Subaru Outback Reviews

Every time I take it in they say they can't fix the hatch because when I'm there it actually opens. I'm very frustrated by this! Brand new vehicle and I can't use my hatch.... Seriously??? Maybe they ought to try to actually fix it instead of telling me they don't know what to do. I do love my car! But I bought the Outback because of the hatch! There's no key entry so all I can do is load the back seat and not take more than one passenger with me to the store. Kinda ridiculous I think! It drives excellent though! Just don't expect to use your hatch or them to actually fix it.

1. I take boys to wait for the bus in the morning at the end of our 800-ft driveway in rural IA. IMMEDIATELY after putting the car in drive if someone, usually our 8 year olds in the back seat, doesn't have their seatbelt fastened, the obnoxious alarm goes off and won't shut off even after arriving at the end of the drive and putting the car in park! What danger is there of not having a seatbelt fastened after the car is in park and the boy are outside waiting for the bus?! The only way for it to shut off is to 1) put on belt or 2) shut car off. I usually opt for option #2.

2. The eyesight "safety feature" is SUPER ANNOYING and probably causes more accidents than it prevents. Rationale: a) it beeps at you (thinking you are not looking at the road) even when you actually are. Ex: tilting head and rubbing neck with own hand with eyes on road entire time. This triggers an annoying beep. b) I want this off, permanently. This is not an option I can choose. Instead, what usually happens is that after I'm driving down the road and see a deer in the field and get beeped at, I then remember to shut the option off. This requires taking your eyes off the road and navigating through a couple menus with your finger and trying to hit the right button. Why can't the OWNER of the car choose to permanently disable this "safety feature" and not have to do it every time I start the car? c) Same thing for the automatic shut off (like when stopping for a stop light). I want this off, permanently.

Instead, as the OWNER of the car, I have manually turn this off every time I start the car. At least when I forget and the car shuts off at a stop light, I'm not traveling down the road when I have to take my eyes off the road to hit the button to shut that "environmental feature" off. d) Despite having to endure these chimes and dings day in and day out, all the “safety features” did NOTHING when it actually mattered. A deer ran in front of the car this summer, from the driver's side across the road to the passenger's side, and impacted the passenger's side front. No alarms. No brakes. What a joke.

3. Instead, when trying to enter the garage and the door is rising while I’m coasting towards it, I’ve had the car SLAM on the brakes to bring the car to an immediate stop (though I would not have hit the door). Dumb.

4. Same thing for the cruise control. It has a sensor that automatically, aggressively slows the car down if you get too close to a car in front of you. Here’s why this creates more danger than it prevents. If you are cruising down the road at 65mph and a car pulls out in front of you a little early and is vigorously accelerating, the car still slams on the brakes. Someone behind you could easily hit you if they are following too closely because there is no reason for such aggressive braking. Same thing if someone merges into your lane on the interstate at close quarters while you have cruise on…because the car will aggressively slam on the brakes when it’s not needed, this has probably actually caused accidents with closely-following cars.

5. The car does not drive well. 2 things here. Despite being lower than a minivan or SUV, (which was one of the reasons I bought it - thinking it would run straight and true on my 100-mile-per-day commute) the wind blows this thing all over the road. Also, the gearing in the transmission sucks. When entering a 65mph road, it usually accelerates at a reasonable rate until it hits 3000-3500 rpm. Then (unless you have your foot down) it falls off to 2000 or less rpm and feels like you are standing still. It takes forever to accelerate up to the speed limit (unless again you forcibly make it downshift by depressing the accelerator more). Weird Subaru can’t make the car smoothly accelerate at a constant rate without changing how much gas you are giving it in order to arrive at the speed limit. To remedy, I put it in the manual shift mode but this is a pain in the ass when using cruise, for example.

6. There is not a good place to put the fob. Probably the place Subaru wants you to put it (the deep, narrow well right in front of the center display) is too deep and too narrow to comfortably grab the fob from the bottom if you make the mistake of putting it in there (and I’m only 5’9”). Especially if you have something plugged into one of the charging jacks at the top.

After replacement of the right front axle, the right front axle seal, which is the axle replaced started to leak and I was charged to replace the axle seal due to a mechanic's incompetence. I received a card from Subaru stating a windshield issue. Received another card regarding a fuel pump issue. A letter received this past week from an apparent CVT or continuously variable transmission issue. Now my radio stations jump around arbitrarily changing stations, tracks on my CD, and my hatch doesn’t open, but gets stuck shortly upon opening.

This car is a lemon, a piece of junk and very unsafe. How many more problems are unknown to us and when will any of them occur while we are driving putting our lives in danger. Now looking at my wife’s 2020 Subaru Forester, another lemon, piece of junk and unsafe vehicle. 2 batteries in under 40,000 miles, again via a class action lawsuit. A defective part I believe on recall which occurred while we were on the road dealing with the radiator. Also received the letter this past week regarding the CVT or the continuously variable transmission issue. An (A) I hav3 nicknamed assanine that needs to be put on to stop the vehicle from turning off when you come to a stop. Talk about dangerous. The console built in and located at the windshield is slippery and if you put anything up there, just slides off creating a very dangerous hazard. I am not entirely sure, but her car may also be part of the windshield and fuel pump issues.

There are so many problems with our cars, we can’t keep track of all the issues. Our first and last ever Subarus we will own. Never have we owned such total lemons and junk. Subaru in my opinion should be forced to replace our cars with comparable cars of our choice meaning a Toyota or Honda, pay for the cars, including the extended warranty’s we always purchase in return for taking back these two lemons/pieces of junk.

I would love the opportunity to appear on the news media to let people know and expose how poorly Subaru has treated us with pretty much giving us the middle finger. Our cars in my opinion are very unsafe and when you pay the kind of money we did for these two cars, if they are unsatisfactory, then they (Subaru) should have to replace them with cars we feel safe in!!

The customer advocacy has been reviewing this case for the past month and has only offered to reimburse us for the cost of replacing the relay switch. And leave us to deal with design issues that require us to install a bigger battery than the car came with. We always wanted to get a Subaru and were very excited when we got one. But after this experience with the car and the support we are getting, we're never getting another one and will advise all our friends and family against getting a Subaru.