all vehicles · every Forester year · method

Subaru Forester 2019

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

2.98 per 1,000

5.7 times this nameplate’s own median · from 525 complaints filed in the first three years, of 833 ever. 95% lower bound 2.73.

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.

Visibility/Wiper 370 complaints

windshield	350	94%
crack	247	67%
cracked	169	46%
windshield cracked	115	31%
rock	85	23%
chip	65	18%

Unknown Or Other 144 complaints

windshield	77	53%
crack	45	31%
windshield cracked	26	18%
eyesight	13	9%
rock	13	9%
control valve	12	9%

Electrical System 134 complaints

eyesight	21	16%
drained	18	14%
valve	15	11%
control valve	12	9%
gate	12	9%
auto start	11	8%

When it breaks

89% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 8,650 miles, from 468 complaints that recorded one).

Failures cluster early, which is the signature of how the car was built rather than of wear. A low-mileage example has not yet passed the risk window.

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:

11163719 · 11171068 · 11174431 · 11180003 · 11181561 · 11185002

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.