2025 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 71 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 293. What they were about is the unusual part: 35.2% of them mention braking, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 4 of the Subaru Outback, which began in 2020. 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 | 71 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 293 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- braking — 35.2% of this year's complaints, against 14.1% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: braking, happen, activated, unit.
- behind — 23.9% of this year's complaints, against 9.3% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: behind, cars, directly, attempting start.
- functions — 18.3% of this year's complaints, against 6.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: functions, radio, appear, pop.
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, the vehicle's infotainment system becomes unusable due to a pop-up ad for Sirius XM satellite radio. All vehicle settings, including safety settings, automatic braking, and other driving assistance settings, are all controlled by the vehicle's i…
There is a promotional pop up which shows from Sirius XM, it appears several minutes into driving, while moving. This pop up advertises a deal on the subscription and is not only distracting, but it disables any other functions on the head unit including navig…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2025 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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