Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,245,377 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA, including 140,173 crashes, 56,794 fires, and 8,580 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 2,245,377 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 35,035 complaints for SUBARU
Incident date: Jul 30, 2022
245/50/R20 i WAS DRIVING ON iNTERSTATE 35 GOING SOUTH BY ESKO, MN. WHEN THE PASSENGER REAR TIRE EXPLODED. THE WHOLE SIDEWALL CAME LOOSE AND THE TREAD WAS COMPLETELY LOOSE AND FLAPING AGAINS THE UNDERCARRIAGE.
Incident date: Jul 30, 2022
The vehicle will accelerate all on its own I was pulling into a parking spot and the vehicle just accelerated thank god there was not another car in from of me or I would have hit them. Then later that same day with the cruise on the vehicle just started speeding up. I had to hit the brakes to turn cruise off or who knows how fast it would have taken me
Incident date: Jul 31, 2022
Purchased this car in 2019 from dealer as a pre certified vehicle. Replaced original battery(dealer said it was)in 8/2021. As I had to have it jumped, battery drain. 6 years old. So I replaced. I have had numerous battery drain since, jumped numerous times. Dealer will say I left something on, NO I didn't. They check and can't find issues. So, I purchased a battery jumper pack. I'm 64yrs old femal... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
Front windshield without warning had a stress crack appear on the passenger side from the top of the windshield to the middle. NO foreign item caused the damage. Again, the crack appeared without warning. My insurance company set up appointment with Safe Lite Auto Glass to replace the cracked windshield on August 2, 2022. The crack has now extended diagonally across the windshield as of Sunday Jul... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
Front windshield without warning had a stress crack appear on the passenger side from the top of the windshield to the middle. NO foreign item caused the damage. Again, the crack appeared without warning. My insurance company set up appointment with Safe Lite Auto Glass to replace the cracked windshield on August 2, 2022. The crack has now extended diagonally across the windshield as of Sunday Jul... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
Front windshield without warning had a stress crack appear on the passenger side from the top of the windshield to the middle. NO foreign item caused the damage. Again, the crack appeared without warning. My insurance company set up appointment with Safe Lite Auto Glass to replace the cracked windshield on August 2, 2022. The crack has now extended diagonally across the windshield as of Sunday Jul... Read more
Incident date: Jul 30, 2022
Summary: I have a 2019 Subaru Outback 3.6r with approximately 30k miles. It spent most of it's life in Texas, a low-corrosion state. When I was camping in Colorado, it started leaking fuel for extended periods from the tank area on the passenger side just in front of the rear wheel. The left a strong gas odor/fire danger as it leaked for many hours. I can supplies photos and video. The leak a... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2022
Normal vehicle start. While leaving shopping mall parking lot, vehicle suddenly shut down; no electrical, no accelerator, no power steering, no engine. Was able to steer vehicle to safe location out of traffic path. Waited approximately 10 minutes, tried vehicle again, and it started / drove normally. Vehicle inspected afterward by dealer, who found no issues, and returned vehicle with no repair... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2022
Normal vehicle start. While leaving shopping mall parking lot, vehicle suddenly shut down; no electrical, no accelerator, no power steering, no engine. Was able to steer vehicle to safe location out of traffic path. Waited approximately 10 minutes, tried vehicle again, and it started / drove normally. Vehicle inspected afterward by dealer, who found no issues, and returned vehicle with no repair... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2022
I’m 2016 Subaru Forester owner [XXX]. I know there was a recall for airbag. My passenger seat has Defective airbag sensor. The SRS lights comes ON even when the passenger is sitting on the seat. Hopefully there is a repair for the problem. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Incident date: Jul 10, 2022
The passenger seat air bag sensor failed. The seat cushion/ airbag sensor assembly was replaced under a recall at 43,000 miles. It was replaced with an identical assembly which has now failed at 113,000 miles. Subaru says they will not cover the cost ($1,150) of this 2nd replacement because the car is now out of warranty. I argued that the 1st part was defective and was replaced with an identical ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
Twice now the battery has died without any obvious reason. We did not leave the lights on nor any other electrical devices known to us. We had to cal AAA who could not find an issue for the drained battery.
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
Acceleration is uneven/hesitant. I think it’s the fuel pump. 56,000 miles on vehicle.
Incident date: Jul 1, 2022
The 2011 Subaru Outback subframe (K-Frame) failed structurally while the vehicle was in operation. The bolted connection between the left side (driver side) control arm broke due to extensive corrosion of the K-frame allowing the bolt to pull through one side of the box-shaped frame. The vehicle exhibited a pronounced pull to the left and handled erratically. The vehicle was immediately driven... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2022
The 2011 Subaru Outback subframe (K-Frame) failed structurally while the vehicle was in operation. The bolted connection between the left side (driver side) control arm broke due to extensive corrosion of the K-frame allowing the bolt to pull through one side of the box-shaped frame. The vehicle exhibited a pronounced pull to the left and handled erratically. The vehicle was immediately driven... Read more
Incident date: Jul 11, 2022
Windshield Cracked while in the hot sun. I was sitting inside my car and started hearing a cracking noise and noticed my windshield was cracking. Eventually it developed a 7 inch crack.
