Subaru Outback Reviews

I called again and left a message, no call back. Called again, was told parts were backordered but scheduled for August 1 delivery. That’s six weeks from the order date. I thought this unacceptable and contacted Subaru customer care. They assigned a case number and said they would call back within two days. They did not. We called several times to the customer advocate assigned to our case, no call back. We finally reached a supervisor, and she said they lost our information. We provided again and she called back saying the parts were not available from their vendor and would not be available till September. I cannot believe Subaru has had to quit building cars, and I don’t think they would ship them incomplete. So why can’t they provide parts to repair the cars they build.

I contacted Sierra Subaru of Monrovia on the Monday following the destruction of my car as I had seen on a reddit post that some people who previously had a similar accident with their car had called their Subaru dealer and they had offered to give them a rental car at no charge. When I contacted Sierra Subaru of Monrovia, I was initially hung up on and then called back. Hopefully it was an accident, but annoying nonetheless. I was then transferred to an "Assistant Manager" and he told me that their company doesn't give out free loaners, but will talk to the general manager and call me back. It has now been over 7 months since the conversation, and I have not received a call back regarding a rental.

After I submitted my claim with Subaru of America, my contact (Dayna) and her team dragged their feet getting to my vehicle (which was being held by Geico) in order to conduct an "investigation", but by the time they finally got around to my car, Geico had already sold and/or shipped my car to another place/places for parts that could be used. It should not have been on Geico to hold onto the totaled car months on end until Dayna and her team could finally make time to "investigate" what happened. So because corporate dropped the ball, no one will ever know what caused the incident.

In December of 2025, I went to the Sierra Subaru of Monrovia to get a prorated refund on the extended warranty of my former car. I went straight to the finance office and agreed to a refund of about $850. The finance officer I spoke with told me I now just have to wait 6-8 weeks for the check to come in mail, but I didn't have to do anything else. By May of 2026 (6 months later) I still had not received my refund. I had to call again, only to find out that the finance officer I initially spoke with never filed the paperwork. Thankfully, I still had my paperwork that gave the date and agreed refunded amount of money.

At every point in this process, Subaru of America and Sierra Subaru of Monrovia has been incredibly UNHELPFUL and have dragged their feet to do anything to help me out. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say maybe the fire was from faulty equipment and an isolated incident, but that is not the reason I would never buy a Subaru again. I would never buy a Subaru again because the service I have been provided at all levels has been far less than poor. Any conversation with management at Sierra Subaru of Monrovia has been to blame "corporate polices" and that they can't do anything. I have been given the "run around" at every point of this process and the attitude at all levels has not been apologetic at all, but have displayed an attitude of "it's not our problem".

Please think twice before buying a Subaru. Subaru wants to market themselves with mottos like "Love. It's what makes Subaru, a Subaru", but I have only felt the complete opposite of love.

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.

So after four oil changes later, in 2024 at a 109,000 miles, the engine failed. After I did a lot of research Subaru lost a class action lawsuit on this issue, but they only extended the engine warranty to 100,000 miles knowing the engine would give out right afterwards. So l again called Subaru, and confronted them with all this, their answers was sorry for your problems, and that the miles was past the warranty. They recommended l should get another vehicle. Well my wife and l are very honest people. We were not going to trade in a vehicle with a bad engine on a new one. So we explained that's not a option. So Subaru offered $750.00 towards the $6,000 to put another engine in. So now we have a new engine in or Outback.

The service center also gave us a heads up, that some of the transmission are bad as well. So don't be surprised at 150,000 miles We'll have to replace our transmission. Cost $7,000. Right now the Crosstrek has 87,000 miles on it. So far so good for now. But yes some time soon it will have the same engine failure. And this time there will be no help at all from Subaru. It's sad when Subaru, say their vehicles are the most safe and reliable vehicles made. When they don't stand behind them. It's all about the money, not the vehicle, or the customer. So customers beware. Do your homework on the vehicle you want to buy. If we would of did more research into Subaru's problems with their vehicles, We would of not have bought either one of them. It's our lesson learned.

The representative repeatedly stated that if I used the dealership for servicing rather than a more cost effective mechanic I would have been notified. I realize I have no recourse at this point, but the fact is the company sold a faulty product and has made no effort to make it right with a customer. Maybe they made it right with the class action trial lawyers on order from a judge, but not with me, a Subaru owner and paying customer. Honestly otherwise the car has been pretty good, the radio is just kind of a big deal. They want $2200 to replace it now and the attitude in the company response really got to me. Think I will go another direction with my next vehicle.

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.

Tom

I really used to love SUBARU's but there manufacturing woes and terrible customer service have swayed me to think they are a deadbeat company with no regard for its customers. I spent close to $17K on a used LEMON and could barely sell it for $10K. Yay! Super duper! Can you sense the sarcasm?! Subaru sucks. Take your time and money elsewhere. FIN.

This is my 3rd outback and I am beyond horrified of this car! We have had nothing but problems from it since we have had it and I am ready to get rid of this one! Do not buy this year! There was a recall on an earlier year outback automatic transmissions as they were doing the same thing, rolling when in park. This car could have killed him and he is fortunate he was able to get away from the car and the frame. Of course Subaru did their testing on the vehicle and it's a miracle! Nothing is wrong! I am calling an attorney and seeking further action. After researching I have found this is not the first time the transmission has done something to this extent.