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: Apr 24, 2022
Used the car on Saturday, didn't get hit with a rock or a branch. When I parked the car there wasn't a crack. Woke up Sunday morning and the Windshield was cracked, it started from the bottom passenger corner up to the middle of windshield about 10-12". No trees nearby or rock damage. Taking it to Subaru today.
Incident date: Oct 30, 2019
Battery dies if car not used for a period of time. No telling when this will happen. Problem worse when ambient temperature cold but has happened in summer as well. Sometimes when not driven for a week but other times just a couple days. Has not stranded me yet, but not hard to imagine leaving at an airport and coming back to a dead car in a dark parking structure. Not even enough power to open th... Read more
Incident date: Apr 23, 2022
The battery discharged to the point where I was unable to start the car. I had been driving all day and was waiting for my wife for half an hour with the radio on. This left us stranded about 15 miles from home. I had to call to have someone take my wife home while I waited for a tow truck. My battery also discharged to the point where I couldn't start my car after the car sat overnight. I needed ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2022
For the second time in 2 months my windshield spontaneously cracked while the car was parked.
Incident date: Apr 23, 2022
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving 20 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle independently accelerated. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle struck the curb before coming to a stop, causing damage to the rim and tire. The vehicle was towed to the dealer but was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of... Read more
Incident date: Feb 19, 2022
Driving on the highway when the windshield suddenly cracked on the passenger's side, lower half of the windshield. The initial crack was at least 3 inches long immediately. There was/is no obvious sign of impact. The windshield has since continued to crack. It is now approximately 2 feet long. It does not appear to be the result of an impact, just rather a random crack.
Incident date: Apr 24, 2022
My battery has continually been dead, despite replacing the battery twice. I just had to call roadside assistance last weekend on Saturday. Yesterday (Sunday), the battery was dead again - 8 days later. This happened several times when I first got my car, and Subaru replaced the battery, as the car was still under warranty. I have since replaced the battery twice, and am still having the same ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 31, 2022
The windshield got cracked again from almost the same place as last time in 2019. Again, I found out the incident the morning when I just started driving. The crack originates from bottom of the glass without any chips. The very similar thing happened in 2019. I have not driven much since COVID. Looks like a manufacturing defect.
Incident date: Apr 25, 2022
Window cracked for no apparent reason. No chip or star. Crack is originated from bommot black area and went up to middle. Then across both left and right side
Incident date: Mar 24, 2022
A CRACK IN THE WINDSHIELD DEVELOPED SPONTANEOUSLY. IT SURROUNDS THE SUBARU EYSIGHT SYSTEM. I SUSPECT IT COULD BE A FLAW RELATING TO THIS EYESIGHT CAMERA. THERE ARE APPARENTLY 2 LAWSUITS ABOUT DEFECTIVE WINDSHIELDS IN THE 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK THAT ARE PENDING.
Incident date: Apr 16, 2022
The car was purchased as a certified used vehicle in January of 2022 and has been driven under 10,000 miles at this point. Last weekend, after returning to the car where it was parked, a crack extending from passenger side of the windshield near the edge all the way to the middle of the windshield had appeared. Nothing hit the car. It had not been there earlier that day. The car had not been expo... Read more
Incident date: Apr 4, 2022
Subaru refuses to do a recall for their CVT transmission issue even though this is a know issue with the 2010-2012 Legacy. The car stalls when coming to a stop. Subaru never informed their owners of an issue and now refuse to pay for any repairs, if this was to become a recall then they would be required to pay for the repairs, and then there would be less unsafe vehicles on the road
Incident date: Apr 24, 2022
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 stor... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
One morning I went to start my car to go to work and I found a crack. The crack is coming from the bottom of the windshield.
Incident date: Apr 24, 2022
Parasitic battery drain, the vehicle dies and will not start after 1 day of not being driven.
Incident date: Apr 23, 2022
I have had my car exactly a week. I have 200 miles on it and the windshield cracked for no known reason.
