2003 NISSAN ALTIMA — Complaint #667033
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:PARK/NEUTRAL START INTERLOCK SWITCH filed April 24, 2008
NHTSA complaint #667033 (ODI reference 10225558) concerns a 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA and was filed on April 24, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 18, 2008. The vehicle had 37,800 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:park/neutral start interlock switch, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same NISSAN ALTIMA cohort independently describe similar power train:automatic transmission:park/neutral start interlock switch failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THERE IS NO INTERLOCK ON IGNITION TO PREVENT REMOVAL OF THE IGNITION KEY IF SHIFTER IS NOT PLACED IN PARK POSITION. CAR WAS PARKED AND AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION SHIFTER WAS IN NEUTRAL WHEN KEY WAS REMOVED. CAR ROLLED OUT OF PARKING LOT DOWN EMBANKMENT AND CRASHED INTO TREE THEN PROCEEDED ACROSS STREET INTO A LOWER PARKING LOT HITTING GUARD RAIL BEFORE COMING TO A COMPLETE STOP. THIS LACK OF A SAFETY FEATURE WAS UNKNOWN TO OWNERS AND CONSIDER THIS A DEFECT SAFETY RISK TO THE PUBLIC. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 667033 |
| ODI Number | 10225558 |
| Date Filed | April 24, 2008 |
| Failure Date | April 18, 2008 |
Similar POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:PARK/NEUTRAL START INTERLOCK SWITCH Complaints for 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.