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Subaru Automobile Model 2025 Subaru Forester
2025 Subaru Forester
The 2025 Subaru Forester is the newest iteration of Subaru’s compact SUV, designed primarily for everyday versatility with a focus on all-wheel drive capability, practical space and family-friendly utility. It combines a comfortable cabin, useful cargo space and modern tech in a package that appeals to drivers who need more than a small crossover but don’t require a full-size SUV.
Key Specifications & Features
The standard engine is a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated Boxer four-cylinder, delivering around 180 horsepower and 178 lb-ft of torque.
The Forester features Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive as standard, enhancing traction and stability in varied driving conditions.
Transmission: A continuously variable automatic (CVT) is used across the range.
Ground clearance is about 8.7 inches (≈ 220 mm), supporting light off-road or rough road capability.
Cargo space: With rear seats folded, the Forester offers a large usable space (Subaru quote ~74.4 cubic feet for some markets) for its class.
Interior features: New for 2025 is a large 11.6-inch touchscreen in higher trims, wireless smartphone integration (Apple CarPlay/Android Auto), and hands-free power rear gate in select versions.
Fuel economy (Canadian estimates): Some figures suggest combined fuel consumption around 8.3 L/100 km depending on engine/trim.
What It’s Good At
Versatility & practicality: The Forester offers five-passenger seating, good cargo space, and a high roofline for usable headroom—making it well suited for families or active lifestyles.
All-weather and light-off-road readiness: With standard all-wheel drive and decent ground clearance, it handles snow, rain and gravel roads better than many two-wheel drive crossovers.
Value in its segment: While offering solid interior features, tech and capability, the Forester remains accessible relative to premium SUVs—making it a strong choice for users who want capability without ultra-luxury cost.
Modern tech improvements: The 2025 update brings improved infotainment, more standard driver-assistance features and an upgraded interior feel in many trims.
Considerations & Trade-Offs
Power & acceleration: While 180 hp is adequate for daily driving, the Forester is not tuned for high performance or spirited sporty driving. Drivers looking for strong acceleration may feel it lacks punch compared to sport-oriented competitors.
Transmission character: The CVT, while efficient, may feel less engaging than a traditional automatic or dual-clutch system—especially for drivers who prioritise driving feel.
Interior comfort vs upscale rivals: Though comfortable, the materials and cabin refinement may not match those of luxury-brand SUVs or higher-priced premium competitors.
Cargo and size limits: While the Forester is practical, it remains a compact SUV—so if you need three-rows of seating, very large cargo capacity or heavy-duty towing, larger vehicle formats may be more suitable.
Fuel economy in real use: While estimates are solid for its category, heavy loads, off-road use, or towing could reduce efficiency noticeably relative to the rated figures.
Ideal Buyer
The 2025 Subaru Forester is a strong fit for someone who:
Wants an SUV that does everyday driving, family work, weekend gear hauling and light adventure—without stepping into full off-road or luxury SUV territory.
Lives in or drives through varied road or weather conditions—mountains, snow, rural roads—and values all-wheel drive and higher ground clearance.
Appreciates a useful interior with modern tech and safety features, but doesn’t need ultra-premium finishes or extreme performance.
Needs a vehicle with space for passengers and gear, prioritising practicality, reliability and versatility over speed or top-tier luxury.
Is focused on value: getting a well-balanced package for the money rather than maximal performance or high-end luxury.
Manufacturer: Subaru
MODEL: 2025 Subaru Forester
MSRP: $43015.00 USD
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Subaru Automobile Model 2025 Subaru Forester
We bought an 18 outback last year October. It was in the shop nearly every month for various things that was wrong with it but mainly the radio unit wasnt working properly. After about 6 months of taking it in and them trying everything to fix it, they replaced the radio unit. Still had problems. The service manager told me that the best thing to do is set up a claim with Subaru of America. They were incredible. They offered me either an even trade of the car or a buyback. We chose the buyback. It took a while, but that was my fault as we were out of town a lot. They were patient with me and today they took the car back after inspection.I would buy another Subaru because the car drove well, there was just other issues that couldnt be fixed with that particular vehicle. But mainly I would buy another one because of the way we were treated by them. They were so nice and helpful, it would be worth it just for the customer service. I hope they treat everyone like this.
I have 2 stone chips in my 2014 Subaru Outback, one went right to the metal and started rusting immediately! I took it to the dealer and showed them the two chips. I asked why would a 10 month old car rust that easily, could this be the beginning of a bigger rust problem with a Subaru (think OLD Subarus - very rusty)? They pretty much told me they would do nothing about it. This will be my last service call time dealing with the Service department at Chilson Subaru in Eau Claire, WI.
I purchased the 2015 Outback Subaru in 2015 December, I have 17,000 miles on the vehicle. The oil change was suppose to be every 6,000. So far its every 3000 that I have to change the oil. I read that Subaru knew about this problem and still built the Outback with this problem. Now the dealer is telling me I might have to put a new engine which is ridiculous because its only 1 year and 6 months. I hope someone is able to help us with this problem that we all have for the Outbacks!!!
2010 Forrester is the worse car I have ever owned. Two years in: the heated seat wouldnt turn off. Ongoing: CD changer heats up to the point of warping discs even in the winter. 2.28.2015: Driving on I83 in Bmore rush hr driver side door releases door unlocks!! Unsafe unreliable piece of junk.
I purchased a new 2013 Subaru Outback believing all the hype I read about and saw regarding this vehicle. At 83,000 miles my transmission failed due to contaminated transmission fluid (Subaru admitted the defect) and was told by the dealership they would repair it for $8500 since my 60,000 mile warranty (they must know something) on the powertrain was exceeded. Subaru of America (after a week waiting in limbo) said they would give $1,000 toward the repair as a good will gesture. Never mind all the ads and chest beating over how this vehicle surpasses most in quality and reliability. Now Im reduced to buying a used transmission online and having an independent contractor replace it. Needless to say Im not loving my Subaru and will tell the everyone in reach about their customer service.
Got this Legacy 2 years ago as a lease return. Had not experience any problems besides locking and unlocking it. I strongly recommend this car to people but before buying it go to Subaru dealer and check it up. Never buy any of a car without doing a full check up.
Recently purchased a new 2015 Outback 2.5i premium. We test drove dealer car 3 times to confirm we wanted to order one, none available at any local dealers at the time. About 3wks after receiving our car, it developed a clicking noise coming from the gear shifter knob every time you went below or above 5mph, EVERY TIME. Nonstop, every light, every stop sign, all day every day. Dealer says its normal and refuse to fix. I keep reminding them it did not do it on any test car and it took weeks for it to show up on our car. How can that be normal? I would not have purchased the car had it made this annoying noise on the test drive and I certainly would not have paid for the car when I went to pick it up. (I did test drive our car prior to paying for it once it came in and there was no noise at all.) I am at the point of wanting to sell my brand new car because I just cant stand this constant annoyance. Wrote several emails directly to Subaru company rep, with them refusing to take any responsibility.
Bought a 2009 Subaru Forester XT with 40000 miles. Was good till about 50000. First was a camshaft position sensor which I got SOA to pay for after some heated discussion. Next came a blown turbo - no help from my dealer, Patriot Subaru, or SOA. Cost $400 - did work myself. Now 2000 miles later, the car sits with a blown motor. Once again, no help from Patriot or SOA. They had the nerve to offer me a $500 credit toward a new Subaru like Ill buy another one not to mention I owe $15,000 on the POS! Dont buy Subaru!
This is the real review of this car and others the same year. To start off, I have the fully loaded premium 2.0. I now have 6,500 miles on my car in a year of ownership. This is because it has been in the shop for months of my ownership (starting with problems at 500 miles). Between my car not starting, the bluetooth not staying connected, the radio having its own mind, and the Eyesight turning on and off on its own and slamming on the brakes by itself... I am unable to drive this vehicle due to the safety concerns. I contacted Subaru many times, and never got a callback and they kept giving me the cold shoulder, even though I was beyond nice about everything. I eventually had to get a lawyer, which was an easy thing to do since the car was a complete lemon. After everything got settled and I got my money back for that terrible experience, I called Subaru and was willing to give them a second chance, even though their customer service was horrible and their vehicle was garbage. Subaru would not give a loyalty discount, a deal to keep a customer (that was not my first Subaru... I have had many and referred friends and family to them). Their products have declined as well as their customer service. Not worth putting your money into these problem vehicles until they get themselves together and back their customers. Next thing... my sister owns a 2017 Subaru Impreza 2.0 in stick. She has 9k miles on it and it has been into the shop MANY times for similar issues. However, the biggest issue is that her BRAND NEW car burns oil so badly that she needs to fill the oil reserve every month because the low oil light indicator comes on. They keep telling her, Cars burn oil, its normal. Ummmmm, no Subaru... I have had many cars and have a truck with 180k miles and never need to add oil between changes. Anyways, she is using my lawyer and will as well win against them. Please keep all of this in mind while deciding on a new Subaru.
Subaru advertises free map updates. However in Canada you have to try and download from a website as the vehicle option is disabled. So the map downloader has glitches and the customer service has no clue. If you go to the dealer he will charge you labour but does not have a clue as well.
We bought a brand new 2009 Subaru Outback in OKC just before moving to Colorado. We had no big issues with it until the engine blew at 57,028m. There were no engine or oil warning lights. The dealer said they would not cover the engine because we did not have all of our maintenance records. It was around $7k for the new engine. Not happy. Now, two years and less than 38k miles later, the engine is failing again. After the nightmare of the first engine mess, we kept excellent oil change records. The dealer says the engine is outside of its one-year warranty, regardless of our records. I took this up with Subaru Corp who graciously have offered me a $1000 credit on the repairs (a goodwill gesture) and the dealership has reduced the total repair cost to only $3800. So I have to pay $2800 for another engine. Is this how Subaru stands behind its products? Am I expected to replace my engine every two years? Not to mention it took them almost two months to get back to me with their decision. Meanwhile, we havent been driving the car so as not to damage it further. A huge inconvenience. Needless to say, I will never buy Subaru again and they will be hearing from our attorneys. There is no way this is normal.
Purchased a 2014 Subaru Forester because of Subarus good reputation -- much to my surprise, my NEW car burns oil. I have to keep checking the oil because it needs to be added on a regular basis. Also, the Bluetooth does NOT work and has not worked properly since the beginning of time. Very dissatisfied and will NOT purchase from Subaru again. BUYER BEWARE!
I just bought a 2014 Subaru Impreza from Subaru of Burlingame 9 months ago. I never bought a used car before but I figured I would be safe buying it from Subaru dealership as is. I was so wrong. 17,000 miles later I have blown head gaskets about the car at 45,000 miles. It is currently at 60,114. After taking it into the dealership and being diagnosed I called Subaru of America right away, explained my situation. I had a Subaru representative tell me he was advocating for me but in the end they told me, Sorry not our problem. Only owned this car for nine months. I am devastated. I still have a very large loan on this car I’m paying for and have no car to drive. I’m going to do everything I can, to fight these people through social media platform, through the city of Burlingame, to anybody who will listen to me. This was my first Subaru and my last!!!
