2022 Nissan Kicks: Lease or Buy? The Forward Collision System Makes This Decision Easy

The setup

You are looking at a 2022 Nissan Kicks, probably because it is affordable and the dealer has a lease special. The question is whether to lock yourself into ownership or keep the escape hatch open. This matters more than usual because the driver-assist tech in this model year is generating complaints at a rate that should make you nervous about what happens when the factory warranty runs out.

The 2022 Kicks is now four years old, which means many original leases are ending and used examples are flooding the market. That creates opportunity, but also risk. You need to decide whether you want to own this vehicle's problems or just borrow them for 36 months.

What NHTSA data actually shows

As of today, NHTSA lists 22 owner complaints for the 2022 Nissan Kicks and zero safety recalls. That complaint count is low in absolute terms, but the pattern is what matters. The most-complained-about system is forward collision avoidance, tied with steering at 5 complaints each. Engine follows with 4 complaints, suspension with 3, and structure and power train each with 2.

Two of those 22 complaints involved a crash. Two involved injuries. Zero involved fire. The NHTSA crash test gave the Kicks an overall 4 out of 5 stars: frontal 4, side 5, rollover 4. Rollover probability is 15.5 percent.

Now read what owners actually reported to NHTSA. One driver wrote: "Someone was on a handheld scooter on the sidewalk and when reaching the corner, turned right abruptly still remaining on the sidewalk. My car slammed on the brakes believing this person was entering the street or was already in the street? The vehicle behin..."

Another said: "The forward collision sensor and system malfunctioned such that it would cause the car to drive erratically. The car would swerve on its own and would need driver inputs to get it back on course. It would also tend to make the car slow down and stop in the..."

A third owner wrote: "I bought the car used and had no issues within the first three months. I have only had the car for four months now. The automatic emergency braking warning light started to randomly flash while driving and would come on and off. I took the car into the deal..."

These are not minor annoyances. This is a system that brakes for objects not in the road, swerves on its own, and throws warning lights intermittently. When a safety system becomes a safety problem, you have a math problem that extends years into the future.

If you own this car and the forward collision system starts phantom braking in year five, you are paying for the diagnosis and repair. Nissan's driver-assist modules are not cheap. If you lease it and the system acts up in month 34, Nissan covers it and you walk away at month 36. A bluetooth obd2 scanner can pull the module fault codes before you waste time at the dealer, but reading the code does not fix the underlying problem.

The math

Let's work an example with assumptions you can adjust for your market.

Assume you can lease a 2022 Kicks for 36 months or finance it over 60 months. Assume the lease has a residual value set at 55 percent of the capitalized cost and a money factor equivalent to 5 percent APR. Assume the purchase loan is also at 5 percent. Assume you drive 12,000 miles per year and the car needs no major repairs in the first three years, but requires a $1,800 forward collision module replacement in year four.

The lease keeps the expensive risk off your balance sheet. The purchase puts you on the hook for every failure that occurs after month 36, which is exactly when these driver-assist gremlins tend to appear.

You might argue that buying builds equity. True, but only if the vehicle does not develop a reputation for expensive electronic failures. A model with a growing complaint file around safety-critical systems depreciates faster than the amortization table predicts. You can run scenarios all day at lease vs buy, but the core question is whether you want to own the tail risk.

If you finance, you are betting that your specific 2022 Kicks will not exhibit the forward collision problems that other owners have already reported. Maybe you win that bet. But if you lose, you are still making payments on a car that brakes randomly and needs module repairs you are funding out of pocket.

What we recommend

Lease the 2022 Nissan Kicks. Do not buy it.

The forward collision avoidance system is the single most-complained-about component, tied with steering, and the owner reports describe exactly the kind of intermittent, hard-to-replicate faults that dealers struggle to fix under warranty and that cost a fortune once the warranty expires. You do not want to own that lottery ticket.

Leasing gives you three years of utility with the factory warranty as a backstop, then lets you return the vehicle before the expensive stuff starts. You pay for the depreciation that happens anyway, but you do not pay for the module replacements and recalibrations that happen in years four and five.

If you already own a 2022 Kicks and it is running fine, keep driving it but watch the complaint data. If the forward collision warning light starts flashing or you feel phantom braking, document it and get it repaired under warranty immediately. If you are outside warranty, get a second opinion before authorizing the repair. You can revisit the decision at sell or keep if the problems start stacking up.

If you are committed to buying instead of leasing for reasons unrelated to this vehicle, buy something else. The compact SUV segment is full of alternatives without this specific pattern of driver-assist complaints.

What would change our mind

A recall and a fix. If Nissan issues a safety recall for the forward collision system in the 2022 Kicks and the fix actually works, the risk profile changes. Zero recalls are on file as of today, which means Nissan has not yet decided the problem is widespread enough to warrant a campaign.

A much larger sample showing the complaint rate is noise. Twenty-two complaints is a small number, but 5 out of 22 pointing at the same system is not random. If the fleet grows and the complaint rate per thousand vehicles drops, we would revisit.

An extended warranty that covers driver-assist modules at no deductible. If Nissan or a third party offers a cost-effective warranty that explicitly includes forward collision system components and radar modules, buying becomes more defensible. Read the contract. Most extended warranties exclude sensors and cameras, which is exactly what fails here.

Absent any of those changes, the math and the complaint pattern both point the same direction.

Bottom line

The 2022 Nissan Kicks has 22 complaints, 5 of them about a forward collision system that brakes for ghosts and swerves on its own. You do not want to own that problem after the warranty expires. Lease it, use it, return it. Let Nissan or the next buyer deal with the module failures that show up in year four. If you want to own something, own a vehicle without this specific electronic headache. The market pulse will show you what else is available, and refinance verdict can help if you are already underwater on a different car and trying to make space in the budget. But do not buy this Kicks. Borrow it and give it back.

Safety figures on this page come from the NHTSA public complaint and recall database for the 2022 Nissan Kicks, retrieved 2026-08-29. Complaint counts reflect reports filed by owners and are not verified defect findings.