Subaru

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.

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 it's 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 didn't 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 isn't 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 didn't 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 don't 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.

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 can't get my Forester fixed we will be trading it in also. Wondering if anyone else has had so much going on with their Subarus.

4 weeks later, driving beautifully, engine seized while driving. My oil level was fine, my coolant level was fine, the dealership stated they could not know the reason unless they take the engine apart, probably something in the block. VERY DANGEROUS! Need a new engine. Subaru will not help, they stated they already help me out in good faith. Granted my car has 141,000 miles on it, how many engines that are taken care, regular maintenance, follows Subaru maintenance plan should go through 2 engines and transmission!

But to have your car die after 5 years when it was well maintained and having no $0.00 value for trade in is not right. Obviously, I have a problem car, a lemon that these kinds of repairs should not have happen once, never mine twice! Never mind how costly an engine is. Being able to have no reasonable recourse. Although I am trying, at least should get bluebook value for the worth my car if it did not have engine issues which is between $6,998-$7,667. Never mind the dangerous situations I was put in, that thank goodness caused no serious accident, Shame on Subaru customer service for putting hardship on their customers that are only looking for a fair outcome!

My Subaru dealership's body shop was shocked at how thin the paint was on the fender of my car from the factory, they called Subaru of America to inquire about this and to see if anything can be done about this issue on their end. Subaru brushed it off as "not being a problem". Shows the quality of newer Subarus are lacking, and that they are not what they used to be and don't want to stand behind their product. I'm sure my 2003 Outback will continue to keep on going in the years to come. I know my 2010 will be dead long before my 2003 is. Sad, as Subaru was a great company with a great product. Not so anymore!

The kicker is we were in so much, we began to develop a relationship with the techs, to the point some of them would tell us that our vehicle needed a new transmission and we were right!! Then one visit to our surprise, The cust. serv. MGR approached us, apparently he had been going to bat for us and had obtained CORP approval for new Transmission. The dealership kept our Outback for 10 days. Came to pick up our vehicle. To our surprise the vehicle wasn't touched. Apparently the owner of the dealership felt he needed to look things over but couldn't do so because he was out of town. CANT MAKE THIS ** UP. He then told us he wanted to drive the vehicle to verify it did in fact need a new transmission. Keep in mind we have the GOLD PLUS WARRANTY package which covers the transmission!!!

We took our Sub back and were told by the owner if we felt any foul play to contact corporate. So we contacted Corp and opened a case, spilled out all of our past issues and waited. During the wait our Outback began to make a weird noise from the wheel area. Well back to the dealership we go. Car inspected. Were informed the noise is from the tires. Supposedly tires were not "fit" for the car. So the vehicle, which we bought from them, had the wrong tires on it... OK so we buy new tires, noise remains. CORP. calls us back after their "investigation" found nothing wrong with our vehicle. Also tells us nowhere in their system did he see the dealership have our vehicle for 10 days?!?! So we then had to prove that was incorrect with rental car paperwork as well as receipts etc... Apparently after that CORP still found no foul play or issues with vehicle.

On 2/17/18 we take our Outback to a certified 3rd party mechanic. Mechanic found transmission is about to give out, wheel bearing needs replacement, oil low (but they found the leak) and additional problems that were never revealed by the dealership. We have now composed a letter with our findings to Sub of America consumer complaint division in hopes someone will address this rogue dealership and assist us with our issues. If any of you have some useful information that will shed some light or assist us in our battle with this Behemoth it will be gratefully appreciated.

MY MAJOR COMPLAINTS and reasons I am offloading my Subaru are: THE BATTERY my car came with a 325 amp battery out of the factory. I live in NE. It's cold. The car is high electronics. The crank power of that battery was not sufficient. Imagine my amusement when the day before Xmas eve in a snowstorm. I am stuck at work because my car won't start. Upon replacing the battery in my practically brand new car the passenger side window stopped working. Easy fix at dealer but still the inconvenience of getting to the dealer. THE STARTER the remote starter is AWFUL.