This review only refers to the Service Department of Koeppel Subaru in Queens, NY because I purchased my Subaru in another state so I do not have any experience with their car sales. However, I generally do have good experience with Subaru dealership service centers so I was surprised that Koeppel felt like going to a mechanic shop instead. Online it appears that you can schedule a drop-off of your car but when I arrived they had no knowledge of the appointment. They hassled me about every point including the problem with the car, the price, why I didnt want to stay with the car when I had to go to work, why I didnt pick it up sooner, etc... It would have been fine if they had not followed up with an email about my complaints to continue to badger me and blame me for my bad experience. There was never once an apology.
I purchased a brand new Subaru Ascent from Toyota/Subaru of Corvallis about two months ago. I also purchased the extended “bumper to bumper” warranty for the car that is good for 7 years/100,000 miles. The Sunday before last (August 11th), the middle seat (the Ascent has 3 rows) quit sliding forward and backward on the track that it was on. I made an appointment on Friday, August 16th for the dealer (Subaru of Corvallis) to take look at the seat. They confirmed that the seat was not functioning correctly and informed me that they would need to schedule another appointment to fix it (they needed an entire day to do it). So I scheduled an appointment on Monday, August 19th, for them to fix the seat. They called me around 11:30 on Monday, August 19th, and told me that there was a rock stuck in the track of the seat, and that they had tried everything to get the rock out of the track but had failed. They then informed me that my “bumper to bumper” warranty would to cover replacing the track, and that it would cost me around $1300 to get an entirely new seat assembly (apparently the track cannot be replaced separately, and that the entire seat assembly must be replaced). The car has approximately 2,000 miles on it! They also told me that they could not put the seat back into the car the way it was because it was a liability for them, and that they needed to fix it before I could get the car back.Needless to say, I was angry that the “bumper to bumper” warranty wouldn’t cover the issue, and that I would be without a car until they could order the part for the track and get it replaced (they said that they would need to order the part from the east coast somewhere). I called Subaru customer service, and they stated that the issue was not a design flaw, and that they would not cover the repairs. They said that a rock getting into the car was a foreign object and there was no design flaw of the track for the seat. Apparently, I can never allow another rock to get into the car again! I then called my insurance company (State Farm) and filed a comprehensive claim. They are still debating whether or not they can cover it. My questions are these: For a company that is known for their rugged image and adventurous spirit, is Subaru going to stand up an admit that a little rock can completely ruin their seats? Apparently that is the case here! How is this not a design flaw???
I have a 2011 Forester. Runs fine. Have had to replace the drivers side visor. Now the passenger one fell off. I usually dont even have a front seat passenger so it cant be from overuse. When the drivers side was replaced (has to be the anchor and the visor, its a whole unit $80!!!) I found that the anchor is only a plastic sleeve. Poor idea, poor workmanship.
I bought my Outback new in summer 2007. Always did oil changes every 3,000. At just over 60K (just out of warranty), the head gaskets blew. Six months later, car started leaking oil and head gaskets were done once again (under warranty of mechanic). Now, Im facing blown head gaskets again!!!! After just 20,000 miles after 2nd job. My car only has 82,000 miles. I will never buy another Subaru which is unfortunate because this is the 4th one Ive owned. The others were older but better.
I was a long-time Toyota owner and after putting 210,000 miles on my 2000 Matrix without any issues I decided I wanted to replace it with something that got decent gas mileage and had all-wheel drive. Enter my 2013 Subaru Impreza Sport. Ive had what could be described as minor issues with this car since day one. First, the rear hatch (its the hatchback version) would never shut on the first try. Had that adjusted and fixed.Second was the issue with starting the car which started happening at about 5,000 miles. After googling my issue, I came to find out that this was a common issue that the owners were referring to as a Hard Start and that after denying it for a while, Subaru finally came up with a fix which is basically flashing the cars computer. Subaru sent out a service notification to their dealerships about this issue, but when I went in to 3 different dealerships they denied knowledge of the issue or the service notification until I gave them a copy that I found online (thank you **) and suddenly they remembered this common issue and the fix. I had the computer flashed and I would say the issue is improved, but not totally remedied.At about 30,000 miles I noticed that the oil light would come on after only about 2,500 miles after an oil change. Im concerned that this is going to get worse as the car ages. (Im at just over 50,000 miles now.) One thing I noticed is that a couple days before the light will come on I will smell oil burning, so Im not sure if thats damaging the engine. Ive got into the habit of carrying a couple extra quarts of 0-20 in the spare tire compartment so I can pull over and add oil immediately if the light should come on. A friend of mine had a Subaru WRX thats engine seized because of low oil and his oil light never even came on beforehand. Ive been so disappointed in the quality of this car. From people I know that are die-hard Subaru owners, it seems like they just cant maintain quality with the recent rise in popularity of their cars. Im hoping that the oil issue does not result in a bigger issue before I pay off this loan!
We bought a brand new 2012 Subaru Forester. We took a trip from Georgia to upstate NY. The car was burning oil. For the next couple of years, we kept telling the service dept. that our car was burning oil. They kept assuring us it was not a problem. After checking the internet, we found out it was a real problem. We demanded that something needed to be done. They did a oil consumption test. Saturday they agreed that it was excessive and we would be getting a new engine. Why does it take the service departments so long to take action? Now my concern now is what happens to the resale value of my car?
2014 Forester with 35k miles. Our Bluetooth is not working properly. I thought this would be an easy fix, and I was not too stressed by it. In my error, I forgot to mention it to the service department when I brought the car in last time. Three months later I had the car in to the service dept. for a standard check up and mentioned it to them... The whole radio unit needs to be replaced in order for the failed Bluetooth to work again! If only I had mentioned it during my previous checkup it would have been covered under warranty. Subaru is charging over $500 for this replacement. I will go without. My chief question is, why is the Bluetooth failing? Its not that old and its not as if it is an item (i.e. brakes, or tires) that might get wear down from overuse.In addition, when you press the accelerator on the 2014 Forester, a small delay and then it takes off. Very disconcerting. We have many family members who own Subaru and at our last family reunion everyone was grumbling about their Subaru and saying they will not buy another. Its a shame. This was our first Subaru purchase after many years with Honda. We were tempted to try a new car and had heard such great things about the Subaru. We will be going back to Honda.
All of the bells and whistles leered incorporated into the Touring model. The convenience options make the car a pleasure to drive. On the open road I’m averaging 26 mph and handles well in all weather conditions.
Please, stay away from the dealership in Richmond, BC...I wish I would give less than 1 star for this dealership. My friend help me gave the car key to the receptionist to have my car stored there while I was out of the country. A few days later, my friend called to ask whether he could come to have insurance canceled; but they couldnt find the car key at that time. Then, only until I came back to pick it up 2 months later, they found that my car was stolen??? What the heck!!!My Subaru Outback 2016 was found abandoned in Vancouver after only a week it was found missing??? Someone had been driving my car more than 5,000 km. And what is more ridiculous is that the items left in the car was belong to their receptionist who was given the car key, which caused me wonder who actually stole my car??? I am very disappointed about how they handled the case, especially from their management, the guys named Tim ** and Mathew **. I have seen none of them said any words of sorry to me, never followed up with me, and kept asking me to deal with my insurance as if they didnt have any responsibilities. I am the fan of Subaru, but would never buy or recommend anyone to buy car from ANY OF SUBARU DEALERSHIP AGAIN.
We were impressed that our car insurance went up only $3 on a brand new car! This is due to the safety features. One design flaw is the gap at the door sills collect dirt and mud and make it impossible to get in and out of the Outback without getting dirty. The Customer Service at 5 Star???? Subaru in Oneonta, NY has been pretty good.
This car has so many safety features. I can’t imagine driving without them. It fits my lifestyle and I can drive on any terrain without an issue. I am very happy with the amount of space this vehicle has also.
I have a Subaru XV 2013 and on the highway, the glass roof exploded without reason. No other cars close and a perfect road. Temperature 0 Celsius. Subaru refuse to cover it on guaranties. The car has been in traffic less than 30000 kilometers. Unbelievable.
We have a 2009 Outback. At approx. 70000 miles (just past warranty) a vibration was becoming noticeable from the drivetrain. The Subaru dealership said it was from bad boots on the front end. We had the work done. The vibration remained so we took the car to an independent shop. They said that it could be the transfer case. To really examine it the transmission has to be dropped. We scheduled the service. When they opened the case there were bits of metal in the fluid and it was clear something had failed. Approx. $2000 later we were on the road again. The head mechanic said he had seen several failures like this. I would like Subaru to face up to this reoccurring problem and cover all repairs..
Can describe this car in two words: HATE IT. The driver seat is so uncomfortable Ive bought a cushion and even that doesnt help (aside from now pushing my head up against the ceiling). There is something in the seat bottom that pushes on the nerves right below my buttocks that make my butt and lower back scream in agony. Unfortunately on a test drive you dont find this out and sitting there for longer than 15-20 minutes it soon becomes very apparent. This makes being in the car torture. The other thing is the EyeSight. Great safety feature set but it is really super annoying to hear the damn car beep for one thing or another that it is warning you about. It does this constantly. You can turn off all of the features, but then why pay for this expensive option if you have to do this? They need to have a better way of informing the driver like Cadillac uses with a seat vibration. Also the window lock feature (a must with kids) is so ass-backwards. If you activate it, none of the window controls work including the drivers controls! You have to unlock it, do a window, then lock it again. Other cars the driver controls continue to work. So stupid. The Starlink feature is also convoluted and has so many apps and functions with menus and submenus that you need the EyeSight working because you cant drive and work the thing without seriously having an accident. Talk about distractions. And even though it is keyless entry and push-button start, it does not have a remote start function, not even as an option which extremely odd as pretty much every other manufacturer that has this type of system does this, and the door locks are from 1980 because you cannot program them for any option at all. They dont lock when in gear, they dont unlock when you turn off the motor, and they dont lock when you walk away. I am constantly leaving the car unlocked while driving and the places I drive thats a real safety issue. Remembering to do this on a car that is rich in features is a bit mind-boggling. I thought I was buying a good car, but after reading all the issues other Subaru owners are having I seriously want to dump this POS car tomorrow and Im not too impressed with the dealer because buying this new it took them 3 weeks to schedule me in to fix a fog light defect. Great way to welcome a new customer! So based on my experience and reading what others are going through I will never buy a Subaru again. Terrible, terrible car.
I was looking for an SUV that had all wheel drive or 4-wheel drive options. This one fits both of those requirements. It is reliable, peppy, looks nice, easy to travel in (and mostly comfortable), and large enough to haul things. It is easy to install roof racks for sports items like kayaks and paddle boards. It easily goes from highways to off-roading. It also has more than enough features like heated seats and heated mirrors. I love the vehicle and the versatility that it provides. However, I dislike that theres a known oil issue with the engine.
