Complaint 1852135

Complaint Summary

POWER TRAIN

Owner Narrative

When braking, the transmission downshifts and lurches the car forward just before coming to a stop. This problem artificially increases the stopping distance and time needed when braking. This caused me to have an accident rear ending another car. My vehicle did not stop in time when braking due to the vehicle surging forward when stopping, causing significant damage to both vehicles and injuries to passengers. A related but separate problem happens when driving steady at 25mph, slightly coming off the gas the vehicle seems downshift hard, slowing the vehicle quickly as if braking. It jerks the vehicle forward and back when trying to maintain a steady speed specifically in the 25-30 mph range. This issue was first noticed right around the time of the accident and has continued since then. Both problems usually happen consistently after the vehicle has warmed up, after about 10-15 miles. I took the vehicle to the dealer for inspection but they did not see a problem. This vehicle uses the same transmission as the 2021 Nissan Titan, for which there are the same transmission problems, which were addressed by a service bulletin. NTB22074. However, this service bulletin has not been applied to our model, the NV3500 SL.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.