Incident date: Jul 25, 2022
As I was going into a right turn, the brake line failed and leaked a significant amount of brake fluid making continued driving dangerous. Just before the failure, the light for low break fluid came on but there was very little warning before braking was a problem due to a significant leak. The part is no longer available as it has been repaired. I was advised by the non-dealer repair shop that... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
The windshield on the 2020 Subaru Forester, as reported by many other owners, is extremely brittle and prone to frequent chips/rapidly spreading cracks. Since purchasing new, I have had two chips that resulted in small cracks and one that resulted in a larger spiderweb crack. None of these were caused by stone/pebble impacts I would have expected to cause windshield damage. (I have lived in the ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 17, 2022
Battery drained, towed to dealership twice within a month battery replaced then failed within 2 weeks everything checked out ok but battery still drained very frustrating
Incident date: Jul 18, 2022
I drove my car to work one morning (7 min drive through a city; no highways) and there was no crack in the windshield. I came out of work 8 hours later to go home, and there was a crack over 6 inches long in the windshield. There are no markings suggesting anything hit the windshield, only long smooth cracks.
Incident date: Feb 18, 2022
My car was parked in the covered garage at the Denver airport. I left for 3 days and came back to a large crack in the windshield stemming from the lower driver side to the middle of the windshield. Nothing had hit it. It spontaneously cracked.
Incident date: Apr 10, 2022
The contact owns a 2008 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving approximately 30 MPH, the passenger’s side air bag sensor light remained illuminated. The contact stated that the air bag warning light was also flashing. The failure became constant. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact's husband had inspected the air bag sensor... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
The contact owns a 2014 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while she had the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle suddenly accelerated unintendedly. The vehicle crashed into the garage in front of the vehicle. The air bags did not deploy. The contact had not received any injuries. There was damage to the garage, itself. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a certified mechanic or dealer as... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
The contact owns a 2014 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while she had the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle suddenly accelerated unintendedly. The vehicle crashed into the garage in front of the vehicle. The air bags did not deploy. The contact had not received any injuries. There was damage to the garage, itself. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a certified mechanic or dealer as... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 30, 2022
Noticed an ongoing "humming" noise coming from the rear of our 2015 Subaru Forester which got considerably louder at highway speeds. This sounded like a bad wheel bearing BUT THE CAR HAD ONLY 46, 800 mi. Took the car to a mechanic to inspect. As suspected it was a bad left rear wheel bearing. I had it replaced. Less than 2 months later same problem on the opposite side of the car (right rear wheel... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2022
A spontaneous crack in the windshield appeared across the driver's field of vision. The crack began on the lower driver's side and progressed to the middle of the windshield. It blocked my normal field of vision and caused light distortion from oncoming headlights. This problem has been documented MANY times including in a class action lawsuit for 2017 - 2020 Subaru Foresters. Yet Subaru ref... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
New vehicle with less tan 100 miles on it . Vehicle was parked in garage with garage door closed. Vehicle engine started horn, honked, and lights were on and engine ran for less than one minute. Two safety issues. Risk for carbon monoxide poisoning and personal safety of driver. Cannot trust if someone has control of vehicle. Dealer tried to sign us up Subaru Link, which we declined.
Incident date: Sep 6, 2011
The contact owns a 2004 Subaru Impreza. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 15V323000 (Air Bags) and 11V464000 (Suspension) however, the parts to do the recall repairs were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The dealer informed the contact t... Read more
Incident date: Sep 6, 2011
The contact owns a 2004 Subaru Impreza. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 15V323000 (Air Bags) and 11V464000 (Suspension) however, the parts to do the recall repairs were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The dealer informed the contact t... Read more
Incident date: Dec 26, 2021
I believe this article describes the cause of the issue. Thankfully the vehicle was parked in my driveway, and did not roll into the street or harm any people, but it could have. 2020 Subaru Impreza Wrx Service Brakes related problems https://www.carproblemzoo.com/subaru/imprezawrx/2020/2020-subaru-imprezawrx-service-brakes-problems.php
Crash
Incident date: Dec 26, 2021
I believe this article describes the cause of the issue. Thankfully the vehicle was parked in my driveway, and did not roll into the street or harm any people, but it could have. 2020 Subaru Impreza Wrx Service Brakes related problems https://www.carproblemzoo.com/subaru/imprezawrx/2020/2020-subaru-imprezawrx-service-brakes-problems.php
Crash
Incident date: Jul 18, 2022
My transmission completely locked up on me while driving at interstate speeds. I was traveling at 65 MPH with the car in regular driving mode, on cruise control and the transmission completely locked up on me. The front tires locked briefly, causing me to go into a small skid, which I was able to correct, and then the engine revved high and I had no power. This lockup and skid caused a rapid de... Read more
Incident date: Jul 24, 2022
Multiple cracks/chips in windshield with normal driving
Incident date: Jul 23, 2022
Left front wheel bearing found on inspection at local service station to be failing. Defect has been repaired by Subaru dealer under warranty on 7/26/22.
