2016 Subaru Impreza
This year drew an ordinary 75 complaints for a Subaru Impreza — the model's median is 75. What they were about is the unusual part: 26.7% of them mention stuck, against 9.5% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Subaru Impreza ran from 2012 to 2016, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 75 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 75 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- stuck — 26.7% of this year's complaints, against 9.5% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: stuck, gets, shift, tsb.
- park — 22.7% of this year's complaints, against 7.4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: park, although, park car, sort.
- car stopped — 12% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (5.9×). Owners wrote it as: car stopped, came stop, accelerating, car stalled.
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
WHEN THE CAR IS STOPPED AND TURNED OFF, THE KEY GETS STUCK IN THE IGNITION AND CAN'T BE REMOVED WITHOUT TURNING THE CAR BACK ON AND SHIFTING FROM PARK BACK TO DRIVE AND THEN BACK TO PARK AGAIN. HAVE TO DO THIS TWICE TO BE ABLE TO REMOVE THE KEY FROM THE IGNITI…
KEY GETS STUCK IN VEHICLE IGNITION WHEN THE VEHICLE IS PLACED INTO PARK. SOME SORT OF COMPONENT THAT TELLS THE CAR IT IS PARKED IS MALFUNCTIONING. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN EVERY TIME BUT PROBABLY ABOUT 50% OF THE TIME. PLACING THE CAR INTO GEAR AND THEN BACK INTO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V149000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Impreza 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 2016 Subaru Impreza? What happened to yours?
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