Subaru is nice, safe, comfortable. I feel safe in it and I love the small perks like the backing up camera. The sunroof is nice to have, but I dont use it much. The rear seat heating seats was a plus, as well as the side view mirror defrost. The 4 wheel drive is something I really wanted too. However, even though the trunk space is bigger than my old Pontiac Vibe, its still not big enough to fit my dog and stuff we need to carry on a family vacation.
In March of 2017 we purchased a brand new 2017 Subaru Impreza and we had 4 free oil changes. And a month or less before the each oil change the oil light comes on and on the last free oil change the light came on 2 wks afterwards. They kept the car for 3/5 days to find out why the car was consuming so much oil. When we went to pick up the car, they said they couldnt find anything wrong with the car. They then wanted to do an oil consumption test. Never heard of this until it was done on my new car. They filled the motor with oil and said bring back at 1200 miles or more! Anyway we took it back and we were told, that we were going to check the oil level together after about 10/15 min. They came after 5 min to get us, (when we went outside they had already pop the latch the hood, not after,) that we were going to check the dipstick. I was suspicious. Now... not trusting this routine at all. Or the technicians. (Plus they said it was the way the driver was shifting and driving, which affects the transmission and not the motor). After talking to the person who sold us the car, and their finance person? The dealer will not take the car back, they want to give us a new one. We dont want a Subaru anymore. We have tried contacting the Subaru manufacturer to no avail. I look up fuel consumption test and Subaru popped up. Never heard of fuel consumption test. I am afraid of owning a Subaru after this happening to a new car. I have heard good things about Subaru but now I am not so sure.
We were very happy with our 2015 Outback until at 33k miles we dropped the transmission. Now we are in a fight with Subaru (Corp & dealer). Three hours after we tow into dealer, get a call that the rear differential caused transmission failure. We proved that wrong with 3rd party review of diff. Next they say front differential caused transmission failure - BULL. I was able to turn ring gear, rotate planetary gears, bearings. Now a tech from HQ is coming out to dismantle transmission. Subaru says this type of trans failure is not normal - smelled like smoke and still does almost one month later. Did this happen to you?
Not only do I love my Subaru, but I sincerely appreciate Subaru’s commitment to their customers. Of course I’m not talking about the dealers, but Subaru Corporate HQ In NJ. Whenever I’ve hit a snag with the dealership, HQ has been there to help. ❤️
I currently own a 2015 Subaru WRX that I CANNOT DRIVE. I had an issue where the pitcher stopper mount. Literally tore itself off my firewall. I came to find out that is was a design error from manufacturing date. I called them to get this claim settled so I could go on about driving around and enjoying my vehicle. Well as of January 2020, they denied my claim stating the air struts installed on my vehicle were determined to be the problem. Well... thats weird; I put those on 5 days prior to even going into the dealership. Well I went on about seeking ways to get this repaired until around late August of 2020 I saw a TSB posted by Subaru in 2017 showing that this repair was to be fixed under warranty no matter what. Well, I was lied to by the first rep who was taking care of that back in January, let me call again with this new info and see what they would be able to do for me. And so I did. I was told by this new rep that this TSB expired in June of 2019 (which I was not even mentioned or told about) and basically said, Good luck, that isnt our problem to deal with. I cant drive my car without having any drivability issues and I am currently looking at my options because I cant afford a $2000-3000 bill for a problem I didnt do. Honestly, I am beyond upset with how Subaru handled this and wish they let their customers know when there is issues that have to be looked at before just kicking us to the curb. Ive been a loyal customer for 10 years but this will be my last Subaru I ever own.
The Subaru flagship has terrible engine alert system. Apparently, when there is an engine problem instead of just a check engine light, all feature lights go on and the extra safety features, eyesight etc. become disabled! Subaru service says that the car does this so youll bring the car in to be serviced and that most cars do this. I have never had this experience. Why disable any safety features! We are dealing with the all lights on, no safety features, for the second time. When I inquired about our lost garage opener left in their loaner car, that loaner was out more than two weeks because they couldnt figure out what was wrong with the owners car. I thought I was buying a good car for my son and now Im really starting to wonder.
Dismayed, disappointed, disgruntled. These are the feelings engendered by coming home from a two-week trip only to find that the battery in our one-month-old Subaru Forester had died while we were away. Consumer Reports April automobile issue convinced us that all the new safety and navigation technology innovations in the 2015 models would make it worth our while to replace our 2007 Forester. But neither CR nor you mentioned that all those enhancements would drain the battery even when the car wasn’t driven. When we took the car back to Subaru, we were told it was our fault for leaving the car for two weeks, as if we were the only folks ever to have done such a thing. Subaru service also suggested we get a trickle charger and keep the car plugged in when we’re away for an extended period of time.We did a great deal of research before buying the car and found no mention of the problem. Having experienced it, I googled “Subaru battery drainage issue” and discovered that the problem was not unique to our vehicle, nor even only to Subaru. Apparently Hondas and Fords are similarly afflicted. These facts were further substantiated by the AAA technician who came to recharge our battery. She fields many calls similar to ours.It is clear why Subaru and the other manufacturers would not want potential buyers to know about this poor engineering. Accordingly, there’s nothing in the owner’s manual that says “do not leave car undriven for more than a week.” You have to look hard to find that after a battery “interruption” the power window needs to be reset, as do the date and time, and perhaps other things I never bothered to set up. A setting comparable to airplane mode on a phone that shuts down some of the background functions would be a wise and welcome fix. What is not clear why there’s so little written about this issue in the automotive press. My husband and I feel doubly burned: by Subaru for its inept engineering and by the consumer gurus who should know better.
We are very disappointed with our first Subaru. Weve had it about 3 months and I cant count the times we were coming out from shopping and the rear hatch would not open no matter what we did. No 65 year old should have to load groceries by crawling to the back from the passenger door. The dealer wants you to bring it in to reset it every time but after searching this major issue online I found a way to reset it myself. This needs to be addressed by Subaru, its such a pain as well as some other features that dont always work. Im about ready to take it back, thats how frustrated we are with it. First time buying anything but Ford or Chevy products the past 45 years, that wont happen again.
I just recently got a 2005 Forester. I love it. I have only had to do a couple very minor things with the engine, and it runs smoother than ever. @Dan from NC, you can ship that car up to Michigan if youd like, haha. Im wanting a WRX motor for my Forester anyway, lol.
I bought Outback 2017 in Sept 2017. 3 mos later GPS froze then hatch flew open while I was parking & my dog jumped out. Dealer said electronics needed reprogramming & done. A year later, GPS froze again, hatch slightly jammed on rubber mat, hatch stuck closed. AAA to the rescue, dealer said needed reprogramming & done. New battery. 4 mos later, I used radio while car stopped for 10 min, drained battery, needed AAA again to jump. Told I was using too many electronic features like the radio! Now 3/2019, GPS froze, hatch stuck shut, AAA jumped. Dealer said rubber mat jammed - NOT, it was 1 mm over the space, I am careful, but yes dog jumps in & out. Told interior light of hatch was on because it jammed & drained battery overnight.Extremely unreliable and unsafe in my opinion. Have spent hundreds of dollars in time, Ubers, taxis not to mention lost doctors appointments etc. Internet has websites of hundreds of Subaru owners with identical problems with 2016 - 2018 Subaru outbacks and foresters. Complaints of similar parasitic battery drainage for numerous reasons. They need to redesign the electronics, especially the malfunctioning sensitive hatchback and interior lights, size of battery and hatch rubber mat. Will it take a class action to get them to do this? For sale: 2017 Outback, 19,000 miles, all the bells and whistles, then some. CHEAP. (getting a Volkswagen).
Subaru Outback Check Engine Light - Catalytic converter failed on a cross country trip. Catalytic converter replaced under warranty. Took over 2 weeks to get the part. Cruise control disabled for the return portion of the trip.
Engine Failure on 2014 Subaru WRX w/ 14k miles - To preface, I bought my WRX brand-new, less than 12 months back (Nov 13) with only 7 miles. Since purchasing, I properly broke in the engine, have had it regularly serviced, & have not made any modifications to the car whatsoever. Over one month ago, I was driving along on the freeway (cruise controlled in the fast lane @ 75 mph) and the engine completely ceased on me w/ no notice or unusual sounds. After taking it in to the closest dealership, I found that the small block would need to be replaced & that the reqd engines are back order for OVER ONE MONTH. 5 and a half weeks later, Ive yet to receive my car back after numerous broken promises & have found further issues with my car, including unexpected damages to the pistons/rods & a potential need to replace my clutch (which would not be covered under my standard, or additionally purchased extended warranty). With all of the issues that Im having - Im starting to believe that maybe Im not the only one... Anyone else having similar problems? What should I do from here? HELP.
I am very pleased with my Subaru. The gas mileage is great and for a four-cylinder engine it has enough get up and go. The car has room for five people and plenty of storage room in the rear of the vehicle. I also like the comfort. I have owned one before this one and was happy with it also. However, I would have gotten one with satellite radio. It only has AM/FM and I live in a rural area and stations are hard to get.
I purchased a 2009 Forester XT in April of 2008. Three days after purchase, Subaru announced a stop sale order on turbo Foresters made after Jan 1, 2008 (mine was mfg Jan 26th 2008). They issued the stop sale order because of manufacturing defects in the engine that led to knocking and then catastrophic engine failure. My car had knocking at 1030 miles and now at 92K the engine has had the catastrophic engine failure. Subaru refuses to answer the question if my car was affected by the stop sell order and takes no responsibility for repairing my car.
I have owned 4 Subarus but I must say, I am done with the company. My 2002 Outback had the leaking head gaskets but was not part of the recall. Subaru paid for the repair (as they should have) and I was told the head gasket issue had been resolved on the newer model Subarus. When it was time to purchase a new car I bought a 2007 Outback thinking I would be OK because SOA promised the head gasket thing was resolved. Imagine my shock when I was told I had oil leaking from my head gasket. Then soon after the antifreeze started leaking. I wrote to SOA and was told this was normal wear on a car with 139000 miles. Shame on you Subaru. I have since found many people with the same leaking gasket issue on different model/year/mileage of Subarus. A google search will show you or just ask any mechanic or your Subaru owning friends. I wish I had done better homework. I love my AWD wagon but never another Subaru.
My customer information reflects items required to acquire notifications of service: both acquisition and notifications of appointments, and potential notifications of recalls. I attempted to notify Subaru of changes in (1) email address and (2) snail-mail address. In my opinion, such an attempt on my part should be available on *one* website, and should, when made, cascade *throughout* the sophisticated Subaru bureaucracy.As it turns out, Subaru has three levels of databases in which these items are stored: national, regional, and local dealership. For each of the two items, I attempted on several occasions on national and local websites, via multiple national and local phone calls, multiple snail-mail requests, and multiple face-to-face visits to acquire the changes. In spite of my attempts, materials from Subaru continued to arrive at the *old* email and snail-mail addresses! All this took place over a period of 9 months. The issue has *still* not been fully resolved. For my own security, I feel I must make face-to-face appointments for maintenance. (The vehicle is still under warranty and a regimen of maintenance is required to maintain terms of the warranty.) I must describe Subarus information processing as primitive at best.