Incident date: Jul 13, 2022
I have a 2021 Subaru Ascent Premium with 6,000 miles. The Transmission or CVT feels odd every time i shift from Park to Drive or Reverse i feel a hard clunk additional to that every time i get in the Highway and add some RPMs to the SUV the CVT shifting feels Hard more likely like i m driving a Manual vehicle something that is not suppose to happen or feel that way. I took it to the dealer and th... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2022
The car is a 2019 Subaru Outback, purchased certified pre-owned in the summer of 2020 from North Park Subaru, San Pedro Ave., San Antonio TX.On 17 July 2022, the vehicle began shuddering, rolling backwards, and the transmission would not go into any gear position after starting it. The only way to keep the car from continuing to roll backwards was to remove the key from the ignition. At that point... Read more
Incident date: Jul 27, 2022
Windshield cracks Third time to replace
Incident date: May 10, 2022
Vehicle was about 1 year old and had about 2300 miles when I started having issues with the battery being dead and having to jump start the vehicle after it sat a few days. I contacted the dealership and the battery took it in. After about 4 hours they said the battery was "low" and they recharged it and said everything was fine. They said I didn't drive it enough so it was my fault the battery wo... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2022
Windshield cracked without outside impact (e.g., rock, debris). Retailer refusing to cover under warranty. Car was parked when the windshield cracked.
Incident date: Jul 24, 2022
I have only had this vehicle for 11 months and I’m about to have the windshield replaced for the second time. This poses a serious safety risk on any road and especially highways. If the crack spreads to the vehicle Eye Sight area then the function will shut off, causing further problems on the highway in regards to cruise control and emergency braking. The Outback vehicles are known for having ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2022
Spontaneous windshield crack. Crack went from drivers side edge of glass horizontally across approximately 2/3 of the windshield. After approximately 2 days, the crack began to seperate, it was nearly a 1/4" wide by the time it was replaced. There was no obvious sign of an impact, I assumed there had been an impact, but am concerned of an actual defect as I am hearing reports of this spontaneous c... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
At 89,000 the transmission was replaced because of a “known issue” and I was having problems. The car would lurch and hesitate coming off traffic stops. This prompted me to go to the dealer who called Subaru who offered to replace transmission, no further questions asked. Less than 20,000 miles later, this new transmission is causing problems again to the tune of $12,000! They refuse to repla... Read more
Incident date: Jan 4, 2022
The bluetooth system is not functioning properly. When a call is in progress, the bluetooth will indicate that no phone is connected and prompt the driver to connect the phone. In the meantime, the call is still active and the person on the other end hears the radio playing but the driver cannot hear the other person. The call will then reconnect for a few seconds before repeating this process. It... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2022
On 7/19/2022 while backing out of a parking spot with a right hand turn we heard a loud noise and the car did not seem to want to continue moving. Upon further inspection the right front tire was sitting at an extreme and unusual angle. Tipped out at the top and no longer pointing in the same direction as the other front tire. Upon recovery of the vehicle and inspection the lower control has co... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2022
On 7/19/2022 while backing out of a parking spot with a right hand turn we heard a loud noise and the car did not seem to want to continue moving. Upon further inspection the right front tire was sitting at an extreme and unusual angle. Tipped out at the top and no longer pointing in the same direction as the other front tire. Upon recovery of the vehicle and inspection the lower control has co... Read more
Incident date: Jul 18, 2022
Battery dead from constantly parasitic drawing in less a week. Brand new Interstate AGM MTX-35 battery. Had to take out the battery nad charged in room because living in an old apartment building which does not have outlet to connect the charger. Very annoyed by this flaw. The Subaru of America should settle a recall to fix the problem.
Incident date: Jul 20, 2022
I have been getting an airbag warning light for the past few months. I took it into my local Subaru dealer and they confirmed that the issue was the passenger recognition system. The system will recognize a passenger and turn the airbags on sometimes, and sometimes it will not. This puts the passenger’s life at risk in the event of an accident and the airbags don’t deploy.
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
vehicle stalled for no reason causing a dangerous situation, dashboard had 'eyesight' come on, possible crash avoidance feature ??
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
vehicle stalled for no reason causing a dangerous situation, dashboard had 'eyesight' come on, possible crash avoidance feature ??
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
vehicle stalled for no reason causing a dangerous situation, dashboard had 'eyesight' come on, possible crash avoidance feature ??