Was driving vehicle in heavy snow, suddenly lost power, the dash light flashed, the instrument cluster needles moved as if the car was starting up. Could not restart engine, would not crank. All other electrical equipment worked. Sat in heavy snow for two hours (no tow trucks available until next day). Suddenly after attempting to restart after many failed attempts, it did. Drove it home fine. Stalled next day on way to repair shop. Had car towed and shop found one code, but nothing else wrong. Drove home fine, ran can for 45 mins, fine. Next day drove for 35 min to work, fine but left work and immediately stalled just like few days before. Towed to Subaru dealer and took a day to figure out was main engine compartment wiring harness. Replaced with minimal charge of $50, even thought three months out of warranty. Vehicle has been fine since then.

- Chicago , IL, USA

Dash airbag light comes on intermittently, and this disables the airbag. Dealer states this is a known problem, but can only fix by trial and error replacing (expensive) components. It happens most on cold wet weather days, often goes off when car warmed up, so probably electrical. Has continued for years now, still happening at 105,000 miles. Many many examples on internet boards of people with this same problem. Should be a safety recall!

- Jaffrey, NH, USA

Recently replaced headlights did not illuminate on a return trip home. They turned off without warning while driving. According to the dealer, the wiring harness failed.

- Park City, UT, USA

HVAC / radio (cd 6 disc changer model) fast flashing, all functions stay enabled but can not be controlled from the panel. Can not turn on defrost unit or adjust temperature or radio controls while flashing occurs. This happens intermittently for a year and has gotten significantly worse where controls are unavailable for 20 minutes or more at a time. Dangerous situation in winter when you can not use the defrost buttons to deice windows or control window fogging.

- Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Passenger side airbag on/off light malfunctioning. Sometimes ceiling console passenger indicator light comes on to indicate bag is off (supposed to happen when less than 25 lbs in passenger seat) and sometimes it doesn't. sometimes dashboard red airbag warning light comes on to indicate malfunction with bag and sometimes it doesn't. sometimes the passenger airbag on/off light shows dimly as if it's trying to illuminate. Seems like a wiring problem based on intermittent illumination but dealer said needed new $300 plus indicator switch but they were sure airbag working properly. Have already had serious problem with quality of work done by this dealer so unsure of whether they really know what's happening. Why no recall from Subaru? I see several other complaints here about the exact same problem.

- Kernersville, NC, USA

Air bag light in dashboard comes on and airbag light in overhead console does not display proper info. 55000+ hits in internet point to bad solder joints in overhead circuit board. Once loose resistors are re-soldered problem goes away. Dealers are charging up to $500 to replace overhead console. This problem of bad solder joints goes over several model years. Why has there not been a safety related recall over airbag issues which expire when warranty expires? there should be no expiration date on safety!

- Milford, MA, USA

Vehicle started showing signs of electrical problems 2 months ago when the rear view mirror homelink would only have power intermittently. Problem progressed to the reverse lights and now affects the headlights. The headlights went out at night as I was leaving a parking lot, a definite hazard. Have researched the problem on Subaru online forums and discovered that the problem is that individual wires in the wiring harness have a tendency to crack and break at the joint between the body and the liftgate. This vehicle has 2 completely broken wires and most others with breaks in the insulation. Other owners describe similar problems.

- Moorhead, MN, USA

The radio and heater, A/C and defroster controls are all one piece in my car. The display screens on both go blank without warning. When this happens nothing works, most importantly the defroster when you bad weather while driving. The output temperature and fan speed cannot be changed and the defroster cannot be turned on or off. The factory radio-A/C control unit went bad and was useless. Subaru was unable to provide service parts since it is no longer available new, only as a rebuilt unit, and Subaru has no cores to rebuild nor do they know when they will get one. I bought a used radio-A/C unit from a junkyard and installed it about a year ago. Now this unit is starting to go bad. I have contacted panasonic to find an authorized repair facility and they cannot identify my radio even with the numbers on the tag that says made by panasonic, so they cannot tell me where I can get it repaired. Subaru has been just as useless. I can live without a radio, but when my windshield fogs up at 60 mph and I cannot turn the defroster on or it's 20 degrees out and I cannot turn the heat on, this becomes a safety issue. I checked a Subaru owners website and found numerous people with 2005-2008 models saying they had the same problem. I have owned the car since new and besides changing the oil myself, all other repairs on the car have been done by a Subaru dealer. The dealer even installed the junkyard radio. The last contact I had with the Subaru factory, they are blaming the problem on me using an aftermarket radio. My local Subaru dealer confirmed thru serial numbers that the radio from the junkyard is the exact same radio-A/C unit that came in my car when new. Since Subaru no longer uses panasonic radios, they are no longer providing any product support on panasonic products. Subaru is required by law to provide service parts for at least 7 years and they are not doing it.

- Laurel, DE, USA

Wires in the rear hatch break repeatedly. Wiring harness comes from the roof and into the rear hatch; most of the wires worn and mechanic has spliced more than half including the antenna wire.

- Mechanicsville, VA, USA

Since the car was nearly new the airbag warning light comes on intermittently and now stays on continuously, rendering the airbag system inoperative. The vehicle was brought to the dealer the first time it happened but the dealer said no fault code was found. In December 2012 the warning light came on continuously. I brought it to the Subaru dealer to diagnose and service the problem. The service manager stated that the problem is with the light in the maplight module, and if something in the module goes bad the airbag warning light will come on and prevent the airbag from deploying. Consequently I have to replace the entire maplight console at a cost of $510 ($110 to read the code plus $400 for the light module) to fix a dangerous safety defect and design flaw that should be the responsibility of Subaru.

- Derwood, MD, USA

One wire leading to the rear cargo hatch (right side) broke and 3 others had cracked insulation due to a lack of resilience after flexing. These wires are flexed every time the hatch is opened and closed. All electrical parts on the hatch travel though this wiring harness (wipers, lock, etc.). had the failure of the lock not been noticed, further wear could have caused a short and a fire. The vehicle is only 4 and a half years old. Many other people have had similar problems going back to at least the 2005 model.

- South Dartmouth, MA, USA