The range is very poor and it only works 50% of the time. Dealer refuses to replace. THE ACCELERATION Sometimes, when it's cold the car does not accelerate as it should. It seems to really struggle. THE SOFTWARE UPDATES my car started stalling and chugging. It turned out to need some software fix. Yet another trip to the dealer with a brand new car. THE BLUETOOTH extremely finicky. Sometimes it just drops connection mid call and won't reconnect. No idea why.

The Fl love bugs have eaten through the paint on the front. My wife liked the car so we bought it on the past reputation for Subaru. Big mistake. I am a mechanic but mostly on older hot rods and when I bring up the issues with the service manager at Subaru they claim to know nothing about this being a problem. From reading the other complaints it seems that all the service locations say the same bull. Won't buy another Subaru.

3) The information gauges for gas mileage and distance of travel are practically useless and are off by 50% or more which means you can run out of gas if you rely on these gauges. 4) The advertised gas mileage of 32 MPG is questionable, since all information gauges give you the wrong readings. 5) After parking, the steering wheel gets jammed and locked and requires some wiggling effort to unlock it.

3 other makes I own since 2014 allow owners to update head unit software and make all of the update downloads public. Subaru of America also had updates published and available to public until they removed it few month ago. I sent multiple inquiries to Subaru HQ and received a reply that I MUST go through authorized retailer service in order to receive updates. When I contacted retailer they stated that such updates can only be done for a fee and they can’t provide update media to a customer even when I agreed to pay for it.

This is direct restriction of customer’s rights and it is done only for the purpose of making it impossible for customer to update their software on their own, forcing people to go through retailer services so Subaru can make more money. I love the company and this is 2nd Subaru vehicle I own, but this new business model is just unacceptable. It shows how Subaru as a company cares less about laws and its customers.

Then almost two weeks to a month after that I started getting noise from center console/front of vehicle area. So I took it to the dealership and they said it was bad tires. So I went and bought a new set, well that didn't fix the problem. Took it back in immediately and they continued to look over it and came back that they transmission, transaxle, and wheel bearings were all bad, so after almost two weeks in the shop I got it back and it worked fine for about a month. Then the infotainment system went bad, then blindspot again, then it started stalling out with AC on coming to a stop, which brings me to now. Now the noise at the beginning is coming back and the blind spot is acting up again and this time only near railroad equipment.

I forgot the windshield broke a month after having it, not due to any rocks or anything of that sort. Just randomly popped and cracked all the way across staring from the passenger side. I bought the car with 4 miles on it. Now it has 56k and is always highway driven and never driven hard at all. The fastest the has ever been pushed was 85 mph passing semi trucks. I have started to notice GPS seems to constantly lose connection, but that could be because of the area I live in. There seems to be a lot of GPS problems up here so not that big of a deal.

I have been in contact with Subaru of America throughout the whole ordeal and all they say is take it to the shop. Seriously no **. I thought I might try to fix it my self and void the freaking warranty. Subaru fan base seems to be loyal to the company no matter what even if they absolutely are freakin terrible. They have offered no solutions to the problems but besides take it to the dealership's shop and they will have to recreate the problem. Most times they fail to do so because it's either not driven far enough to recreate it or it's just not looked at that in-depth.

Now I am seeing if Subaru will either compensate for time out of my work and having the car constantly in the shop and them selling a lemon, or just filling for lemon law. I am currently looking for options. I will never buy another Subaru ever again. I am done with being treated like an idiot from S.O.A. and being told to just take it to the shop. It's already in the shop once a month for oil changes which are outrageously expensive and tire rotation.

When people tell you they are reliable don't believe them. Also when you drop almost $37k on vehicle you expect it to work, and on top of that I drive for my job and if I don't have a reliable and safe vehicle for work I won't have work for long. Anyway be very careful buying a Subaru and I advise if you do stay away from eyesight systems. Pretty much the only thing decent about the car is the looks somewhat. The only reason I bought the damn thing is because I trusted what people said about them being reliable and the amount of interior room and interior cargo space it had, but never again.

