Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Subaru Legacy

What it says about you

Opinion

A saloon with all-wheel drive turns out to be a thing almost nobody makes. You may be the only person on your street who thought to want one, and there is some pleasure in that.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

21 model years on record, 1,838 complaints filed. No year stood out against this model's own history — which means it has not drawn unusual complaints, not that it is a good car.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • windshield 2014, 2020 peak 63.6% of that year's complaints
  • own 2008, 2017 peak 12.3% of that year's complaints
  • leak 2005, 2019 peak 11.4% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2025 0 recalls 6 complaints
  2. 2024 0 recalls 16 complaints
  3. 2023 2 recalls 10 complaints
  4. 2022 2 recalls 32 complaints
  5. 2021 3 recalls 31 complaints
  6. 2020 6 recalls 121 complaints
  7. 2019 3 recalls 123 complaints
  8. 2018 3 recalls 116 complaints
  9. 2017 2 recalls 118 complaints
  10. 2016 3 recalls 146 complaints
  11. 2015 3 recalls 159 complaints
  12. 2014 10 recalls 53 complaints
  13. 2013 12 recalls 66 complaints
  14. 2012 16 recalls 90 complaints
  15. 2011 16 recalls 167 complaints
  16. 2010 18 recalls 150 complaints
  17. 2009 13 recalls 65 complaints
  18. 2008 9 recalls 65 complaints
  19. 2007 9 recalls 33 complaints
  20. 2006 7 recalls 87 complaints
  21. 2005 9 recalls 184 complaints

What does a Subaru Legacy say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.