My car, a 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5i, has stalled for no reason at stop lights, accelerating around 45 mph, and also slowing down to get to a stop light. All of these stalling have happened a few months after the ECM upgrade was done to decrease winter emissions it was a nationwide recall for the engine model 2.5 naturally aspirated. Each one of these times, the engine sputters and shakes the car and then stalls completely. Im completely motionless for a while. I restart the car multiple times and it just shuts off. This happened to me all three times but the last 2 times happened where I lost the engine and temporarily, electric! I had no brakes, and no power steering.The first time it happened, I almost rolled back into traffic but I kept turning the ignition and I got the power back on long enough to push in the e-brake. The most recent time this happened, I blocked up the right turning lane onto a moderately heavy traveled road. I tried to restart the car 6 times and it would turn on and quickly stall. The first time though, I was able to move the car to the right lane instead of in the middle lane while it shook the whole time.They have been absolutely no help to me other than telling me 2 of the 3 times it has been the cam sensor and they will replace it, which obviously isnt fixing a ** thing. The one time it wasnt, the came sensor was when they stated that they found no problem at all. They claimed to have driven it 140 miles and no problem. The very next morning I drive to work and on my way back from work, it stalls for the 3rd time. From Subaru to my house and to work is 8 miles, going back home is about 3.My problem is, the one time they were not able to find a problem, they drove a car for 140 miles without any problems but 11 miles later it happens after the dealer had possession for it for 8 days. I know I dont qualify for the lemon law, but Im trying to think What the ** can I do, the law is not really on my side because Subaru will not buy the car back from me no matter how many repeated problems it has. If anyone has or knows anyone that has a problem like this, please re-post on this forum. Im wondering if this is just me or if there are other people dealing with the same thing. If so, I am looking to combine forces. Because I have no faith in this car and that it cant keep me safe at anytime or anyplace on the road.
It is 2014. I have a 2007 Subaru Legacy which has 79000 miles on it. I have taken impeccable care of this vehicle only to have it diagnosed this week with the need to replace the head gasket. Where is the recall on this? Why should the consumer be responsible for Subarus negligence of their poor quality? I firmly believe this should be fully paid for by the company, Subaru who boasts of their high quality product, etc. I think mine and any other person who has had to replace this part should be fully 100% reimbursed for the cost. I urge Consumer Affairs to reach out legally in this matter. Please include me in the claim.
On June 25, 2015 I called Subaru Roadside Assistance due to a flat tire. The representative spoke very poor English and understood even less. I all but begged to speak to another rep or her supervisor but she refused to transfer my call. I was on the phone with this woman for 32 minutes and she still did NOTHING to help. I finally hung up and called the dealer from which I purchased my 2014 Outback. The service manager there ** is super and did indeed contact RA and made them aware that I had three children in the car and needed help. In the meantime my daughter who was 100 miles away called AAA and purchased their roadside assistance coverage and they had a tow truck out within minutes. Bottom line, dont depend on Subaru Roadside Assistance!!! They are good for nothing but a hassle. Totally frustrating.
I will like to share my exp. with my Subaru Outback 2013. Buy it brand new in 2013 and at 20,000 miles the dealer have to swap the engine because oil consumption problem, but now since engine swapping there is noise on lifters and they says is normal because the block is bigger. 1st time buying a Subaru & last time. I will better go back to my Honda dealer, not second mistake with Subaru again.
I am writing in concerns of an issue I had with my 2005 Subaru Legacy Outback wagon H6 LL Bean addition. I have owned this vehicle since October 2005 and drive it nearly every day, so I know its behavior. On December 18, 2014, the day was clear; there had been no rain or snow that week. The pavement was dry. At the point of the issue I was in stop and go traffic, thus had used my brakes at an average of 12-18 times since I had left the house that morning. Traffic was maybe moving at 20-25 miles an hour, stop and go.At one point I went to apply my brakes at a normal pressure and they started to pulse in the anti-lock fashion. The pulses were EXCEPTIONALLY LONG, between braking (pulsing), nothing like I had ever experience before with this car or any other vehicle. However I kept my foot applied to the brake and did not try to pulse it myself. Before I was able to get the car stopped, it hit the car in front of me. I had about 1 and + car lengths between us, again only rolling and absolutely could not get the car stopped. The collision was not hard enough to deploy the airbag. The 2012 Ford Escape in front had nearly no damage to the rear bumper; however due to the placement of the Fords bumper to my grill, my repairs were $5,534.67.I have filed a complaint with Subaru, although since my insurance does not have the means to access the electronic information on this make of car for the information on the day of the accident (very Convenient for Subaru), they are unable to proceed with a claim with Subaru as they have no proof. Now Subaru says without the claim coming from my insurance company - that they have no reason to investigate my claim. I have filed a complaint today with the National Transportation Division in order to try to get someone to check this out. I have investigated this issue and found that others have had it as well. As many I have found have disconnected the Subarus ABS system. I also found YouTube videos on how to do this. Others on certain chats say they do not want to disconnect because it would void their warranty. I find it sad that people feel better disconnecting a factory installed system for their safety. I am scared that this will happen again. If something happens to me - who will get the claim then? I do not trust the ABS system on my car.
In 4.5 years, I have to replaced 5 low-beam headlights in my 2010 Subaru Legacy. The dealership gave several different excuses for the high burnout rate. Their solution was to tell me not to use the automatic headlight feature, which did not help. I called Subaru headquarters, and the representative decided that replacing a headlight an average of every 22,000 miles was an acceptable burnout rate. At $70 per replacement, I cannot afford to keep this car. I wish I had known about this problem and Subarus lack of caring before I set foot in the dealership.
I bought a brand new Subaru Outback in 2005 and the engine completely failed at 51,000 miles out of nowhere in 2009. I fought Subaru on it for 3 months and they finally agreed to pay for the new engine. Now, after 3 years and 30,000 miles the engine has failed again! The car is only 7 years old and has had 2 complete engine failures. Subaru is telling me they cant do anything about it and they want $4000 to fix it, about twice what a local mechanic might quote.I spoke to my dads mechanic who has been working on cars in the same location in Palo Alto for more than 30 years (since before I was born.) He said that he wont work on Subaru engines because there is a major problem with them. They blow head gaskets and then Subaru tries to pin the failure on the mechanic or on the owner and it causes problems. Apparently, there are many mechanics here that wont touch them because Subaru legal is taking care of this engine problem.When I look online, there are dozens of sites about this Subaru engine problem, websites were hundreds of people have logged in and documented their head gasket failures at 30,000, 50,000, 70,000 miles. Way too soon for any engine to be failing. Subaru still denies theres a problem, but they redesigned the engine a few years ago and now its not failing in the new cars. Several folks have tried to put together class action lawsuits, but I dont think any of them have gone forward. Meanwhile, if you look on sites that give recommendations on buying used Subarus, they all say if youre going to buy one from roughly 1998-2006 with this particular engine, you need to make sure its failed once and had the major repair done. Otherwise, its not worth buying because it will fail soon. Thats crazy!From what I can tell - most people just go ahead and pay for the repair, some people get better deals, and a few actually get the repairs covered. It seems to depend entirely on how much of a fight you put up. A friend of my mothers has already had 2 new engines put in because of this problem in the first 80,000 miles, too, and he paid for them!My car is currently sitting at Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City, waiting to be worked on. It originally failed on Christmas Day. So, its been more than 2 weeks and nothing has been resolved. At this point, my goal is to get Subaru to buy the car back from me. Id be happy with Blue Book Value. I just dont want to deal with it anymore. And it breaks my heart because I love my car. But its given me 3 years of stress now, so Im done. Is there anything you can do to help me and other Subaru drivers? Thanks so much for your time.
I wanted to buy Subaru xv premium 2015 Black From Bayraktar Subaru. They told me they will have in 2 weeks. And I told I will have 4 weeks because I needed to sell my old car. Then I sold my car faster than I think. I visit them 3 times and every time I visit they gave me 3 different date about cars arrival. At last they said they will have the color I want next month... maybe. Called their manager and got information about they don’t know when they will black cars arrival. They said it is normal. The only thing I wonder why they did not tell me that in the first time I was there when I said I wanna buy Subaru xv premium 2015 black...
Subaru MADE good vehicles... But, then they went cheap. My 2013 Forester burned oil worse than an old WWII airplane... Its normal, Subaru said. Traded it for a 2015 Forester, no more oil burning issues, but now a crappy CVT transmission that bucked, stalled and hesitated upon acceleration all the time... Its normal Subaru said. Well, no more Subarus for me. No more CVTs for me. Got me a Toyota Rav4 with a normal automatic transmission and ZERO problems in many miles ever since.All of these CVTs are junk and causing problems, just Google CVT Problems with Nissans, some Toyotas, Subarus, etc, etc., and be ready to read pages upon pages of negative reviews. Many manufacturers like Subaru and Nissan have current class action suits pending. What a joke! To gain maybe 1-MPG, they jeopardized the goodwill and loyalty of their customers. Good to know that many other companies have not gone this way. Maybe thats the reason they have top sellers like the Toyota Rav4 with a normal automatic transmission. Do yourself a BIG favor, avoid headaches and stay away from CVTs at all cost!
Beware Subaru Starlinks incompetence. Ive had an incredibly dissatisfying customer billing experience... 6 months and counting! At the conclusion of my first years trial of Starlink, they auto-renewed my subscription, which Id already asked them not to. I immediately contacted them about the error. They suspiciously werent able to reverse the charge on my credit card. I was told that a refund check was in the mail. 6 MONTHS LATER, I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY MONEY BACK. I call every 3-4 weeks, and each time they tell me theyre sorry (!), and that THIS time the check is in the mail. Again and again and again. Needless to say, I dont believe them, and could not be more disappointed. Gimme back my money, Starlink!
2000 Legacy Brighton (Wagon). I brought this used for $5500 with 96,000 miles in 2010 or 2011. I currently have 201,800 miles. I did have a spark plug blow out. The mechanic used helicoil instead of replacing the head and it seems to be holding (wood-knock), fan relays failed once causing overheating. Just recently replaced a failed valve cover gasket (by myself in about 30 minutes). My hood release cable failed a while ago. Trunk latch is sticky now. The rear bonnet leaked until I replaced the entire rear deck lid. This used to cause the light sockets to fill with water during rains. I went through 3 light bulb wiring harnesses before replacement. Also, a victim of their infamous rear wheel well rust patterns. Ive replaced the exhaust once since Ive had it too. I love this car. Its quiet as a mouse and 100% beast in the snow. Im nervous about getting about getting another RU, as Ive seen some pretty negative reviews.
