2009 Subaru Forester
This year drew an ordinary 178 complaints for a Subaru Forester — the model's median is 105. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.2% of them mention wipers, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Subaru Forester was redesigned for 2009. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 178 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 105 |
| Involving a crash | 19 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 18 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- wipers — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: wipers, windshield wipers, rain, shield.
- today — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: today, odd.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE FUNCTION OF THE RADIO AND WINDSHIELD WIPERS IS INTERMITTENT. UPON START THESE DEVICES DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE ELECTRICAL POWER AND DO NOT FUNCTION. I SUSPECT THERE ARE OTHER ITEMS THAT DO NOT WORK EITHER, BUT I HAVE NOT CONFIRMED THEM. THEY BOTH FUNCTION PRO…
THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS ON THE DRIVER'S SIDE OF THE VEHICLE WERE STUCK UNDERNEATH THE PASSENGER SIDE WIPERS. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A MECHANIC AND LOOSE BOLTS WERE DISCOVERED, WHICH NEEDED TO BE TIGHTENED. THE REPAIR WAS PERFORMED AND THE MECHANIC STATED THAT…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V014000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V014000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V026000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 18. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Forester was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2009 Subaru Forester? What happened to yours?
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