2012 Subaru Outback
This year drew 291 complaints against a median of 293 across the Subaru Outback's other years, 1× that median. No single fault was reported unusually often, and it did not reach the 2.5× threshold this site flags at. It has 16 recalls, listed below.
Generation 2 of the Subaru Outback, which began in 2010 and ran to 2014. 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 | 291 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 293 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 16 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
Recalls for this year
- 19V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V626000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V007000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V009000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 16. 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 2012 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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