YearsTell

all vehicles · every Outback year · method

Subaru Outback 2016

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

0.86 per 1,000

0.8 times this nameplate’s own median · from 145 complaints filed in the first three years, of 643 ever. 95% lower bound 0.72.

Against its own model years

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

Model yearPer 1,000Complaints
20080.5625
20090.3015
20101.37102
20111.15113
20120.3640
20130.7588
20140.5166
20151.51220
20160.86145
20171.03192
20182.20405
20193.07553
20204.30720
20211.46225
20222.62396
20230.5281

What owners describe

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

Electrical System 309 complaints

battery23676%
drain4314%
dead battery3511%
drained3311%
drains3110%
battery drain238%

Unknown Or Other 124 complaints

ignition3629%
key3428%
stuck ignition1412%
remove1412%
remove key108%

Visibility/Wiper 83 complaints

crack5465%
appeared1923%
developed1012%

When it breaks

42% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 35,000 miles, from 351 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

1 investigation covering this model year, 0 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 28 complaints about this component over roughly 49 months before an investigation opened.

Desiccated Air Bag Inflator Rupture

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:

10760241 · 10781227 · 10787018 · 10789134 · 10790669 · 10794654

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 verified against a published figure.