I bought the car used from Florida with the stock tires it had on it at the start of 2019. It only had about 35,000 miles on it. I drove it home from Florida to Minnesota to use it, and while driving in Minnesota on days were the roads were icy I noticed driving in a straight line on the freeway at about 35-45 mph, which was the fastest I could drive due to icy conditions that the car would feel like the rear end was slightly fishtailing one way or another, which would cause me the driver to counter steer slightly to correct it. Yet it would do this the entire drive home which lead to diving on icy roads to be very white knuckle driving. I figured it was due to the aging stock tires put on the vehicle in Florida and possibly due to a misalignment on the rear of the car, just speculating.

I got new tires and didn't notice the issue again, yet it isn't always icy here in MN as we use a lot of salt. Yet, there will be days where it is icy before enough salt sets in. Otherwise the car drives straight and great in all other weather. Anyway, the other winter, I happened to be driving home on an icy day again with my newer tires and I noticed it again. Definitely not as bad, but was noticeable.

I was trying now to think about what possibly could be making the car feel this way. All I can think about is the car has electronic power steering. So, my theory is when you are driving steering wheel straight, the power steering is trying to anticipate where you are going to go, left or right and therefore if it feels a slight to the right or the left even while you are trying to keep the steering wheel straight it it will apply steering pressure to that direction vs. straight and cause a feeling to the driver that the car is moving in that direction causing a counter steer input by the driver. This is all I can think it could be unless the rear end is loose and steering back n fourth. Yet that I would think would be only one directional.

Another theory I have is maybe the AWD system is pulsing power to the rear and that is causing it to feel or actually break free in the rear. All I know is it is a strange feeling, almost the best way I can put it is you have very worn tires on the rear of your car and very good tires on the front of your car. I'm only putting this complaint down to help Subaru Engineers look into this more if they have time. If it is one of the two possibilities I theorize above, I believe a software update could eradicate the issue.

The problem occurs when you are driving down slushy wet roads during winter. The front of the car pulls to the right and then the rear of the car follows. Thus making it feel like your fishtailing while driving. Dealer told us to put new, more aggressive tires on the vehicle. We installed mud and snow tires from Cooper.

The problem seemed to go away but came back again this year. They tell us to buy more aggressive tires. I had my own mechanic look into the problem and he said it is not the tires. The depth of the tread is 6/32 and 5/32 respectively from the front to the rear. He rotated the tires from the front to the back before we took it in the third time and it still was happening. I own another 2014 Subaru with the original tires on the vehicle. I have no problems with it. My mother owns a 2013 Forester with the original tires. Again no problems.