car has put itself in limp mode when it died from dropping the clutch, when it almost died while working the clutch, and when turned off and back on quickly to reset a bluetooth connection that wasn't working. A Nissan corporate regional representative, Nissan specialist and Nissan Engineer evaluated the car and said that it is a manufacturing defect - a programming issue that makes the electronic control module think that the car is not functioning properly when it dies (it happens sometimes when driving a manual transmission!) and so it puts itself into limp mode to protect the engine from a problem that doesn't exist. Nissan said the vehicle code would need reprogrammed to repair the issue. Nissan also said they have no time frame for reprogramming the code to repair the defect and to just wait--with no timeline forthcoming. This is an issue on all 2022 Manual Nissan Versa vehicles, not just this particular car as it is a programming issue. I contacted another dealership to test one of their new 2022 manual versa vehicles. They drove it and found the exact issue. I do not know if the issue was fixed on 2023 models or if it is and ongoing issue. Nissan has acknowledged the issue. Driving this car is unsafe and Nissan has said to just drive it and wait.

NHTSA ODI 11514801