2018 Subaru Legacy
This year drew an ordinary 116 complaints for a Subaru Legacy — the model's median is 87. What they were about is the unusual part: 28.4% of them mention head, against 10.8% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Subaru Legacy, which began in 2015 and ran to 2019. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 116 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 87 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- head — 28.4% of this year's complaints, against 10.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: head, camera, unit, head unit.
- black — 7.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: black, weeks ago, sway, bar.
- nor — 9.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: nor, diagnosed nor, nor repaired, popping.
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
while driving at 40 MPH, she heard an abnormal loud popping sound coming from the top of the vehicle. The contact stated that she pulled into the nearest gas station and noticed that the sunroof glass had shattered and fell onto the shade guard. The dealer was…
WHILE EXITING OFF HIGHWAY, THE CAN [VIN] SHUT OFF NEARLY CAUSING A WRECK. CAR WOULD NOT RESTART. THE ENTERTAINMENT SCREEN REMAINED WORKING THE ENTIRE TIME. THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER WENT BLACK AND REMAINED THIS WAY. AUTOMATIC WINDOWS, ENTERTAINMENT SCREEN, RADIO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V587000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V935000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 18V773000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Legacy 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 2018 Subaru Legacy? What happened to yours?
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