Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,215,138 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA — including 138,663 crashes, 56,255 fires, and 8,561 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim — NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,215,138 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports — when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report — that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints — specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened — feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 34,453 complaints for SUBARU
Incident date: May 15, 2022
I was driving down the interstate using the IQ cruise feature. There was no road construction and a car was in front of me. A small pebble hit the bottom part of the windshield, passenger side. This was not a large rock. It was "normal" gravel that often hits the windshield during highway driving. After hearing the "ting" from the small rock, we then heard a cracking sound. Immediately a 12 i... Read more
Incident date: May 29, 2022
Was Backing up and car started excelling and the throttle stuck hitting 2 cars It was out of control I got it in drive and it took off forward running full throttle up over the pavers around a tree and ran up on the side of a BMW which was sitting on the side of The hostess paved driveway coming down the side of the car My car was on 2 wheels . Came off the BMW and slammed into a tree trunk ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 29, 2022
Was Backing up and car started excelling and the throttle stuck hitting 2 cars It was out of control I got it in drive and it took off forward running full throttle up over the pavers around a tree and ran up on the side of a BMW which was sitting on the side of The hostess paved driveway coming down the side of the car My car was on 2 wheels . Came off the BMW and slammed into a tree trunk ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 29, 2022
Was Backing up and car started excelling and the throttle stuck hitting 2 cars It was out of control I got it in drive and it took off forward running full throttle up over the pavers around a tree and ran up on the side of a BMW which was sitting on the side of The hostess paved driveway coming down the side of the car My car was on 2 wheels . Came off the BMW and slammed into a tree trunk ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 26, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that a vertical crack had developed on the passenger’s side of the windshield without incident. The crack expanded vertically and horizontally across the middle of the windshield. The contact stated that the crack obstructed her vision while driving. The contact called the dealer and was given a quote to have the windshield replaced. Th... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
The lane assistance feature almost made me hit a semi truck that had drifted over its lane. I moved to the left to allow for space, the lane assist function tried to turn me back into the semi truck I was driving over the lane to avoid. It failed to recognize a major hazard and in fact created a more dangerous situation for me. I had to jerk the wheel back to the left, fortunately it shut off and ... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2022
My transmission slipped for 6 months and was finally replaced just recently at 47,000 miles.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
2019 SUBARU CROSSTEK. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO VEHICLE BEING FLOODED WITH WATER AFTER SAFETY RECALLS BEING REPAIRED. THE CONSUMER STATED THED VEHICLE WAS FLOODED DUE TO THE AIR CONDITIONER BEING CLOGGED. ALSO, AFTER HAVING THE ENGINE RECALL PERFORMED THE TECHNICIAN FAILED TO RECALIBRATE THE COMPUTER AND/OR VALVES PROPERLY. THIS CAUSED THE VEHICLE TO FAIL ON THE HIGHWAY WHILE DRIVING. DUE TO ... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2021
The contact owned a 2015 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, he was alerted by another driver that the vehicle was smoking and flames were coming from under the vehicle. The contact stated that warning lights flashed off and on. The contact stated that he pulled over, exited the vehicle, and saw flames coming from underneath the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames... Read more
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: May 31, 2022
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while at a traffic light, the vehicle stalled. The instrument panel lights illuminated then went dark. The police came but there was no police report filed. The police had the vehicle towed to a dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 12,500.
Incident date: May 31, 2022
Windshield cracked in first 50 miles.
Incident date: May 27, 2022
I drove to work, parked my car and 10 hours later came out and there was a crack in the windshield. Nothing hit my window on the drive to work. I park my car in a gated lot with cameras. It is a smooth cut from the edge of the window and goes across just past the halfway mark. I immediately drove to the dealership and made them aware. The crack is exactly in my line of sight which makes the... Read more
Incident date: May 2, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Ascent. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle was shaking and lost motive power. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was notified of the failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V955000 (Power Train) for which the VIN was included; however, the part to... Read more
Incident date: Dec 9, 2021
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Ascent. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V955000 (Power Train) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms ... Read more
Incident date: May 30, 2022
Windshield cracked
Incident date: May 30, 2022
Minor rock caused major windshield damage where the crack line continues to creep across the window.
Incident date: May 31, 2022
A large Crack appeared and the bottom middle of the windshield and cracked upwards to the lower middle windshield and cracked both to the left and right side.
Incident date: Sep 8, 2021
Front windshield seems very susceptible to chips and cracks. Since I purchased the vehicle new on 4/16/2020, the following repaired have happened: 3/15/21- chip repaired $19 8/30/21- two chips repaired $19 9/8/21- front window replaced after the formation of a large crack $410.28 5/30/22- crack spread from a chip that occurred yesterday (not repaired yet)
Incident date: May 1, 2022
Windshield spontaneously cracked. No impact or accident.