I bought my 2014 Subaru Forester new, I even had to wait for them to make it. I was excited until driving home from work one day and my oil light comes on, so naturally I add a quart of oil. Then I have my oil changed and told them to put in an extra quart because of it using up a quart before my next oil change, but lo and behold the oil light came on again. I am so afraid that I am going to have major issues after I reach 100,000 miles. They have done 2 oil consumption test and they come back fine per the dealership. I dont understand how they come back fine and halfway through my oil change my oil light comes on.
I took my Subaru Impreza Outback Sport 2011 in for routine 45000 mi maintenance, for which I was charged $243.75. I was told the brakes all needed new pads, for which I was charged over $600. I was then told the battery needed to be replaced, for which I was charged $144. Then I was told I needed 4 new tires which would cost $900. I had just taken my car for routine service 3 months ago and was told that everything was fine. I believe that for all the additional charges I had to pay today, Subaru could have at least waived the $243.75 45,000 mile service fee. This car has awful tires - skinny lo-pros that should never be sold here in the Northeast, the pothole capital of the world. I wouldnt drive another Subaru again if they paid me a million dollars to do so. Unfortunately, even though I have paid off my car loan, I am stuck with this thing now that I have paid close to $3,000 for repairs. I bought this car from North End Subaru Mazda in Lunenburg, MA. If you go there, hang on to your wallets - they are definitely trying everything they can to steal from the customer!!!
I replaced the factory battery after ~48 months. The new (alleged) 8-year battery from Costco worked as it should for one year. I went in for knee replacement surgery and did not drive the car for just under 4 weeks. When I tried to start it the battery was stone dead. My brother in law charged with a new, high-tech charger that let us track the charge values. At ~70% I tried and it started happily. I drove it for 30 minutes and hoped this was a one-time problem, like an interior light left on.A few weeks later I hooked up a utility trailer: this worked fine in the past, now the lights on the trailer come on and will not go out, even when I pull the key out (this shuts off all exterior lights). I listened to NPRs Wait Wait Dont Tell Me, and forgot to take the key out. Two hours later the battery was stone dead again. This is a new problem. I am sure its the car, not the battery, but the battery wont take more deep-cycles. Ill probably test Costcos battery warranty, but its not quite fair.
There are no common sense option packages. Either the WRX comes with too few options or none. Big difference in lease rates from dealer to dealer. San Francisco Bay Area dealers are very inflexible but they talk a good game. I had one local dealer tell me they had the car then I went in and it did not have the one elusive option thats on the website: The Harman Kardon system. I had the Burlingame dealer hang up on me when I did not agree to purchase one in stock. He said “You need to order it” then quickly hung up before I said a thing. I have bought several cars in my life from different companies. Subaru behaves like its a Porsche or Lamborghini dealership. Even Audi is more flexible and respectful.
2013 Outback P2764 code. Dealership advised contacting corporate and I was offered $750 toward new car! Seriously, 125,000 miles, known transmission issue with extended warranty to 2022 but not mileage? Vehicles are meant to be driven! Beware of Subaru! Not so giving!
2014 Subaru Crosstrek - What a cool looking little SUV crossover. Loved it for the first 3 months. Then the steering wheel started locking up on its own, both when the car is on and when it is off which results in the ignition locking up. I have taken it back to the dealership - Earl Tindol Ford Subaru - twice. They have done nothing to fix it. They burned up 1/2 tank of gas and put 100 miles on it and told me it was pretty much my fault. I finally went to the dealership yesterday and demanded my vehicle back and drove up on a salesman/service man and some blonde chick pulling into the parking lot at the same time and getting out of MY Subaru. I left it there for repairs - not as a vehicle for Earl Tindol Fords employees to use as their own personal vehicles. I left a message for the dealership owner, but got no response. EPIC FAIL! My first and last Subaru and this dealership is HORRIBLE!!!
I just purchased 2017 Subaru Crosstrek. Very disappointed with vehicle and dealership which sold me the vehicle. I purchased the remote start for this vehicle to which is useless since the vehicle shuts off once the door is opened. Why would the salesman sell me an accessory that does not work in my vehicle type. He should have informed me of this. I was misled along with the salesman being incompetent not knowing this feature would not work. I should be refunded for the $525.00 I paid and they can uninstall the device. Aside from this disappointment the vehicle engine start is extremely rough and take too long to warm up, thus I cant use the remote start as necessary. Right now its spring and 50s, how long will it take for this car to warm up in the cold winter months when its in the teens. Im also not sure how this was rated a top seller in its class. Huge disappointment with dealer and vehicle.
This car is the best car on the road. It holds its overall value and is most certainly dog tested and approved. I have hit a deer a couple of years ago and there was hardly any damage to my car. It gets great mileage and proven itself in various weather conditions.
Brought our 2012 Forester Touring to the dealership recently, as the transmission seemed to be having issues between 2nd and 3rd gear. First trip took 2 days and a reset of the transmission to learn mode. This actually made the problem worse in our opinion. We brought it back, and it took a week for them to agree to replace the transmission, after different attempts to fix it. The vehicle only has 27,000 miles on it, and the transmission needs to be replaced? Something isnt right here.On a different note, we lease our vehicles, but no more Subarus. Chase is actually Subaru Motors Finance, and they could screw up a one car funeral. We had several issues with them, from double charging for property taxes to charging extra monthly payments. On average it took 5 - 9 months to get these issues corrected. Between Chase and what I am seeing for deteriorating quality from Subaru, Ill be taking my business elsewhere in the future.
Bought this car brand new and am meticulous about maintenance. Cvt transmission was advertised as no maintenance. Now they say it needs to be replaced at 150,000 miles and that this is a known defect! There was a horrible whining that started very quiet on and off in 2017 and became louder this year. We drove into a city intersection to turn, and the car stalled. We were lucky that we didnt get hit by another car. We took it to the dealership as we do all recommended maintenance and something was really wrong to make it stall like that. The dealership said that it is a CVT transmission, and they are known to have this problem. Told us to call Subaru. There was an extended warranty offered in 2018, but we never were notified of that and are the original owner. If we had the notification we would have had this fixed as it occasionally made the noise but it did not repeat when at our service center. We would have had the dealer check it if we knew about the problem and warranty. I expected a Subaru to last longer than this before needing an $9,000 repair. Called Subaru and they offered me $1,000 toward a new Subaru. I paid $36,000 for this car. I dont think $1,000 off one now is going to help me very much for a known problem with this transmission that put us in a very dangerous situation.
I bought a brand new 2.5i wagon back in 2007. Car only has 25,000 miles on it and my check engine light just came on. It was code P1443 which can be a serious repair. My 6/60 Warr. that I paid a lot for just expired. This issue makes it very difficult to get gas into my car as the nozzle keeps clicking like I have a full tank yet I am almost on empty. These cars should not be breaking with only 25,000 miles on them!!!
Before you decide to purchase a Subaru, be sure to check ALL areas of the car to make sure it has been COMPLETELY painted. YES I did say painted! Under the hood should NOT be just primer, it should be painted and have a clear coat on it. Look closely at ALL of the seams, inside the door jams, the bottoms of the doors, the hinges of the hatch or trunk, the gas tank lid. My Crosstrek only has an overspray or primer on these areas. For those who dont know, primer is grey and a clear coat is what makes your paint shiny.Subaru is NOT giving their cars away, youre paying FULL price so, you should be getting a FULLY painted car! Check out other car manufacture paint jobs before you enter a Subaru dealership. The affordable Kia has an excellent paint job as does my VW beetle and my VW Sportwagen, Chevy also does an amazing job. Look under the hoods of these other automakers cars and youll be rethinking about the so called quality that Subaru delivers.Youre paying a lot of money for top quality so, why settle for less than mediocre? You know its a bad paint job when you bring your car to have it detailed and the detailer recommends that you get rid of the car before it rusts! And I thought I was buying quality, boy was I wrong! Dont make the same mistake that I did. I am currently working with Subaru and it does not look favorable. If they do decide to help me out I will update this post.
I bought a new 2019 Subaru Impreza Sport. In the 5 months of ownership I have had to replace the windshield twice already and now I have to replace it again. Subaru has the worst windshield in cars. Subaru has lost a loyal customer because they cannot install a decent windshield in their cars. I will never buy another Subaru ever. I will buy either Toyota or Honda from now on.
Today I dropped my 2019 Subaru Sport off at Subaru in Turnersville, New Jersey for a second time and for the same issue. The tailgate stops working completely. The tailgate latch will not open the back and neither does the button on the starter key or the inside automatic button. There is no way to open the tailgate unless you have a screw driver and can crawl into the back to open up a manual switch. This exact problem occurred in the summer too.My appointment was for 11 AM. After contacting Subaru for updates a couple of times I finally got a text stating at 4 PM someone was just now diagnosing the problem. Why bother to make an appointment if Subaru service doesnt plan on looking at my car for 5 more hours. I still have no car and no answers. To top the matter off the service department CLOSES at 5 PM which is in 15 minutes. At 4:55 PM I got a call that my vehicle was repaired and Subaru had already contacted service departments regarding this issue, so they actually had the part they needed to make the repair. So if purchasing a Subaru Sport keep this in mind as well as the disappointing service experience. In speaking with the service man who signed in my Subaru, he told me that 11 AM was my drop off time, but they have all day to work on the cars. If I had opted to stay and wait for the repair I seriously doubt I would have had to wait 6 hours. Moving forward the lesson I learned when having your vehicle serviced at this Subaru would be to always tell them you are staying and waiting rather than leaving. You likely will have a better chance of getting your vehicle serviced in a more efficient and timely manner. Better yet how about if this Subaru just honors actual appointments.
The safety features and its so fun to drive! I really liked how it handled and reasonably priced. They have several models to choose from, but I am partial to the Crosstrek Sport, it has all of the things I am looking for and then some!
My wife was driving our brand new 2014 Outback. She went slightly off the road and attempted to engage the break release to allow the four wheel to kick in and get out of the small depression she was in. She couldnt get it to work. She called a towing service. They came out and a young man got in the car and engaged the transmission apparently thinking that by moving forward and backward he could get the car out without pulling it out with the truck. In a few minutes the car started smoking and within a few more minutes flames appeared that couldnt be put out with the tow truck fire extinguisher. The car burned up-a total loss. It was a frightening experience for my wife and makes us wonder how this car could possible erupt into flames. Anyone out there with any insight?
I had an Outback in 1997 and loved it... wish I had kept it. I recently bought a very well cared for single owner 2005 Outback 2.5i with 150K miles. I knew it had a minor oil leak... When it got worse, I fixed that, and while the engine was apart, put in many new parts including timing belt, hoses, thermostat, mounting bolts, machined the cylinders, etc. It was fine for 6 months and then had intermittent sputtering at idle and when starting to drive, along with after a slowdown off the highway to 35 or so and then speeding up again. I also noticed it was strangely low on oil, despite no visible leaking. My mechanic said that the prior owner did a (dealer-done) tune up without replacing the wires, so we did that and the problem seemed fine... for a while. 2 months later, same exact sputtering. One stall after starting the car and putting it in reverse but not driving yet. And... almost no oil in the car (again no visible leaks). Problem as yet undiagnosed so any feedback is appreciated! Also, minor complaints. Had to change the rear door latch when I got the car. The plastic latch that opens the gas cap keeps falling off. And now the drivers window button is sticky and sometimes doesnt want to make the window go up or down.
