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Subaru problems by generation and mileage

15 generations across 3 models, built from 11,070 complaints that record mileage at failure.

Subaru models and generations

Pick your car. Each generation has its own page: what owners reported breaking, at what mileage, year by year, and its recalls.

How long do Subarus last?

Complaint records can’t measure how long a car lasts; they show when reported failures happened. Across the 15 Subaru generations here — 9 of the 15 generations here left production more than ten years ago, and older ones have had longer to reach high mileage, so read the figure against that mix — half of the 11,070 complaints that record an odometer reading were filed by 37,000 miles and 90% by 120,000 miles. 522 came in past 150,000 miles and 91 past 200,000 — each one a car that got there, not one that failed there.

At what mileage do Subarus start having problems? A quarter of those reports came by 10,000 miles, and 28% within the first 12,000 — the window this site treats as manufacturing defects rather than wear. That is the start of the reports, not the onset of problems on any one car.

For one car, open its generation in the list above: each page gives its own figures, year by year.

Mileage at failure, generation by generation

Each strip places that generation’s mileage-tagged reports on a linear 0–200,000-mile scale: whisker = middle 80%, box = middle half, line = median. † marks recent generations — their fleets are young, so their reports can only have come at low mileages. Compare generations of similar age.

Forester

• 1998–200223072,000
• 2003–200858285,000
• 2009–201353959,000
• 2014–20181,48835,000
• 2019–2024†8007,000

Impreza

• 2002–200790151,000
• 2008–201144158,000
• 2012–201649946,000
• 2017–2023†22812,000

Outback

• 1995–199915597,000
• 2000–200441870,000
• 2005–200976185,000
• 2010–20141,29270,000
• 2015–20192,16420,000
• 2020–2025†5726,000

What the strips show across Subaru

Of the 15 Subaru generations here, 10 with failures spread across the mileage range; 5 with failures concentrated early. The shape matters more than the median: a generation whose reports cluster tightly at one mileage is describing a part that fails, while one spread across the whole range is describing ordinary wear, and the two need different decisions from a buyer. The most common shape across this make is failures spread across the mileage range, on 10 of 15.

Comparing generations of the same age

Medians fall as generations get newer, and that is age, not decline: a car built three years ago has not had time to reach a high odometer reading, so its reports cannot come from one. The only honest comparison is inside an age band, and here is this make split into three.

Subaru built in the last decade

6 generations, median of medians 20,000 miles. The earliest reports in this band belong to the Outback 2020–2025 at 6,000, the latest to the Impreza 2012–2016 at 46,000. That is a spread of 40,000 miles between two cars of comparable age, which is a comparison worth making; the same numbers set against a generation from another band are not.

Subaru built between ten and twenty years ago

6 generations, median of medians 70,000 miles. The earliest reports in this band belong to the Impreza 2002–2007 at 51,000, the latest to the Outback 2005–2009 at 85,000. That is a spread of 34,000 miles between two cars of comparable age, which is a comparison worth making; the same numbers set against a generation from another band are not.

Subaru older than twenty years

3 generations, median of medians 72,000 miles. The earliest reports in this band belong to the Outback 2000–2004 at 70,000, the latest to the Outback 1995–1999 at 97,000. That is a spread of 27,000 miles between two cars of comparable age, which is a comparison worth making; the same numbers set against a generation from another band are not.

Where the reports concentrate

The middle half of the reports — between the 25th and 75th percentile — is the part of the curve that says most. On the Outback 2015–2019 it spans 33,000 miles, the tightest of any Subaru generation here: half the reports arrive inside that window, which is what a single failing part looks like in this data. On the Outback 2010–2014 the same half spans 98,000 miles — a curve that wide is describing a fleet ageing, not a part failing.

The largest body of evidence for this make is the Outback 2015–2019, with 2,164 reports that record an odometer reading. Generations with a few hundred reports describe their own owners more loosely, and every number on this page carries that weight with it.

Model by model

Within one model the generations are the fairest comparison this data allows: same maker, same intent, often the same platform carried forward. Where a median moves sharply between two generations of the same model, it is worth asking whether the newer one is simply younger.

Forester. 5 generations here, 1998–2024, 3,639 reports with an odometer reading between them. The latest reports belong to the 2003–2008 at a median of 85,000 miles, the earliest to the 2019–2024 at 7,000, a gap of 78,000 miles. The older of the two has had longer on the road, so part of that gap is age rather than build.

Impreza. 4 generations here, 2002–2023, 2,069 reports with an odometer reading between them. The latest reports belong to the 2008–2011 at a median of 58,000 miles, the earliest to the 2017–2023 at 12,000, a gap of 46,000 miles. The older of the two has had longer on the road, so part of that gap is age rather than build.

Outback. 6 generations here, 1995–2025, 5,362 reports with an odometer reading between them. The latest reports belong to the 1995–1999 at a median of 97,000 miles, the earliest to the 2020–2025 at 6,000, a gap of 91,000 miles. The older of the two has had longer on the road, so part of that gap is age rather than build.

What fails across Subaru, and when

Summed across every Subaru generation on this site, the most-reported system is Electrical System: 3,280 reports, 17% of the 19,203 that name a system, and it appears among the leading systems on 9 of the 15 generations here, reporting at a median of 39,000 miles.

The right-hand column is a median of medians, not an average: a generation with three thousand reports and one with two hundred would otherwise carry the same weight in a mean, and they do not describe the same amount of evidence. Read it as the middle of the range this make reports at, not as a prediction for one car.

Recalls across Subaru

NHTSA has issued 106 recall campaigns against the Subaru generations on this site, spread over 15 of 15. A recall is not a reliability score: it means a defect was found and a free repair is owed, and a make watched closely can collect more campaigns than one nobody examined. What it does mean for a buyer is concrete — the work is free at an authorized dealer, for any owner, and whether a given car is included depends on its VIN rather than on its model year.

• Outback 2010–2014 — 25 campaigns
• Forester 2009–2013 — 20 campaigns
• Impreza 2008–2011 — 20 campaigns
• Impreza 2002–2007 — 18 campaigns
• Outback 2000–2004 — 16 campaigns
• Outback 2005–2009 — 16 campaigns

What this page cannot tell you

These are complaints, not failures. A complaint exists because an owner chose to file one with NHTSA, and nothing here counts the owners who did not. That makes the counts a measure of reporting as much as of breaking, and it is why this site never ranks one car against another: it describes what happens to a given car, and when.

Nor is any of this a rate. A rate needs a denominator — how many of these cars were sold — and no free model-level production figure exists. The obvious substitute, the affected-vehicle count on recall campaigns, was tested here and rejected: it overstates by a median factor of 7.6, because most campaigns span several model years. So a generation with more reports than another may simply be a generation with more cars on the road. The method page sets out every step.

Every page here is generated from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation dataset. How this is built · All makes