Incident date: Mar 4, 2022
My 2018 Subaru Forester Limited has a cracked windshield from a minor impact from a pebble. The crack has grown and I had to replace the windshield at my own expense. The crack was on the passenger side but interfered with visibility.
Incident date: May 20, 2022
Windshield has cracked in 2 different spots, one on the driver side and the other on the passenger side. The passenger side is a crack from the edge to the center of the windshield. I didn't see the item, it was so small it may have been a pebble, and barely heard the noise. I don't feel safe to drive it because I am worried the crack will go across the entire windshield making it unsafe to d... Read more
Incident date: Jun 12, 2021
JULY 09 2021 REPORTED TO SUBARU EL PASO AT TIME OF FIRST MAINTENANCE (6000 MILES) VEHICLE LOSSES POWER AND STALLS WHEN MAKING TURNS, IT IS MORE NOTICEABLE MAKING A LEFT TURN. TECHNICIAN SAID COUDN'T DUPLICATE THE PROBLEM AND NO FURTER ACTION WAS NEEDED. HOWEVER A YEAR ;LATER FROM TIME TO TIME VEHICLE DOES STALL WHILE MAKING TURNS MAKING, ODOMETER READS 18081. THE OHER ISSUE IS ITS WINDSHIELD, I... Read more
Incident date: Jun 12, 2021
JULY 09 2021 REPORTED TO SUBARU EL PASO AT TIME OF FIRST MAINTENANCE (6000 MILES) VEHICLE LOSSES POWER AND STALLS WHEN MAKING TURNS, IT IS MORE NOTICEABLE MAKING A LEFT TURN. TECHNICIAN SAID COUDN'T DUPLICATE THE PROBLEM AND NO FURTER ACTION WAS NEEDED. HOWEVER A YEAR ;LATER FROM TIME TO TIME VEHICLE DOES STALL WHILE MAKING TURNS MAKING, ODOMETER READS 18081. THE OHER ISSUE IS ITS WINDSHIELD, I... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
A spontaneous crack appeared in the windshield running from the passenger side to the middle of the car. There are no impact points, nothing hit the car, it is a clean line. The car was parked in my garage overnight, woke up to find a linear crack starting from the edge of the passenger side to the middle of the windshield.
Incident date: May 1, 2022
The front drivers seat was making a creaking noise. The noise is coming from a faulty weld in the seat frame. Research into the the problem shows numerous other complaints about the seat frame creaking for the legacy.
Incident date: May 28, 2022
Premature battery draining. This is the 3rd battery purchased for my 2017 Subaru Outback. The most recent battery was purchased on 05/11/2022. Today (05/28/2022) I went to leave for work and the entire system is dead. Not the first time I had this problem and as mentioned this is the 3rd battery purchased in the past 2 years.
Incident date: May 8, 2022
The cam tower sealant failed, allowing a leak at less than 70,000 miles driven.
Incident date: Apr 10, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the steering wheel would erroneously turn to either the right or left causing the vehicle to pull in either direction. The contact indicated that the failure was intermittent. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified and a service appointment was scheduled. The man... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
AFTER 4 DAYS OF NOT DRIVING ..THE BATTERY IS DRAINED. THIS HAS HAPPENED SEVERAL TIMES. BATTERY TESTED BY MECHANIC AND HAS NO PROBLEM. MUST CARRY JUMPER CABLES OR A BATTERY CHARGER
Incident date: May 5, 2020
At the beginning of 05/2020 while I was driving, for no apparent reason, my front windshield cracked. The crack began from the upper edge of the windshield in the area of rear view mirror. As stated, the crack started with no apparent reason as there was no impact of any object to the windshield at the time the crack first occurred. No police report was made. I made an insurance claim to replace t... Read more
Incident date: Oct 18, 2021
In mid 10/2021 while I was driving, my front windshield cracked with no apparent reason. The crack appeared on the passenger side, at the side edge of the windshield. As stated the crack appeared with no apparent reason as there was no imppact of any object to the windshield. No police report was made. I did not make a claim with my insurance. The winshield was replaced and eyesight syste,m was re... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Since we bought our 2021 Subaru Outback in May 2021, the vehicle hesitates when accelerating mainly after filling up with gas but also at other times. We have taken the vehicle in 4 times for service, but Subaru cannot duplicate the problem. Another issue we are having is that every time it rains, there is a puddle of water that forms on the passenger side floor board. We have taken the vehicle ... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Since we bought our 2021 Subaru Outback in May 2021, the vehicle hesitates when accelerating mainly after filling up with gas but also at other times. We have taken the vehicle in 4 times for service, but Subaru cannot duplicate the problem. Another issue we are having is that every time it rains, there is a puddle of water that forms on the passenger side floor board. We have taken the vehicle ... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2022
Bought this new car this April. After using it in local for only one month with 1000 miles, windshield developed a 20 ~ 30 inch crack from the passenger side. Went to the dealer to argue. I told them no rock strike and the root reason is faulty glass. The dealer didn't provide any help and gave me a wrong phone number. In over 20 years of driving different cars, we haven't had windshield issue.