I leased this Impreza 3 days after my wife got her Subaru Ascent. Ive been having issues since December with multiple warning lights showing up on my screen. Car was in the shop, they couldnt replicate issue so gave it back to me. Car went back again for same problem, even showed video of the warning lights, still couldnt figure it out and car was at the dealer for a week. Picked it up and next day lights came on again with all the warnings. Brought it back to the dealer again and it was there over a week. Just got it back on Saturday. I am requesting Subaru buy this lemon car back from me.
My 2014 Forester sucks down oil. When you call Subaru corporate they deny the problem, even though theres class action lawsuit and the dealer told me they had to replace the engines. I have to keep driving it back to the dealer every time the oil light goes on for the oil consumption test. I now have a lemon law attorney going after them. Its a shame because I really like the car, but Subaru plain ol lying to me has soured me for good. Never again. Oh, and btw, they sent their dealers a manifesto to fix for the problem. Ya know, the one they nothing of, and basically stated that whenever you do anything but park the car, youll burn oil. Subaru must be Japanese for jokesters or liars I guess.
We have owned 2 Subarus, one 2002 where at approximately 67000 miles head gasket blew, we traded the car in for 2010 Subaru Forester, and now again the head gasket is leaking at 47000 miles. Im retired and on social security, was told 2400 dollars to repair leak. Complained to Subaru. Said my warranty was over which I knew. I cannot afford to do repair. Also drivers seat has collapsed will cost 700 dollars to repair. Again no money to fix. This car was suppose to last us a good 14 yrs, now Im stuck with a piece of junk and not very happy about it. We were told when we bought 2010 Subaru that the head gasket problems had been resolved by Subaru, and this would never happen. Well lucky me it did. we only drive less than 10 miles a day, no excuse for this to happen. Will never buy a Subaru again. My daughter has a Outback also and her head gasket blown too, she will not buy a Subaru again, cheap car. I have a 2013 Toyota with 46000 miles, no leaks whatsoever, will definitely buy another Toyota, I have owned 3 and never had major engine problems like the Subaru.
Love the 2015 Crosstrek! Eyesight is great when it works. Had the car in for the recall and three additional times, in two different states. Last time, took 1-1/2 days, had a great, brand new loaner (Courtesy Subaru in Rapid City) turned out to be a right rear brake assembly. Have another appointment tomorrow, on again, off again Eyesight. This morning, car started right up, no Eyesight and stuck in park, neutral or brakes locked up. Dont know, might have to be towed in. Glad it was in the garage at home.
We have taken our 2017 Subaru in 5 times to fix this problem: while driving the check engine and other warning lights come on and safety features like lane change turn off. We are losing faith in Subaru. This didnt happen with the car right away. Weve been told it was related to fuel issues, computer issues, something different each time. I dont think they know what is causing the problem.
We have owned three Subarus. The 2017 Forester being the latest. I was very excited about my new Forester until I was driving and it kept dying on me. Then a light showed up showing low oil, had only had the vehicle two months, called dealer they said bring it in they will check it out they stated nothing showed up about low oil, again two months later same problem while we were on our way to vacation again. Dealer said bring in. Same response, my husband talked to them and explained the other problems about it dying, transmission not shifting properly, rattling in motor. They told him to bring it in. They test drove it and told him nothing was wrong but did say they would charge us $95.00 an hour to fix it, now again same problems no response. The only reason we had stayed with Subaru is because we purchased a 2003 Baja and it has almost 300,000 miles on so we decided to buy another one in 2014. We purchased a Crosstrek. Had so much trouble with that car. Traded it in for a Jeep which by the way is fantastic, guess if we cant get my Forester fixed we will be trading it in also. Wondering if anyone else has had so much going on with their Subarus.
On my 3rd Subaru lease. I won’t go into details with their previous Mirror Link issues (lots of them). This review is regarding their Starlink Service. Big shout out to Maria at the Danvers location who was awesome while I waited FOR SIX HOURS AT THE DEALER DUE TO SOMEONE’S MISTAKE. We got through that. I’ll spare the details.Purchased the Starlink Service. Took the time to set it up, registering, etc. Worked fine. Then out of the blue without warning, the services stopped. My car profile was wiped from the MySubaru app as well as the service. Someone made an error and must have confused it with the previous lease. Well after literally about a dozen calls and false promises, no one could figure out how to fix the issue. I called Subaru (not the dealer) and they couldn’t figure it out either. After more escalation, wasted time and apologies that do nothing, a supervisor got my credentials back into the MySubaru app and reinstated the Starlink services. All looked good until I went to start the car remotely, ERROR—you must have a subscription. Yet the app says I have a subscription.Place another call to Starlink, they have no clue as to what is wrong. Pissed off is an understatement. If you want to deal with people that are clueless, cant figure out issues and make random mistakes, Subaru is your go to. I am literally too busy with a job, business and two little kids to be dealing with foolish errors and incompetent BS.Also, please don’t leave me a regurgitated message saying you are sorry and to call you. You don’t answer the phone, I already tried that. Fix the issue is all you have to do. My sorry jar is already filled up with apologies that are useless. Lastly, no---you don’t understand. If you did, the issue would have never happened. Should you waste my time to have to go to the dealer—a major inconvenience—I will not sit there for hours while you figure out the issue. My time is extremely valuable and I hate wasting it.
Extreme Disappointment - Atrocious Quality; First time Subaru Owner - brand new 2015 Legacy 3.6R - purchased Dec 2014. Major Safety and Quality Issues - Awful. Whomever is in charge of Quality at Subaru should be fired. It is evident Subaru failed to Quality test this model before production.1. Burning smell from engine & snow water entering engine bay. Discovered snow/water entering engine bay/compartment while driving in snow. Serious safety risk; water all over electrical components I believe leading to burning smell. Contacted Subaru of America, no response yet. Filed N.H.T.S.A. complaint. The water/salt stains are evident under the actual hood and the engine compartment and already see signs of rust on electric connectors. 2. Water leak in foot well of cabin. 3. Starting issue - numerous time required 4-5 seconds for the engine to crank/turn over finally started. Dealer replaced fuse relays per Technical Service Bulletin (TSB)4. Display - frozen numerous times - Dealer replaced fuse relays per TSB. 5. Fuel Filter door froze numerous times; unable to open; Dealer fixed per TSB. 6. Awful wind noise driving above 40mph. Door/window moldings replaced on all doors and 2 front triangle windows replaced by dealer per TSB. Vendor made faulty moldings and glass.7. Moon-roof - above 60 mph moon-roof whistles loud - seal issue like door. Exterior moon-roofs black seal/molding towards back near center dome light, is raised up above the sheet metal not aligned/flush - adjusted by dealer. 8. Lumbar - when pressed to increase lumbar, it only enlarges on the left side of the seat back only, then when you press decrease it shifts to right side and almost even outs then goes flat. Dealer inspected and found defective seat from factory; parts on order.
I own a 2013 Subaru Impreza. The car is currently undergoing work for a SECOND CVT transmission. With the first transmission, I was at 55,000 miles, and there were audible queues. I was lucky enough to bring the car into the dealership to be diagnosed. I was informed I would need a new transmission and it would be covered under my extended (60,000 mile) warranty. The car was fixed and I believed everything to be fine.Last week, I was on vacation with my two small children (2 and 5, both requiring car seats) and driving from St Augustine FL to Atlanta along I-75. I was just outside of Macon, GA, and in the far left lane, when the car jerked violently and then stopped accelerating. There was a transfer truck to my right, and a few vehicles came up very quickly to my rear. I was able to coast off to the left hand side of the road. The vehicle was stripped of all gears and no longer even had a park. The emergency brake had to be utilized to keep it from rolling.I called Subaru roadside assistance and the car was towed to Macon (about 40 miles north) to a dealer there (with me and my two kids in the front with the driver, a very nice man). Once I arrived at the dealership, I was treated with a we cant look at it today, what do you want us to do about it attitude. I called Subaru Customer Care and Lisa arranged a rental car through Enterprise. I was not allowed to take a dealership loaner since I live in Hickory, North Carolina and would be taking the car over state lines. The car broke down at 11:00 AM and we were not back on the road until 5:30 PM.Since then, this was over a week ago, I have expressed my worries with Subaru. They have assured me that the extended CVT Transmission warranty issued by Subaru last month would cover my car, even though it is at the 88,000 mile mark, but would anyone want a car on its second transmission that essentially stalled while going 70 mph on the highway???I have asked Subaru to do the right thing and either pay off the loan or allow me to trade in the vehicle, but they refuse. Now they are stating that the rental car will not be covered for the entire time of the repair and that I will have to travel back down to Macon, GA (6 hours from my home) to pick the car up once it is fixed later next week. Thats over two full weeks in a rental car and a whole lot of a headache to pick up a car that may or may not work for another 30,000 miles.If this was my first transmission, if this had only happened once, I would not be writing this. If my kids had not been in the car when it stopped accelerating on the highway, I would not be writing this. I, like everyone else, need reliable and safe transportation. I have neither of these things and Subaru refuses to right the wrong.For those looking into buying a car with the CVT Transmission, please dont. I would hate for someone to get seriously injured by this. Its dangerous and something Subaru should not ignore. A recall should be issued. My first transmission gave me a warning sign with a noise, the second one just stopped... there was no warning.
Bought a new Subaru Outback in January - no experience with CVT transmissions and salesman casually mentioned that one of the features was a roll back preventer switch. The reality is if you back up it takes a full 2 seconds after switching to drive to have any power. If you back into traffic and need to get away quickly - youre dead in the water. If youre parallel parking on a hill and back in, youre very likely to hit the car behind you - it just rolls back when you switch to drive.Lots of other complaints including much less than advertised gas mileage - about 10L/100km based on half city and half highway driving. Voice command system is a joke - with long delays and unasked for tutorials - Entertainment system not compatible with my 2 year old smart phone. And what really bugs me is the spring rewind on the seat belt is so weak that I am forever closing the door on the end of the seat belt - just one of many silly oversights. The swept back roof line and curved in rear door mean that there is far less storage space than you might think from looking at the storage floor area.