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
Car was parked and had foot on brake when car suddenly lurched forward and hit a car in front. At first I thought that my foot had slipped off brake pedal and onto accelerator pedal but after reviewing the incident later in the day, I do not believe that my foot slipped. Subaru issued a recall on my vehicle #21V955000 in December 2021 but never notified me directly and I did not learn about this d... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
I parked my vehicle in my garage last evening no Crack in my windshield. Today I went to go out to eat and I had a 3" Crack starting at the edge middle of the driver's side. I drove 4 miles to the restaurant and now it's 8" long. No rock impacts I'm aware of and no chips in the Crack area. From what I'm reading subaru seems to have a windshield issue, and I think these should be replaced at no cos... Read more
Incident date: Apr 23, 2022
In June 2020, 3 months after buying my 2016 Impreza used, the windshield randomly cracked from the bottom of the windshield and travelled upwards on the passenger side. Over the couple of weeks it took before getting replaced, the crack continued to spread splitting in multiple directions, including travelling across the bottom of the windshield and coming up the middle. By the time I was able to ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 9, 2022
UNKNOWN. Don’t know how the windshield cracked. It starts at the top edge of glass, goes around the shaded part of windshield in front of rear view mirror and then down middle of windshield. From top to bottom it is 14 inches
Incident date: Apr 23, 2022
2016 Subaru Outback, original owner, the battery constantly drains in this car. I have come out to a dead battery many times, and have had to jump and service my battery several times a year. I have had my battery replaced at least once as well. This seems to be a constant issue, and after reading up on other owners of same and similar models, it looks like it is a software and electrical system... Read more
Incident date: Apr 7, 2022
On 3 separate occasions, my transmission has switched from automatic mode to manual “Auto-stick” mode on its own with no input from me. There were no warning lamps or error messages, and the gearshift was still firmly in Drive. This has resulted in 3 near-miss accidents because the car landed in 1st gear even though I was going about 30 mph each time. From my experience driving manual transmis... Read more
Incident date: Apr 7, 2022
On 3 separate occasions, my transmission has switched from automatic mode to manual “Auto-stick” mode on its own with no input from me. There were no warning lamps or error messages, and the gearshift was still firmly in Drive. This has resulted in 3 near-miss accidents because the car landed in 1st gear even though I was going about 30 mph each time. From my experience driving manual transmis... Read more
Incident date: Apr 18, 2022
The contact owned a 2016 Subaru Legacy. The contact stated that while attempting to park the vehicle, it suddenly accelerated crashing a small tree causing the contact to reverse the vehicle. When placed in reverse the vehicle accelerated and crashed into another vehicle. The air bags did not deploy. There was damage done to both the tree and other vehicle. The vehicle was towed and deemed total. ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
I walked out to my car this afternoon to find my third cracked windshield since I purchased the car in September of 2019. I have reached out to the dealership and they have denied any issues and are unwilling to say there are any problems. As many reports and lawsuits are pending, I am trying to figure out what to do.
Incident date: Apr 11, 2022
Driving down the road for work, coworker noticed i had a crack in my windshield. At no time did there ever seem to be a strike to the windshield that would cause it to crack. Now a few days later this crack has grown to the length of roughly 16". The windshield seems to be very thin and brittle, which seems unsafe. They are also very expensive to fix, due to the safety system installed in the c... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
Windshield cracked with very little sign of impact.
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
Vehicles wheel studs and nuts striped. Common complaint with Subaru's. Nuts won't come off and unable to completely put back on to contact with rim. Nuts also won't come off all together, frozen on stud, studs breaks when trying to remove. Unable to remove with extension bar or impact wrench.
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
I have had to replace the car's battery three times in under 3 years. The most recent battery lasted for under a year. I am attaching paperwork from last year. I just a battery replace this week as well but am awaiting the paperwork on that.
Incident date: Apr 16, 2022
Since last October when a software update was performed on the vehicle I have had multiple(8-10) instances where the EyeSight system caused the emergency braking to activate when no other vehicles were nearby and a crash was not imminent. Usually it has been when entering a left hand gentle curve with a guardrail nearby, but it has also happened going straight ahead. The audible and visual alerts ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 10, 2022
The transmission, without warning, stopped functioning.
Incident date: Jan 15, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while approaching her parked vehicle, she noticed that the driver’s side windshield was cracked. The contact stated that there was no impact to the windshield to cause the crack to occur. The contact stated that the crack occurred overnight. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not b... Read more
Incident date: Mar 28, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that his wife had parked the vehicle, and when she returned observed that the windshield had cracked in the middle of the windshield starting under the rearview mirror. The contact's wife drove the vehicle to a dealer where it was diagnosed that an impact had cracked the windshield. The contact said his wife observed that the crack had spr... Read more
Incident date: Apr 15, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while at a complete stop with her foot on the brake pedal, the vehicle independently accelerated. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 21,000.