I have had the vehicle off road once and was quite impressed. While not a "rock crawler" it handled the ups, downs and sand easily. We have very few complaints and they are minor: Air conditioning fan is loud, but we live in the desert so it is operating in the top three speeds most of the time. Visors are on the small side. While front to back legroom is ample, side to side is a little tight. Bottom line, we are satisfied with our purchase, though if I had to do it again I think I would opt for white instead of silver and I might look a little more closely at the Outback.

At 58000 miles both rear wheels had bearings go out, the alternator had to be replaced, the battery had to be replaced and I had just put new set of nice tires on it. Contacting dealer I purchased from I was told all under warranty except for battery. Upon taking to Subaru, told nothing under warranty. When purchased I was told this car would hold its value like a Jeep. I traded it yesterday and I owed 18577 on payoff and multiple dealers valued at 11,000. This was the most costly vehicle I ever owned and the most stressful. You do not want to drive near large pickup trucks or 18 wheelers. I was suckered in like a Hallmark card on a cold winter day.

To my amazement I realized that some of the directions, not all but maybe 20%, given by the nav system were–I cannot say this in a politically acceptable manner–not intuitive, stupid and dysfunctional. Two examples are 1) it tells me to exit a major highway, go through a toll booth, then get back on the same highway, and 2) to make a right hand turn it told me to go around the block in a counterclockwise direction when, in fact, there was nothing preventing me to simply turn right.

I first reported the erroneous navigation performance to the Service Manager at Bath Subaru in Bath, Maine in May 2017. They took a look and reported the Service Tech could not find anything wrong. The Service Manager asked that if happens again I should document exactly what happened. The issue continued so I documented almost each and every occurrence, some including pictures of the nav screen. In June the Service Manager sent an email asking that I bring the Outback in on June 22, 2017, so a Subaru Field Service Engineer could take a look and provide a remedy. Vehicle went in on June 22 and it was reported per Subaru’s Field Service Engineer, “I am ordering you a new radio head unit. There seems to be a hardware failure making your navigation fail intermittently." Great… or at least I thought so at the time.

At the end of July 2017 the new Head Unit was finally installed. The Service Manager said the new head unit will resolve the nav failure and asked that should any further incidents of erroneous performance occur I clearly document them and email them to her. The new head unit did not resolve the defective nav performance and a week later, on August 8, I sent 5 different examples to her. Thereafter, I continued to send her 3-5 different examples for several more weeks. Fact was, the new head unit made the problem worse.

Here are two examples: 1) I needed to travel south on Route 95. This is a major highway, not some obscure road in nowhere Maine. The nav unit directed me to enter into the Rt 95 northbound exit, against exiting traffic, drive over both the northbound and southbound lanes on an imaginary overpass that clearly didn't exist, then travel on an imaginary Rt 95 southbound entrance ramp that also did not exist, and get on Rt 95 south. Quite dangerous! 2) In order to get to my final destination the Subaru nav system instructed me to turn right into a field having no road, travel off-road for 2 miles across this roadless field, and meet up with another road on the other side of the field. The Subaru handles different terrains fairly well, but not that well.

On or about August 15, 2017 the Service Manager at Bath Subaru asked Subaru of America to step in. I received an email from Subaru of America in which a Subaru representative apologized for my navigation "concerns" and asked for some time to review the problem. On September 20 I received a follow-up email stating "At this time, our Quality Assurance team is still in the processing of reviewing the concerns you are experiencing with your navigation unit with the units vendor, Fijutsu-10. There is no updated feedback that has been provided."

It is now October 16th. I took the Outback in for routine service during which time I spoke to the Service Manager about the nav issues. I was told by the Svc Mgr that she has a number of other reports of the same problem, all waiting for Subaru of America and/or Subaru's Quality Assurance team and/or Fujitsu-10 to identify the cause of the dysfunctional navigation system and re-mediate the problem.

Six months in passing and Subaru cannot provide an answer to the AWFUL and sometimes dangerous performance of the Fujitsu-10 navigation system. Although the performance of the 2017 Subaru Outback is very good, I would never purchase another Subaru, not only because the navigation system is defective and/or dysfunctional and/or dangerous from time to time but because Subaru seems unable or unwilling to fix the problem with the navigation system which I paid upwards of $2,000 for. Buyer beware!