I had talked my mom into a Subaru Legacy 3017. I took it in with less than 2000 miles saying it shows the oil is really low. The tech looked at it and said oh its fine and I could not believe it but it showed full at the dealership. The next time I checked it in the drive it showed low again. I thought well there is a slight slant to the drive. That must be it. We had the battery go dead 4 times over the winter. I mean to the point that my jump box that will start my pick up that someone hit in the rear end. I only drive it when I have to haul something so its usually pretty dead. It will start it right up it took forever on this one. Today I am totally lost as to why I called several places and I just get told each place, Oh you need to call here or there. I called about the maps part of this on a 2017 Subaru Legacy that just came from being serviced at 3100 miles and it does have problems they cannot duplicate. I was a Service Manager for GM for years and a service writer. I LOVED the job, but I could at least answer some questions. I have yet to get one question answered. I was going to buy a used Subaru from the same dealership but at this point, I think I will stick with a GM car... I can at least get an answer. I first started to ask if I need to PAY for Starlink to be able to use the maps as every site I look at says with Starlink and maps its so nice. I have not once been able to get the maps to go anywhere by voice commands if I do get a response other than being told she did not understand. Then I would get other states coming up... It took 15-30 minutes to manually get one time the map to work right and every other time I just grabbed the Garmin and said well they have always been my choice of GPS and very easy to get to a location. I asked this girl where the SD card is in the vehicle. She said well didnt I go to that site. The one I am at now and I said YES and have already downloaded the toolbox but on a video, it said they could be located in several different spots. She said call toolbox as she only deals with Maps. I said isnt this all part of it. She said no. Is there anything else she could help me with. I said, I guess not. You did like every other Subaru Phone number I called... telling me to call someone else. They had no idea about Starlink or Sirius or what I was talking about.My next call is going to be to the Attorney General since NO ONE wants to help at all... but boy they were sure there to sell the vehicle. I honestly was going to get a Subaru until I seen how hard it is to get 1 question answered and I had several to ask and was cut off every time... I do better calling DirecTV or my Insurance Co. and they get me to my boiling point after all the BS. I think they need a Class Action suit as we just had the oil changed they said they had to do an update for the battery. The next time I go to drive it the Nav system kept telling me it didnt understand or would send me to other states. I tried to put it in manually and had trouble. I called and got that run around. I have the feeling if we dont pay the Starlink yearly they will even lock you out. I read about that on other sites. One being the piXXed off the page. I am VERY VERY dissatisfied the way I have been treated so far. I just drove the car without the radio on and think I had better check the oil myself as it does not sound right at all... I think I will stick with GM and not get a Subaru like I was going too... Best wishes to all Subaru owners. I did talk to a guy at the after-hours place and I said I would just wait until they are open Monday since he said he could not help at all with why nothing was working.
I drive 2017 Legacy, leased. Three times I have had blowouts in 5 months. Car only has 4000 miles on it and I drive it only locally. Not at high speeds. The first flat they said I must have hit a pothole. I didnt remember any. The second one I pulled up to a curb in front of a friends house, hit the curb lightly and blew the tire. The third one I was on my own block and went to turn right. Hit the curb barely moving and tire blew. I havent had a flat forget a blown tire in 30 years. I cant believe it is me. That last one I looked at tire and it was the sidewall that had a 6 inch hole in it. How does that happen going 2 miles an hour. 3 tires in 6 months. Something is going on!
I purchased a new 2011 Subaru Outback 3.6 R Limited and have been very happy with it. I am religious about bringing it to the service department at the dealership I bought it from for the recommended service maintenance. I brought it in today for the recommended 48,750 mile service (the car has 48,783 miles on it), I had a nail in my front passengers side tire, and both headlights stopped working this past week. The service department called me back shortly after I had dropped it off to let me know the oil change and headlights were fixed. For the nail in the tire however, the only thing they could do was sell me four new tires, which, with installation, would cost $780.00. Apparently, the nail was too close to the tire wall, so according to Subaru policy, they are unable to patch the tire and because the tire has been discontinued, I would have to buy four new tires, not just one. I stated the car is only a 2011, so I was surprised the tire was already discontinued. The service rep responded they have 2013 vehicles with tires that are already discontinued. I am disappointed Subaru chooses to use tires that are so easily discontinued and the only solution they can offer when one tire is no longer usable is to buy four new ones.
2014 SUBARU FORESTER LIMITED 2.5 - This is the 4th Subaru I have owned! I come from a family of Subaru owners. Purchased my SUV and within 5,000 miles the tires were SHOT. Its first winter was white knuckled, WHAT? I purchased this Subaru because they were great in the winter, but NOT this time. The dealer told me the car was so out of line it had to come off the assembly line like that. 15,000 miles burning oil like crazy, but the oil consumption test - passed.Hardware less than fair, door weather stripping crumbling already. 35,000 battery has dead cell, battery replaced. This was a brand new car I bought, seemed like some used car I bought off a lot! WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS BRAND? As sad as it is for me to say it, UNLESS SUBARU can give me a incentive to have my next car purchase BE a SUBARU brand, Honda and Toyota may be getting my business and my families!
Last week I took my 2012 Subaru Forester in to the local dealership repair shop for my 90,000 mile service, annual state inspection, and to find out what the noise was that I had started hearing from the engine compartment. I was told by my customer rep that there was a problem with the lower end of the engine so no point in doing the 90,000 mile maintenance since the small engine block would need to be replaced. He advised I could either spend about $5000 for the repair as the 60,000 mile warranty had expired, or trade my vehicle in towards the purchase of another. He did not mention that my vehicle actually had an extended warranty of 8 years or 100,000 miles, but did tell me that 90,000 miles is pretty low for an engine to go bad and suggested I contact Subaru customer service to see if they could offer me any help. After following this suggestion, I went online to see if there were any other complaints about these Subaru engines and discovered a class action suit had recently been settled with Subaru about excessive oil consumption causing the engines to fail, resulting in replacement of the short block. Hey, sounds like my problem! Today Subaru of Americas customer service rep called me back to say that they would pay $3500 toward my expected $4800 cost to replace the engine block. I told them I wanted them to pay for the entire cost since it appeared my problem was caused by the excessive oil usage. They asked if I had the oil consumption test done. No, I had not - I did not know I needed to have one done because I didnt know I had an oil consumption problem. There is no indicator light in my vehicle that tells me the oil is low and we always took the car in to the dealers repair shop for scheduled maintenance and oil changes. So I asked if I could have one done now. Nope, cant do it - car is not safe to drive the 1200 miles needed to do the test because the engine is that bad already. So, catch 22 - cant do the test because the car is not safe to drive, and they wont approve full cost of repair unless an oil test is done! But, by the way, the repair shop at the dealer did pass my state inspection. So is it safe to drive or not? All I want is for Subaru to cover the full cost, not just partial. Its pretty obvious the early engine failure is a result of a problem with their engine since I the scheduled maintenance on the vehicle done. Theyre already willing to pay $3500 - whats another $1300 to make a customer happy? I will never buy another Subaru and recommend no one else do either if this is how they treat their customers.
What the hell is this Subaru dealer in Jordan? I am really shocked when I saw the underground garage. Its hidden and so dirty. No one can see it and they dont have a system at all. They dont even know the history of the car service schedule. There is no clean waiting area for customers. Please just come to Jordan without informing the dealer of your visit and see this with your own eyes. It is unbelievable. They lied to Subaru by convincing them that the garage is the one above ground close to the gas station. It is not, it’s the Renault garage .Subaru in Jordan is dying. There are a lot of Subaru lovers in Jordan waiting for solution .By the way, there are no available spare parts in the dealers warehouse. Just come urgently without informing them of your visit and see the disaster.
My first car was a 2005 Subaru STi. I drove it throughout college, about 100 miles a day, from work, school and back home again. It never let me down, and I drove the crap out of it. I sold it right before I got married and got a brand new 2013 Crosstrek for the wife (future) and a used 2010 Outback for myself. In just about one year I began noticing how low the oil level was when changing the oil on the Crosstrek. I change my oil every 3500 miles with full synthetic oil and a OEM filter. It was never low enough to set off the oil light, but I would have to add about 1.5 quarts between oil changes, which is not normal for any low performance naturally aspirated car. I brought it to the dealer and they said oil consumption at that level was normal. So I accepted the fact that I would just add 1.5 quarts between my 3500k mile oil change interval. At 30K miles on the Crosstrek, the blower motor started acting up, there was a hard start issue (probably crank sensor) and passenger rear wheel bearing was noisy. The dealer did not want to replace any of the parts under warranty. They did not even want to diagnose it. At that point I did not want this car anymore. Who knows what else might go wrong another 30k miles later. So I traded the Crosstrek in for a 2017 Forester Touring. Now the CVT on the Forester is acting up at highway speeds. I am waiting to see what the dealer has to say about this issue. Whether they are going to dismiss it and say its normal, or actually look into the service bulletins issued to see if something is applicable. This is quality and service I did not expect from what-used-to-be my favorite car manufacturer. So in short, the three (3) stars is for my old 2005 STi and my 2010 Outback. Everything Subaru produced after that is and was Junk. I will never purchase another Subaru again. Back to Honda/Toyota.
2015 WRX engine failure, 5600 miles - I have had my car about 4 months, leased as new car. On 4-18-15, engine light blinked on, I stopped car to check manual, it said to slow down reduce load on engine, and get to dealership ASAP, that was Saturday eve. Manual said it was ok to drive. I ran some close by errands Sunday. Took to dealership Monday AM. After a while, I was told that a plug had lost its tip and was misfiring... ok, quick fix. Wrong... service mgr informed me that there was a hole in the cylinder, that I would need a new engine. LUCKILY, under warranty. Down time 2-3 weeks. They rented me a car, they were very nice at the service dept. Hopefully no problems after this is fixed.
