all vehicles · every Outback year · method

Subaru Outback 2018

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

2.20 per 1,000

1.9 times this nameplate’s own median · from 405 complaints filed in the first three years, of 812 ever. 95% lower bound 1.99.

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	0.56	25
2009	0.30	15
2010	1.37	102
2011	1.15	113
2012	0.36	40
2013	0.75	88
2014	0.51	66
2015	1.51	220
2016	0.86	145
2017	1.03	192
2018	2.20	405
2019	3.07	553
2020	4.30	720
2021	1.46	225
2022	2.62	396
2023	0.52	81

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 267 complaints

battery	166	61%
dead	65	24%
jump	46	17%
battery dead	25	9%
drain	25	9%
battery died	21	8%

Visibility/Wiper 234 complaints

windshield	209	89%
crack	136	58%
cracked	109	47%
windshield cracked	68	29%
cracks	36	16%
crack appeared	23	10%

Unknown Or Other 161 complaints

infotainment	19	12%
windshield cracked	15	10%
head unit	14	9%
touchscreen	14	9%
distraction	14	9%
delamination	13	8%

When it breaks

72% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 16,660 miles, from 487 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:

11016407 · 11041865 · 11043616 · 11044153 · 11045969 · 11055701

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.