2010 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 360 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 291. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.5% of them mention headlights, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Subaru Outback was redesigned for 2010. 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 | 360 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 291 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 18 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlights — 7.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3.4×).
- lines — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: lines, corrosion, brake lines, corroded.
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
Brake line corrosion, I noticed it about 10 months after buying the car. they finally broke five days ago I called Subaru. They told me it’s just regular wear and tear and there is no recall for the corroded brake lines and the junction box.
Brake failure - after inspecting vehicle 6/20/2024 noted brake fluid leaking from underneath the vehicles right hand side. Removed splash guard and noticed the brake lines had extensive corrosion in a small section with no protective coating. Brake fluid noted…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V626000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V007000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V009000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 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 Outback 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 2010 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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