Incident date: Apr 18, 2022
I bought Subaru Outback Jan 2022 brand new. Also, I bought the extended warranty. Last April 18,2022 while I was driving along the parkway I heard a sound hitting my windshield and all of a sudden I saw a cracked on the windshield, about 7inches long. Looking at the windshield, It does not look like a large object hit my windshield. You could tell it's just a small object. I can assume its a small... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while warming the vehicle for approximately five minutes, the windshield wiper was activated and the contact noticed that the front windshield had cracked without impact. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was... Read more
Incident date: Apr 20, 2022
THE COMPONENT IS THE REMOTE AND THE BUTTON INSIDE THE CAR THAT CONTROLS THE HATCH. *WHEN THE CAR IS IN PARK BUT STILL RUNNING, THE RELEASE BUTTON WON'T OPEN THE GATE. *WHEN THE CAR IS TURNED OFF AND NO DOOR IS OPENED, THE GATE WILL NOT RELEASE.* SOMETIMES THE REMOTE WON'T RELEASE THE GATE. *THE SAFETY ISSUE IS IT REDUCES AN EMERGENCY EXIT. *I HAVE AN APPOINTMENT SET FOR WED. APRIL 27, 2022 FOR ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
The battery died for no apparent reason. I have since discovered that there are/has been class action lawsuits against Subaru for this very reason. This has the potential for putting family members at risk by stranding them. There were no signs or warnings before this occurred, and the dealer told us there was nothing wrong.
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
The contact owns a 2020 Subaru Outback. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V955000 (Power Train) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. 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 and referred the contact to t... Read more
Incident date: Apr 17, 2022
Transmission broke while vehicle was in motion. I was unable to move the vehicle any further and drifted to a complete stop in the middle of the roadway.
Incident date: Apr 6, 2022
The front windshield developed a crack for no reason.
Incident date: Apr 6, 2022
The front windshield developed a crack for no reason.
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
Windshield was cracked and was repaired successfully by Safelite. Then a new crack started about 18 inches long. Then a 3rd crack just happened. There was no major things hitting Windshield . 3 cracks to a brand new 1yr windshield seems to be very faulty material. Online comments have noted this is a major problem with subaru who don't seem interested in rectifying the situation. This seems to ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2022
The rear seatbacks fold forward by pulling a knob on top of the seat beside headrest. Recently, as I was driving, my 6 year old child, who was restrained in a booster seat, reached up and pulled the knob, thus unlocking the seatback. I'm glad she asked, "what's this do?" or I may not have known that her seatback was not locked into place. We immediately pulled over to lock the seat into place. I s... Read more
Incident date: Apr 28, 2021
2019 Subaru Forester My windshield has spontaneously cracked twice (August 28, 2021, April 18, 2022) without being hit by any object. Windshield was replaced after 2021 incident and will again require replacement after today's incident. It has chipped and required repair on 2 other occasions.
Incident date: Apr 17, 2022
Tiny spec of one sand grain instantly put a 14” crack across a windshield of a 2021 Subaru Outback I have pictures, how does a spec of sand crack a windshield?
Incident date: Jun 29, 2011
I believe there is a software defect associated with the infotainment system. The system also includes car information such as car data, audio/radio, navigation as well as other items related to modern car's functionality. The issue is when a mobile is plugged into one of the two from USB port, the infotainment will randomly reboot itself. When this happens the screen turns black/bland while rebo... Read more
Incident date: Apr 14, 2022
I have a 2017 model year Subaru and I've gone through 2 batteries and about to get a third one which seems like a lot considering how many other cars I've seen not get their battery replaced once and older in year than my car.
Incident date: Jan 18, 2019
Takata recall. The contact owns a 2010 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that he received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V007000 (Air Bags) 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 was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failu... Read more
Incident date: Apr 18, 2022
Complete electrical failure after battery completely drained during normal driving conditions. Car has required 4 battery replacements since ownership when car was brand new. Subaru has denied warranty claims for this. Battery continues to drain causing car to become inoperable until battery is replaced.