Incident date: May 27, 2022
The windshield was hit by a rock chip, and a tiny divot formed. Within minutes, it had spider-webbed out with cracks stretching 12-18" in multiple directions. I've never seen such a tiny divot propagate so rapidly - I've had the car < 14 days. From the sound of the impact, I would have expected the windshield to shrug off the hit with no damage. The ongoing propagation makes me seriously consider... Read more
SUBARU
XV CROSSTREK
(2013) — POWER TRAIN
May 27, 2022
Incident date: May 15, 2022
Transmission failure while driving on highway caused it to suddenly stalled. On restarting engine, car kept jerking and stopping, became undrivable. Only 46,700 miles on the clock. No warning lights, no warning of any kind. Subaru issued 10 year extended warranty covering transmission on this car but should have recalled and replaced since failure is catastrophic and dangerous. I took my car to Su... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2022
My 2019 Subaru Forester Sport only had 41,000 and the thermal control valve on it failed. The engine is running really cold and sometimes without warning certain safety feature shutoff as a result. There were no warning signals before it failed but when it went out the check engine light came on as well as about 5 other warnings. I had it diagnosed at Young Subaru in Ogden, UT. After doing some re... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2022
My 2019 Subaru Forester Sport only had 41,000 and the thermal control valve on it failed. The engine is running really cold and sometimes without warning certain safety feature shutoff as a result. There were no warning signals before it failed but when it went out the check engine light came on as well as about 5 other warnings. I had it diagnosed at Young Subaru in Ogden, UT. After doing some re... Read more
Incident date: May 26, 2022
2 small cracks on windshield, unknown cause, possible small pebble. Now extended to a large crack on my winshield effecting eyesite. Through research appears this year and model has been shown to have a defective windshield and previous lawsuits filed. Would like to know if this lawsuit can be used in my case or if I can file. Cost to replace is ~ $3,000 out of pocket. This is ridiculous.
Incident date: Dec 9, 2021
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Ascent. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V955000 (Power Train) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer had not been made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confir... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2022
April 25, 2022: The trunk/liftgate of the vehicle failed to detect an obstruction and closed without retracting when it came in contact with an individual's head. The impact caused a head injury, blackout, and concussion, and resulted in permanent damage to an individual (6' 2" - 190lbs). Subaru’s stated that an inspection of the vehicle was performed on May 19th and informed me that “the ve... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
The Transmission on the vehicle was exhibiting excessive noise when shifting from park to drive and was progressively becoming undrivable with odd shifting, hard shifting, RPM fluttering, and chugging. It made progressively louder audible sounds and squeaks during cold starts when shifting from park to drive. It was brought in for service and the original transmission was replaced due to metal sh... Read more
Incident date: May 26, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that she noticed that there was a crack on the passenger's side windshield after a small rock struck the windshield. The contact stated that the windshield shouldn't have cracked from such a small rock impacting the windshield. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure milea... Read more
Incident date: May 26, 2022
The car failed to start after the battery drained when the car was turned off even though no lights, etc. we’re left on. No warning lamps/messages were provided prior.
Incident date: May 5, 2022
Car will kill a new battery in less then 7 days.
Incident date: Mar 24, 2022
Windshield cracked for no reason. Has continued to worsen. Has to be repaired for and paid for by customer. This seems to be a known Subaru problem.
Incident date: May 25, 2022
A crack appeared in my windshield on the passenger side starting from the bottom side slanting towards the middle of the passenger's vision. I do not recall anything hitting my windshield. In researching a replacement cost I read a lot of complaints from Subaru customers who had to replace their windshields, some several times, because of thinner glass used by Subaru. Several reports included t... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2022
A crack appeared in my windshield on the passenger side starting from the bottom side slanting towards the middle of the passenger's vision. I do not recall anything hitting my windshield. In researching a replacement cost I read a lot of complaints from Subaru customers who had to replace their windshields, some several times, because of thinner glass used by Subaru. Several reports included t... Read more
Incident date: May 7, 2022
Front windshield spontaneously cracked in my 2019 Subaru Forester. Car was parked in a parking lot when there was a popping sound and then a crack appeared starting from the bottom corner of the passenger side. NO impact marks on the exterior or interior. The crack has since spread to the center of the windshield. Based on Internet searches, there is a known issue with windshield cracking in S... Read more
Incident date: May 23, 2022
First, we received the recall letter after the allowed deadline. We were told that the recall would be fixed by May from Subaru. The recall says it can cause an increase risk of a crash. We bought this car primarily due to their high safety rating as a way to transport our new born child. She is now two. We have minimized and avoided taking long trips on the car. But with summer coming up and ... Read more