all vehicles · every Forester year · method

Subaru Forester 2014

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.56 per 1,000

1.1 times this nameplate’s own median · from 80 complaints filed in the first three years, of 402 ever. 95% lower bound 0.44.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.15	9
2009	0.48	33
2010	0.53	43
2011	0.24	19
2012	0.34	27
2013	0.21	21
2014	0.56	80
2015	0.83	140
2016	0.50	89
2017	1.12	200
2018	1.12	195
2019	2.98	525
2020	2.29	408
2021	0.79	131
2022	0.52	70
2023	0.46	61

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Suspension 94 complaints

spring	55	58%
coil	52	55%
rear coil	30	32%
foresters	12	13%
piece	12	13%
rear spring	11	12%

Engine 69 complaints

consumption	23	34%
oil consumption	21	31%
quart	13	19%
consumption test	10	15%

Air Bags 57 complaints

foresters	10	15%
detection system	10	15%

When it breaks

27% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 54,000 miles, from 298 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10544448 · 10544552 · 10550504 · 10553267 · 10558551 · 10559973

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.