Model Year Scorecard · NHTSA + EPA data

Subaru model years compared

Every Subaru model in the catalogue (1990–2027), with owner complaints, recall campaigns, urgent advisories and fatal-crash involvement summed across all model years. Open a model to see its years side by side and the best and worst year called out.

25,943
Owner complaints
filed with NHTSA, most on the Outback
178
Recall campaigns
distinct NHTSA campaigns, most on the Legacy
3
Urgent advisories
do-not-drive & park-outside campaigns
3,495
Fatal-crash vehicles
FARS census, 2020 onward, exact

Subaru models ranked by complaints

Subaru models ranked by NHTSA owner complaints across all model years
Model Years Complaints Recalls Urgent Fatal (FARS) MPG
Outback 2000–2027 (28)
9,724
70 775 22.9
Forester 1998–2027 (30)
6,461
43 909 25
Legacy 1990–2025 (36)
3,181
80 566 22.8
Impreza 1993–2026 (34)
2,644
53 1 561 26.4
Crosstrek 2016–2026 (11)
1,175
13 272 29.1
Ascent 2019–2026 (8)
1,024
13 1 69 22.5
WRX 2012–2026 (15)
974
23 170 20
XV Crosstrek 2013–2015 (3)
261
3 78 28.4
B9 Tribeca 2006–2007 (2)
145
7 44 18
Baja 2003–2006 (4)
117
15 15 18.5
BRZ 2013–2026 (13)
101
5 34 26.3
Solterra 2023–2027 (5)
76
5 1 2 109.9
Tribeca 2008–2014 (7)
41
17 18
WRX STI 2013–2021 (9)
19
2 18
XV catalogue only 2013–2022 (9)
28.5

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Every Subaru model opens to every model year compared side by side, with the best and worst year called out. Free account, no card, takes a minute.

Sources. Owner complaints, recall campaigns and advisories are from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation datasets; fatal-crash vehicles from FARS; fuel economy from the EPA. VehDB sums them per model; the figures are not VehDB's own findings.

How to read it. Complaints and recalls are summed over every catalogue year of the model, so long-running best-sellers rank high on volume alone; the model page ranks each year against other vehicles of the same model year, which is the fairer read. Urgent counts do-not-drive and park-outside campaigns. Fatal (FARS) is a census of vehicles in fatal crashes from 2020 onward, exact, and is never mixed with CRSS estimates. MPG is the EPA combined average across the model's trims. Sources are U.S. public domain; nothing here is a verified defect finding.