2014 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 208 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 293. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.7% of them mention pulling, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Subaru Outback ran from 2010 to 2014, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 208 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 293 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- pulling — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: pulling, alignment.
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
WE PURCHASED A 2014 SUBARU OUTBACK, NOVEMBER 2014. I WANT TO REPORT THAT THE STEERING PULLS TO THE RIGHT. WE HAVE NOT HAD AN ALIGNMENT DONE YET. I'M SEEING OTHER DOCUMENTED COMPLAINTS AND THOUGHT I SHOULD REPORT THIS AS WELL. SOUNDS LIKE HAVING IT ALIGNED WON'…
CAR HESITATES/DOES NOT RESPOND, INTERMITTENTLY BUT OFTEN, WHEN ACCELERATOR PEDAL IS PUSHED TO THE FLOORBOARD FROM A STOP. LAG/NO RESPONSE TIME IS ABOUT ABOUT 1 1/2 SECONDS. THIS RESULTS IN NEAR ACCIDENTS WHEN PULLING OUT INTO TRAFFIC AT AN INTERSECTION. CAR HA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V626000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V009000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V007000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. 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 2014 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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