all vehicles · every Forester year · method

Subaru Forester 2020

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

2.29 per 1,000

4.3 times this nameplate’s own median · from 408 complaints filed in the first three years, of 601 ever. 95% lower bound 2.06.

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 252 complaints

windshield	240	95%
crack	162	64%
cracked	105	42%
windshield cracked	71	28%
chip	41	16%
hit windshield	36	14%

Unknown Or Other 107 complaints

windshield	67	62%
crack	39	37%
windshield cracked	22	21%
windshields	11	11%
crack windshield	10	10%
eyesight	10	10%

Electrical System 103 complaints

eyesight	16	16%
thermo	10	10%

When it breaks

92% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 5,900 miles, from 272 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:

11271479 · 11279538 · 11287848 · 11289165 · 11289740 · 11291017

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.