I have owned Hondas, Mazdas and Saabs and there is no question that the Subaru Outback is the most uncomfortable and annoying car I have ever owned. I just traded it in after only 2 years, and I am so relieved and thankful to have gotten rid of it. Just so that you know the importance of this, I always keep my cars 15 years. I have never, ever in my life traded in a vehicle. I usually keep my cars for 15 years and then sell them to a private party for a couple thousand bucks at the end, usually b/c they are in such great condition. I am writing this because I want to help others avoid making the same mistake I made, a very expensive mistake.I had a 2014 Subaru Outback, the Limited version, with the 2.5 engine, auto transmission. I was interested in this car because I had always heard how great Subarus are and I wanted a comfortable and larger car that was dog-friendly. I test drove this vehicle three times before I bought it. ***None of the issues listed below are either evident during a one-hour test drive, and/or become annoying until you have driven the car for a few months.*** I recommend that you ask for (at least one) day-long test drive of any Subaru, especially the Outback, before you buy one. Heres why I got rid of this car (NOTE: All of the issues below I addressed with the dealers and they told me this is all normal behavior for these cars; also many of these issues are common complaints from owners):Worst transmission in the industry. I do not know how anyone can stand to drive this CVT transmission day in day out. I had an automatic. Imagine stepping on the gas and the car feeling like its about to choke, like the transmission is failing. It is especially bad when the car is cold. I did not notice this during the test drive. I believe you have to have a few thousand miles on the car, and/or be in normal traffic or driving conditions to understand how bad this transmission feels. Rough, choky, sputtering doesnt even begin to describe it.Worst A/C in the industry. When you are in Arizona (or DC or Florida or anywhere where it gets hot) and its 108 degrees, the last thing you want is a car that doesnt cool. The A/C on these cars STOPS COOLING when you step on the gas. Dont believe me? Put your hand in front of the A/C vent and step on the gas. The A/C keeps blowing but the air is warm. Ridiculous. Worst seats in the industry. If you have even the slightest back problems, do not buy this car. Also do not even think of long road trips in this car either. The seats will kill you.Worst handling in the industry. Speaking of long road trips, another reason why you will not want to take long trips with this car is the fact that the car wanders on the road. You are fighting with the steering wheel constantly to stay in the lane. Yes, again, all this is normal behavior for this car, according to several Subaru dealers. And this wandering is among many issues with steering/handling that people have complained about on this forum, with little to no resolution. I rented a Ford Escape last weekend and I was shocked at how well that SUV handles, compared to Outback, which costs $10,000 more. (The Escape has other negatives, however.)Worst infotainment system in the industry. If this is important to you, keep shopping. DO NOT buy this car unless you get the navigation, which comes with a big infotainment screen. Otherwise you will be dealing with a tiny little screen that is smaller than your phone. If you have an iPod or a USB drive full of songs, good luck trying to get the Outback to play the songs, or specific songs. Want to find Dave Mathews Band? The song search is pretty much impossible. The Bluetooth is crackly and terrible (another common complaint). The audio sound is awful, but I know nobody buys these cars for acoustics and audio sound. Speaking of sound, also, the car is very very noisy, but I know no one buys these cars for the soundproofing either.Worst backup camera in the industry. The resolution of the camera is so bad, I dont know why they bothered with the backup camera to begin with. Dont expect to see much of anything from that camera if its raining. Worst auto body in the industry. When I go to Costco or whatever, I park my cars away from other cars, in the farthest space possible. Thats just how I roll. And yet this car already had several door dings and chips and scratches. The exterior paint/metal will not last 15 years. In fact, it looked like junk after only 2 years. The Subarus are also no match for bird poop or tree sap; both had already damaged the hood.Horrible fuel economy (I never got more than 19.7 mpg) despite being a supposedly green automaker. I only did city driving, but thats what I got. Also, the major reason why I did not buy the larger 3.6 engine is because I did not want to buy a gas guzzler. But in fact the 2.5 is also a gas guzzler. So I ended up with a really slow, under-powered car (read: zero pickup off the line) that guzzled gas.I do have two good things to say about this car. A, it doesnt require premium gas. And B, it has excellent resale value (because I guess theres a lot of people out there who dont care about the above-mentioned things and just want a car to haul stuff uphill or in snow). If your only interest is having a very basic AWD hauler, then this may be the car for you. If drive quality, comfort and fuel economy are important to you, arrange for full-day test drives, preferably several of them, before you buy. I feel like Subaru, especially with the Outback, tries to market itself as a step above other compact and intermediate SUVs. They should give their marketers a raise, because they sure conned me. Hope this helps someone avoid making the pricey mistake I made.
Because of all the driving I do (picked up my Crosstrek August 17th, 2019 as on 1-6-2020 I have 11,555 miles) I specifically purchased a Subaru. According to the website and window sticker, miles were averaged between 27/33 per gallon. Now I know that 33 is only under extreme optimal conditions. But I thought 27 wouldnt be an issue to average at all. That being said, my car has never averaged over 26.5 on any long road trip. Id never buy another Subaru and wouldnt recommend their vehicles to anyone!!!!
Heading to the highway, going about 35-40 MPH, the hood flew open and hit my windshield. Thankfully, it did not shatter it, but did crack it all the way across. I call Subaru headquarters and they pretty much said, Too bad for you! I called the dealership and they pretty much said the same thing. The tech at the dealership said I must have opened the latch from inside. Not sure why I would want to do that while I was driving! The car had been parked and locked in my driveway before I drove it so there was no chance of it being tampered with. I feel there should be an investigation into a recall, as it seems I am not the only one this has happened to!
Bought 09 Impreza in July of 09 w/ 12,000 miles on it. Continually had required service (3,000-4,000 mile). At 59,700 miles while having 60,000 mile service a seepage was identified from the left cylinder bank. The dealer noted this and stated that it would be monitored. Well they must either have failed to monitor it or kept the finding to themselves through the 8 next services because it wasnt until 97,000 miles that the gaskets must haves simply just failed. The dealer gave me a $2,574 estimate to replace them (and timing belt) to which I had to decline due to finances. I went home, researched parts cost ($300-$450) and allotted time for repair (8-10 hours) and was left a little bit in wonder that the dealers service garage was charging close to $200 an hour. (This was also the time I discovered all of the websites with titles like The Dreaded Subaru Head Gasket Problem.) I went through my service receipts, found the one from 57,000 miles that the seepage note and returned to the dealer to discuss the cost and attempt to make a deal, being as the seepage was recorded prior to the warranty expiring. Long story short: dealer said to call Subaru, Subaru offered $1000 dollars towards service, I told them while that would bring the price down to what a reputable private garage would charge, what I wanted feel more in line with total cost as the problem was first noted under warranty. Subaru said No, $1000 was all they would do. I told them that their help was as useless as the gaskets they put on their cars. I am now in touch w/ my State Attorney General and have filed a complaint with them. I am not looking for any monetary compensation, just satisfaction that a wrong will be set right.
The car is very reliable and I have owned it for 6 years. I for the typical maintenance on the car and have had no additional problems. It drives very well and handles the snow well. After owning a car with cloth seats, I would consider leather. While the cloth cleans up well, its just not practical with kids and dogs. Its an older model and did not come with Bluetooth. It would be a nice benefit to have it. But price was a strong factor when choosing this car and it was affordable in comparison to competitors. I have a huge sunroof which I love. I love the large trunk space in my Forester and how the seats fold down flat in the back.
We service this car properly. Ive never had problems with Subarus and have been a loyal customer since 1994. So at 110,000 miles the six cylinder engine starts overheating erratically. A tow to Subaru dealer to replace the thermostat and were on our way. Two to three weeks later it happens again. We are provided a new thermostat under warranty installed at a different dealer (because we were on a long trip and were forced to tow the vehicle). Each time the claim was the thermostat was sticking. It happens again within a few weeks after we return home with yet another thermostat. $6,000 later we get resurfaced heads and a valve job, complete with all the marked-up engine components, supplies, disposal fees, and so on. Did we get a refund or credit on the supposed faulty thermostats? No. The servicing dealer proclaims there was an internal engine leak due to bad head gaskets. I asked to see them, but they were never given to me. Ive never heard of an engine failure of that gravity in a Subaru (unless of course the vehicle was abused). My wife babies this car and uses it for errands. I have a 1994 SVX with 140,000 miles, and had a 2002 Outback and neither had engine issues, ever. My confidence in the Subaru product is gradually waning.
I purchased my new 2013 Subaru Forester in July of that year after having a 2003 Subaru forester for ten years hoping that l would get as good as run out of 2013 as l did out of the 2003. But in the three years that l have had this car (2013), l have a short motor put in at 100,000 kms which had to pull the motor apart twice as the dealership put the old shim valves back in it so they had to put it apart to put new shim valves back in. The front lower control arms bushes have been replaced twice both front CV Joints on both sides have been replace. Bluetooth unit has been replaced 3 times and still giving me problems. The HILLHOLD/ABS/ADC warning lights had been coming on repeatedly which l was told it was a faulty brake light switch. The sensor for the horn has also been replaced and all wheel nuts and hub bolts have all been replaced twice. So this experience has put a bitter in my mouth to back to buy another Subaru.
When I bought my 2015 Subaru Forester, I had my doubts. I even told the salesman that when I lived in Bermuda, Subaru had the nickname Subarust. He said hed never heard that one. I figured that maybe it was the sea air and that in Canada, everything would be okay. After all, I loved the look of the car and the way it handled. However, soon after I purchased it, I noticed that my Subaru was surging when I was breaking from time to time. It didnt happen (of course) when I took the service attendant out for a drive at my last visit, but it does happen. Very disturbing. Whats even WORSE is the RUST that started 18 months after I bought the vehicle.The morning I was supposed to bring in my car for service I was going to clean it, then bring it in. Aside from writing, I walk dogs (much like in the numerous Subaru commercial, implying that the cars are for active lifestyles and dog lovers and the car gets pretty dirty sometimes. Unfortunately, that morning I discovered that my battery was dead and had to call roadside assistance (ironically) on the day of my service appointment. I spent a lot of time on the phone with these people, and when the guy boosted my battery, I drove it up to the dealership without having the time to clean the car. The service attendant was disappointed, as this would probably show that my battery was fine, rather than being able to test if it was faulty. Luckily, it still failed, so they replaced it. I showed the attendant where rust spots had started to form on the inside of the hatch. She took pictures and sent them off to Subaru Canada.No one contacted me. I called and got no answers, but plenty of people saying they would get back to me. It took 8 phone calls before the service manager at Barrie Subaru told me that the company felt it was not a manufacturers defect, but rather dirt that caused the rust, and that they were happy to pay for half of the repair. Reminder, this is 18 months after the purchase of the vehicle. There was also no way to talk to the person who had made this decision but I did call customer care and gave the lady there an earful, without purpose, really, as I asked if the call was recorded or if she wrote anything down. The answer to both was no. So here are a few things I want to point out:1- Of course, they are happy to pay for half. They should be paying for the whole thing. A friend of mine had the same problem with her Toyota truck. They said the rust was caused by sand. However, the clear coat was intact. 2- What would they have blamed the rust on if I had had the chance to clean my car that morning? 3- I didnt have the chance to clean my car because of Subarus faulty battery. 4- The car still surges forward when Im stopping. 5- This is a crooked company that does not care about their customers. If you disagree, try reaching a human being who has any authority to make a decision. 6- What kind of sport utility vehicle cant handle getting dirty without immediately getting rusty? Again, see their commercial. They should definitely NOT be marketing to dog owners. Please, dont trust the car awards. This is not a reliable car or a consumer-friendly company. They want you to buy, then wash their hands of you.
Our vehicle is three years old, and we have replaced EVERY light (turning signal, headlights - high and low, running lights, all of them) on the front a min. of three times. There has to be something wrong, but the Subaru shop gives us some lame excuse like we got oil from our fingers on the bulb when changing it, even though we told them we were very careful and didnt. So we let them change the next one, and it didnt even last 5 months. I am ready to get rid of this car just because of the lights. I have driven cars before for ten years and never had to change a bulb and this one I change bulbs more often than I do windshield wipers.
While on vacation our 2018 Crosstrek with 1900 miles stalled while driving 4 times. I was driving my daughters car and almost hit Crosstrek husband was driving because car kept stalling. When we returned car went to shop. 1st time it did it on service tech. They could not find out what was wrong, it is in shop after a week for 2nd time, Subaru is aware and we have had loaner for 2 weeks now, car is unsafe, Subaru did not like when I said Class action and asked that I would not call an attorney till after they look at it the 2nd time but I made the call and he is looking into legal action. These cars are a danger to all that drive them, I owned 6 Subaru’s and will not buy another from them.

