This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Windshield On 3/5/24 I drove to work, ...the windshield was intacted as of 8AM.. after my shift at 4PM mysteriously there was a line (crack in the window on the drivers side) around 6 inches....haven't been to my car since Wednesday 3/6/24... today 3/11/24 that crack has expanded to 12-14 inches across the drivers side The car is parked in my driveway
We recently purchased a used 2020 Subaru Legacy sedan with ~33,000 miles on it. It has a salvage title due to previous owner hitting a deer, (no air bag deployed, just minor body work) and it was professionally repaired to "like-new" condition. Last weekend, when starting the car, the check engine light and a bunch of other warning lights came on. An OBDI scan showed a code of "P263A" indicating a problem with the Thermo Control Valve. As a result of the defective TCV, several major functions of the vehicle were automatically disabled: adaptive cruise control, eyesight system with lane keeping, automatic braking, as well as all cabin heating, windshield defrost function, and the engine temperature gauge. Without these systems properly working, the drivability of the vehicle is greatly impaired, especially in a Minnesota winter without a functional windshield defrost and engine temperature monitoring gauge. When taking the car into the local Subaru dealership for full diagnostics, they confirmed that indeed the TCV was bad, and quoted me a cost of $1135 to replace it. They claimed that since the car has a salvage title, Subaru's warranty will not cover any part of this repair. However, there is a known wide-spread failure of this Thermo Control Valve in the 2019-2021 cars as listed in Subaru Technical Bulletin [XXX] which clearly states that there is a redesigned TCV that replaces the defective earlier part and fixes the earlier design flaws of the one installed in 2019-2021 vehicles. I spoke with the Subaru of America Client Advocacy representative, and he was adamant that the salvage title negates any responsibility for Subaru to fix this know defectively designed Thermo Control Valve. My thinking is that the defective TCV is both a drivability and a safety issue, and due to the wide-spread early life failure of this part, Subaru should be compelled by a recall to replace the defective car in all customer cars. All ADAS is affected by a bad TCV. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORM
Windshield cracked starting in the lower middle of the windshield. Crack started from underneath the rubber edge and grew straight up, then out to either side within a matter of days.
- Hoffman Estates, IL, USA
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My windshield was cracked about 6-€ for no apparent reason when I examined the car on the morning of 9/4/2021. The crack expanded to over 18-€ by the time I was able to have the windshield replaced a week later.
Cracked Right passenger side WINDSHIELD. Crack begins at windshield right passenger side bottom and is moving upward and towards drivers side of windshield. Crack is presently about 8" on length and spreading. Vehicle is not driven often. Vehicle has NOT hit any potholes, bumps, curbs. NO pebbles, stones, objects have hit windshield via roadway, other travelling vehicles whatsoever. No ice storms, hail. Crack is causing a dangerous visibility and a heavy cost to repair.
My front windshield has cracked 2 times within the last year. The first time my wife was driving and thought she heard something hit the windshield but wasn-€™t sure. It created a crack across the whole windshield and Subaru replaced it free of charge. Last week I-€™m driving 01/20/2022 and I do see a very small object hit the windshield and creates a crack again. I spoke with the service advisor and does mention their windshields are made a little thinner and could see that being an issue. I haven-€™t spoke with the Manager yet but I am going to give him a call and see if I could get it replaced again. I have been driving for 23 years and have not had a windshield crack on me once. Also after the second crack I did some research and realized they have been having issues with the windshields since 2015 on various models.
We were gone for 10 days. Our Legacy was left under carport (North end of garage/shop). Upon our return, we found the battery was drained. We have only 7362 miles on it. I bought it new in June 2020. We tried to charge the battery, but the charger stopped charging and the red "trouble" light came on. We had to have the car towed to the dealer in another city. They mentioned that we need to drive car often and not leave it sit or this will happen. Luckily, there was no "trouble" only a drained battery, but it was an inconvenience. We bought the car based on Subaru's reputation for durability. We are 78 & 83 years of age respectively and my husband and I have medical issues. We need a car we can rely on at all times in case of an emergency. If this is a known problem, why was I not informed of this upon purchase? Why was there no mention in the owner's manual or new owners handout. Since the incident, I see many complaints on Web.
I parked my car in the garage on the afternoon of September 27, 2021. The next morning when I got in the car I noticed a big crack in the windshield. No dings or chips, just a large crack. I will bring the car to dealership tomorrow on their request. But they are saying my model year is not covered.
There is an ongoing problem with the center display in this vehicle. While normally just an inconvenience, it will randomly stop working / lock up / restart while driving. When this becomes a problem is when using the built in navigation or Apple Car Play for navigation. Multiple times now, it has locked up and reset while using Google Maps via Apple Car Play. Additionally, on the one trip where I attempted to use the built in navigation while on a trip, it simply stopped navigating without warning. The issue is that when you don't know where you are going, it becomes hazardous to interface with the system to restart navigation. The dealer admits there is a known issue with the system, yet there is not yet a repair being offered. At this point, my system is in some dealer diagnostic mode. I've been instructed to hit the defrost button four times when it does something abnormal so the system can be reviewed.
My windshield cracked without incident on 6/12/2021 and as it sat throughout the weekend the crack continued. I was able to have the windshield repaired through the dealer as a 'courtesy'. But given what I found online about this issue with Subaru vehicles I felt compelled to log this complaint.
Cracked windshield with no known impact. Parked car at work around 10:50am came out for lunch at around 2:00pm. Windshield is cracked with no noticeable impact location. Crack starts at edge/top of windshield straight line down then branches off bilaterally.
Radio and control unit randomly restarts and freezes, affecting the radio from working, the vehicle control and driving assistance options, and the two usb ports which are the only power sources in the vehicle from working correctly. I have no audio and cannot reset the radio and cannot change vehicle control functions. When I select certain buttons it does nothing.
A horizontal crack developed after having this vehicle for less than six months. Just noticed it when getting into the car one morning. The crack was completely horizontal and parallel to the windshield frame (see photo). It has since developed a vertical crooked line. I could not see any impact chips but the dealer blamed it on that.
The built in display/infotainment by default will display weather warnings for an area around the current location of the vehicle. When these are displayed, the rest of the display is not usable until an "ok" button is touched on the display. When this first happened on our vehicle, multiple tropical storm warnings were active around the area, and each time "ok" was touched, a new message popped up - a total of at least 10 messages popped up. The need to interact with the screen to dismiss the message creates a significant distraction when driving, and may need to be done to be able to access some of the controls which are only available on the touch screen, or when the navigation system is being used. While this warning function can be turned off, it is on by default and not clearly described in the manuals.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Middletown, NY, USA