Subaru Outback

When I spoke with the dealership to get a 7 pin connector installed which I would have assumed would have been installed with the 3500 lb hitch, I was told Subaru doesn’t provide this connector and I need to go to a 3rd party to have it installed but this installation would void the warranty. Now I’ve owned this vehicle for one week and already cannot use it as it was intended. I can either install a seven pin connector and use my trailer and potentially void the warranty or I need to find another vehicle to tow my trailer. I would not recommend this vehicle or this manufacturer to anyone. Since manufacturer is fraudulent with this minor issue I fear what other issues I will encounter in the future. Save your money and go with a logical manufacturer that will stand by their vehicles and would prefer to keep their new customers happy.

Car regularly steers across divider lines and sometimes pulls toward the wall to the left of the fast lane on one of our local highways or off to the road to the right if we’re in the slow lane; it does recognize there’s a line but doesn’t steer accordingly; warning lights flash and beeps go off but I never take my hands off the wheel but on a few occasions felt like I was wrestling with the steering system.

On a few occasions when in cruise control the car accelerates wildly.

Driving through a parking lot once the car just wouldn’t go; it was in gear but just wouldn’t move forward until I put it in park, turned off and restarted the engine and put it back into drive. Similar thing happened with my coworker’s friends but they were in the fast lane and result was a major accident.

Emergency brake activates randomly as when backing into or out of a parking spot; you have to experience this to appreciate it. So far mostly just an annoyance but is actually kind of alarming when it happens.

Cruise control feature does a pretty good job of locking on and keeping distance from the vehicle in front of you but doesn’t recognize cars that are stopped on the road e.g. at a stop light.

On highway travel the lane keep pulls the car dangerously close to big trucks in the lane to your right. The lane keep feature often swerves one way or the other and doesn’t center the car in the lane. Oddly, on a vacation when we rented an older and lower trim Forrester and the cruise control and lane keep features worked perfectly

Other computer glitches:

Main screen goes blank except for a spinning circle in the middle of it. I drove 20 minutes to the Subaru dealership and they took it into the shop and did a huddle while I stood outside. When the huddle dispersed the service guy backed it out and let me know they couldn’t do anything about it because there were no “error codes”. I pointed out that the screen was still doing it while he was telling me this so why would you need an error code? But that is how it was left and I drove home with the screen black and the little circle spinning.

The stereo system randomly turns on while driving; the most common thing is all sound blasts in low quality audio suddenly from one speaker always front driver side, also happens randomly. This is their high end stereo system. Using the screen system to reset or move the sound to different speakers has no effect. The only remedy is to stop the car and turn off the engine and restart, but that doesn’t always work.

When closing the driver side window it closes to about 2/3 closed then goes back down to about 1/3 closed. It either does this once each time you touch the button and occasionally just goes up and down repeatedly until it stops. As with other problems the most reliable solution seems to be to stop and restart the engine which must do a reboot of the system.

Temperature resets itself randomly, and sometimes seat heaters (which I never use) are fully on for no reason.

There are two alarms to alert you when you’re dozing or have taken your hands from the wheel which go off randomly and on one occasion did so for 35 minutes nonstop

When time allows I’ll return to the dealership which will be the third visit for this car, but if past experience means anything I’m not optimistic.

I called Subaru customer service on 6/24/22. A rep called me back on 6/28/22 and told me to get an estimate to repair the short block and that Subaru would pay for part of the repair. I asked the rep if I could speak to a manager since I felt Subaru should cover the entire cost. She said a manager would call me back in 24-48 hours. I called my dealer and they said it would cost a minimum of $8,000. The manager did not call me back. I called again again on 7/11/22 and was told someone would call me back. The same rep called me back on 7/12/22 and told me Subaru would not pay for the repair because the car was out of warranty. I let her know that even though the car officially failed the oil consumption test at 111,000 miles, the first problems occurred at 75,000 miles. She said she would have a manager call me back in 24-48 hours. She stated that she didn't know that I wanted to speak to a manager. (The person that answered the phone the previous day showed this was in my file, however.)

Today, 7/20/22, I called again. I was told that my case was closed. I asked to speak to a manager and he called me back within the hour. He told me the best Subaru would do is $2,000 paid to the dealer to help cover the cost of repair. I asked if I could get the repair done at another garage since other estimates I received were around $5,500. He reminded me that it was out of warranty. I reminded him of the class action lawsuit and the extension of the warranty on 4 cylinders to 100,000 miles. He said my vehicle was not covered and some vehicles don't last as long. (Sad indeed to hear Subaru tell you this. I'd like to see them advertise this.)

Bottom line, I wish I never owned a Subaru. With the $2,000 they are offering me toward the repair at a Subaru dealer, I'll still have to pay more than if I took it to another mechanic - whom I trust more by-the-way. I am a woman and have been anxious driving my car for the past ~3 years not to mention the long hours waiting at Subaru and the frustration and anxiety of having to drive to the dealer at just the right mileage for the oil consumption test each time. I keep oil in the car and continue to check. I can't drive 1,000 miles without losing a quart of oil.

I don't wish this on anyone. If you are thinking to buy a Subaru please check online for oil consumption to see for yourself the extent of the problem. Subaru will tell you this is normal. It is not normal. They will also tell you that it is only happening with certain makes and models. What's worse is that my dealer knew about oil consumption but kept insisting my vehicle was not experiencing it. (Also, the manager told me that the rep that was supposed to call me back each time sent me an email. I checked my inbox, junk, deleted and archives. I did not receive an email from them. I share this because I am certain this is pretty standard treatment so others should know what to expect. I was actually told by an ex Subaru rep that the above events would occur.)

A brand new car owner should not have such experiences. Based on my investigation, Subaru does have a known Battery problem & there is a pending class action lawsuit pending on it. FYI. So, if you owned a Subaru, pray that there are no issues with it, if you have one, they'll make you run around the dealer & customer advocacy dept without resolving the problem. No more Subarus for me....

When you look up issues with the car, thousand and thousands of complaints about the same issues but Subaru acts like it a one I a million thing. They tell me it never happens and I just got the one in a million car with issues. Subaru can supposedly donate over 140 million but can’t take responsibility for their cheap parts in their cars. I wish we could start a class action and have them refund everyone with faulty vehicles. I will never buy from Subaru ever again. Bad company that sold out and now has a bad product. How can you be safe in a car when the windshield will crack if you fart in its direction?

ORIGINAL REVIEW: I bought a brand new 2020 Outback in 2020. I put less than 20k miles on it and my windshield has broke twice, my dash turns on and off at will and it can’t connect or drops my phone connection even if plugged in. I have complained and took it in multiple times but they pretend I am crazy and my car is the best type of vehicle on the road. I have been reading more and more content on how poorly these cars are made and how the company treats the people buying them. Why do we need a lawsuit to get what we paid for? I just want a working car with a safe windshield.