2020 Subaru Legacy
This year drew an ordinary 121 complaints for a Subaru Legacy — the model's median is 87. What they were about is the unusual part: 63.6% of them mention windshield, against 4.2% across the model's other years.
First year of a new generation. The Subaru Legacy was redesigned for 2020. 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 | 121 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 87 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 28.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- windshield — 63.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.2% across the model's other years (15.1×).
- crack — 38% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the model's other years (62.8×).
- rock — 24.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the model's other years (5.4×). Owners wrote it as: rock, chips, struck, cracks.
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
WINDSHIELD HAS CRACKED ON BOTH SIDES INWARD WHEN STATIONARY. THERE DOESN'T APPEAR TO BE ANY ROCK CHIPS OR HIT MARKS. JUST SPLIT AND CHIPPED ON ITS OWN.
I have had two spontaneous window cracks within 6 to 9 months apart. I had a full windshield replacement and the windshield has just cracked again. The second incident, the vehicle was parked overnight so it wasn't caused by a rock or from following a car.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V766000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 21V955000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 21V587000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V664000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 22V485000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 24V227000 AIR BAGS 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 2020 Subaru Legacy? What happened to yours?
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