A Nissan Frontier driver is now concerned for his fellow owners after discovering his truck was sold to him with a defective frame. Though the pickup was certified by a dealer, it turned out to have problems that required Nissan to step up and replace it. The process of getting compensation has been grueling, and often left the owner feeling hung out to dry.
Mathew Bossinger recounted his experience to The Drive, which began when he bought a 2023 Frontier 4×4 crew cab from Woodhouse Place in Omaha, Nebraska. He said he purchased the truck as a certified pre-owned unit with just 14,000 miles on it, and that it was meant to be a retirement gift to himself after serving in the Army for 16 years. Bossinger said he traded in two of his family’s vehicles for the truck, whose purchase he finalized through his brother-in-law, a salesman at Woodhouse Place Mazda.
Because the truck was stocked at Woodhouse Place Nissan, that meant he was forfeiting his CPO warranty. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but this didn’t turn out to be your typical CPO car purchase. Six weeks after buying the truck, Bossinger started hearing strange noises coming from underneath.
“The first thing I noticed was a squeak or rattle in the right front,” Bossinger told me. “I thought it was just a bushing or something like that so I didn’t make an appointment right away. About two weeks after the right front noise, the steering wheel started making a popping sound. Both sounds continuously got worse, so I scheduled an appointment thinking it was probably the U-joint connection in the steering column and something smaller in the right front.”
Bossinger took his truck to Sid Dillon Nissan, where technicians found something that Woodhouse Place Nissan hadn’t disclosed: A defective frame. The Nissan had left the factory missing multiple crucial welds in its ladder chassis, placing excess strain on other parts of the frame. Some areas of the frame were bent, while others had developed stress fractures. The only fix was to replace the frame outright—though getting that done along with obtaining compensation for a faulty CPO vehicle has turned into a gauntlet.
From the beginning, Bossinger was promised a new frame. He couldn’t get a straight answer as to when though, with Nissan corporate giving him a service date that the dealer said it couldn’t fulfill. Initially, Bossinger wasn’t even given a loaner to drive around and was instead told to keep driving the creaky truck until the new frame was ready.
“It was certified pre-owned so the dealership almost had to have pencil-whipped the inspection,” Bossinger told me. “It has really taken the enjoyment out of what should have been going on fishing adventures with my children in our bass boat that we inherited in January.”
Bossinger said he struggled to get acknowledgment from Woodhouse Place Nissan, calling multiple times, leaving voicemails, and posting reviews to Facebook and Google. Until this week, he claims the closest thing he’s gotten to an apology was a boilerplate response to a Google review. Additionally, a source conveyed to The Drive that Woodhouse Place was aware of the situation independently of the review.
After The Drive reached out to Woodhouse Place Nissan for comment, one of the dealer’s managers claimed in an email exchange that Bossinger’s Google review marked the first time it had heard about the truck’s faulty frame, and apologized to him “for what you think has happened to your vehicle.” The manager claimed to have called Bossinger, who said he never received such a call prior to the email.
Nissan corporate meanwhile has been more receptive, if still noncommittal. He asked for a replacement truck or even an extended warranty with little time remaining on his current one but was denied on both occasions. He has been in contact with the office of a regional Nissan executive, which said it would consider reimbursing him for payments while the truck was out of action or offering a service contract only after the truck is fixed.
“He was very noncommittal,” Bossinger said of his contact with the Nissan official. “It felt more like he was trying to get me to stop telling my story than he was genuinely trying to help me or satisfy my requests of a service contract or replacement of the truck.”
A Nissan spokesperson confirmed to The Drive that the company is aware of the situation, and that the replacement frame had been delivered. Its account matched up with Bossinger’s, though Nissan did not comment on whether a manufacturing audit was underway.
“Nissan is aware and looking into this customer issue and we’ve been working with the dealership on this repair,” one of the automaker’s spokespersons told me. “Currently the frame has arrived at the dealership and the customer will be bringing (or may have already brought) the vehicle in for the repair. We’re also working with the customer on potential compensation as well, though I cannot discuss the details.”
Things are finally starting to turn Bossinger’s way. He was able to get the truck in for its frame replacement on Monday, and has been given a loaner car. Woodhouse’s management has also returned his calls, and offered an explanation for how the frame damage may have been missed during its vehicle inspection.
“They said the frame damage is most likely under the wheel liner on the right front so that’s why it wasn’t found during the CPO inspection, Bossinger said. “Woodhouse Place Nissan said if I bring it there, they will give me full value and not hold any frame issues against the value. They said most of my issue lies with Nissan and their defective product, but that’s what they can do to help us.”
Yet Bossinger is now concerned for more than just his own truck. He told me he has filed a complaint with the NHTSA, which he heard has been escalated to its Office of Defects Investigation. Based on his secondhand familiarity with manufacturing, he doubts he’s the only Frontier owner affected.
“My childhood best friend who sets up welding robots for companies said there is no way the robot only missed my frame,” Bossinger said. “The welder that removed it from the fixture should’ve caught it according to my mom, who retired as a welder from Case-New Holland. And they should have caught it at QC at the factory before a truck was built on the frame.”
Our independent research did not turn up any other complaints of faulty frames associated with the current generation of Nissan Frontier, or for its recently discontinued full-size brother, the Titan. Outside of Bossinger’s report, there are no complaints in the NHTSA’s database regarding frame problems either, with the handful of reports on forums being identified by other owners as cracked undercoating or seam sealer. In general, it doesn’t seem like the Frontier has frame issues at any significant scale. Still, it’ll be worth getting your truck checked out if you start hearing any unusual noises. It always is, but doubly so in case it happens to be the frame.
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