Complaint volume
796 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2018 Subaru Outback Complaints
796 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2018 Subaru Outback, grouped by component category.
796 Total complaints
26 Crash reports
4 Fire reports
10 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are visibility/wiper, electrical system, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 26 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 10 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 488 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 21,422 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to visibility/wiper, electrical system, unknown or other?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2018 Subaru Outback?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2018 Subaru Outback
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2018 Subaru Outback complaints?
26 Crash
4 Fire
10 Injury
0 Fatality
19 Towed
7 Medical attention
What are the most common 2018 Subaru Outback complaint categories?
VISIBILITY/WIPER 210
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 196
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 93
VISIBILITY 37
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 22
STEERING 22
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 19
ENGINE 13
STRUCTURE 12
BACK OVER PREVENTION 10
796 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | The batteries cannot seem to hold a charge. We have called AAA several times, but the recharging doesn't last, and they say this is a problem with the Outback. In addition, the Subaru dealer has replaced the battery twice. It just failed again. This most recent battery fail stranded my 70 year old husband in another city. I have contacted the dealer again asking for service. There is no warning whatsoever that the battery has drained. This is not a safe situation. The date below is the most recent incident of a drained battery. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Electrical issues affected the battery becoming completely drained, unable to unlock doors, or start the car. This issue has become stressful and worrisome as I have a child and pets. I always have my baby with me and am anxious that I can't unlock the doors. I have taken the car to the manufacturer (dealership) for service three times. They've been able to identify the issue, however, the problem has reoccurred (now the third time). Warning panels would suddenly light up with different messages and the car computer did not retain the information in the last two incidents, however, recorded the information in the latest incident. The first time this happened was in December of 2021 (approximately 50,000 miles). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield has a long crack in it that begins under the passenger side windshield wiper. There are no signs of impact whatsoever. First noticed the crack in early January of 2022. Initially, it was a small crack, however, within hours it grew to the driver side. I noticed the initial crack when I was parking and the crack grew without me moving my vehicle or driving it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | During a photography trip of May 2021, in a very remote area, the Outback's rear gate was kept opened for my dog for a few hours. When it was time to leave, the battery wouldn't start. Luckily, I had a battery charger. There was nobody present to help in this area and no mobile phone service available. Later in the day, the battery died again, under the same circumstance. We were fortunate to have extra food, water, and blankets if needed to survive the night. I thought maybe the battery was old. I replaced the battery on May 24, 2021 with an Optima 25 battery. This is a better battery than what Subaru installs. This February 2022, we went camping in a remote area of Death Valley with no available services. The fairly new car battery wouldn't start. I used my emergency starter again. This time the rear door and side doors had been opened constantly due to camping activity. It was not possible to disable the lights so as not to drain the battery. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | This is the second windshield on my 2018 Subaru Outback that has cracked near the A-pillar without any evidence of being caused by an impact. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield washer barely works, only one of the three nozzles will spray fluid. Pump sounds like it's working and fluid is full. For sure a safety issue in winter months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Bought the vehicle used from Carmax on 2/14/22, drove 25 miles home and parked in driveway. Next morning battery was dead, put a trickle charger on the battery and the charger detected only 4 volts and would not charge vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery keeps dying in cold weather. I’ve charged it 3 times in the past 2 weeks fully and double check to make sure no lights are on when I leave the vehicle. The next time I drive again it’s dead | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My windshield was cracked unreasonably with minor contact through routine snow removal with a snow brush. With routine wiping of the snow off of my windshield, the snow brush made minor contact with the windshield, and the bottom of the windshield cracked. The resulting crack is approximately 2-3 feet long at the bottom of the windshield. The crack partially impedes vision and may impair the functioning of the Eyesight safety system in the car. After online research, it appears that this is a problem present in the windshields of most Subaru 2017-2020 models. The contact was very minor as would be expected in any daily snow removal, and if this level of contact causes this level of damage to these windshields, that could cause many safety and visibility issues if a stray pebble were to strike the windshield of a moving vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | WHILE BEGINNING A LEFT TURN WITH ARROW, THE MOTOR DIED AND THE VEHICLE STOPPED. I PUT THE TRANSMISSION IN NEUTRAL AND ATTEMPTED TO RESTART WITHOUT SUCSESS. I THEN PLACED THE TRANSMISSION IN PARK IN THE DRIVING LANE WITH MOVING TRAFFIC, ATTEMPTED TO RESTART,THIS ATTEMPT WAS SUCESSFULL.IPROCEEDED HOME WITHOUT FURTHER TROUBLE. THE NEXT DAY I LOOKED ON LINE AND READ OF THE FUEL PUMP ISSUE. THE SYMPTOMS SEEMED THE SAME AS I HAD EXPERIENCED. I THEN INQUIRED AT THE SUBARU DEALERSHIP AND GAVE THEM MY VIN # AND THEY INFORMED ME THAT OUR VEHICLE WAS NOT PART OF THE RECALL.PLEASE HELP | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | When I was idling in park, the car spontaneously accelerated at full throttle. Another incident occurred while braking the car started accelerating at full throttle, even though I was sitting still at a drive through. - it would not stop without turning off the ignition. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Cracked windshield for no reason. Saw a current lawsuit that I wanted to add to my claim. Crack is at the bottom of the windshield | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield has cracked twice with no dings. The crack starts at the top and goes down and then horizontal. The car only has 18,500 miles on it. There is currently a class action law suit against Subaru on this subject. Subaru requires a special type of glass because of the cameras that look thru the windshield. It is very expensive to replace. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | We have had 4 windshields on this vehicle and now the current one that was just replaced last October ( 3 months ago) just broke too. If we have this replaced it will be the 5th windshield in 4 years. It is unsafe because visibility is reduced. This is a common problem with Subarus, as evidenced by the many online discussions regarding the faulty windshields. Subaru did lose a lawsuit for 2015-2016 windshields but the newer models have not been included as yet. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I parked in my garage for 2 weeks, and I couldn’t start my car again. I had to jumpstart it. This is the third time it happened. The battery checked out fine. I drove around and now able to start again. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery continues to die. We have had our vehicle for a year and had to get to replace our battery 3 times including today! Multiple jumpstarts. Even had it die from leaving out trunk open once. How does that make sense? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery continues to drain prematurely. It's been an issue since the very beginning of out ownership in June 2018. We replaced the battery after it would not hold a charge for more than two days. The replacement battery still wouldn't last for more than a day or two. Now in the cold weather it won't even last a day. Two days ago, I went in the grocery store for about 45 minutes and the battery was dead. I can't go anywhere without my portable jump starter. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The windshield has had 3 different pressure cracks (there's never been any evidence of a chip or impact) and the cracks have all appeared spontaneously. The cracks spread quickly and end up having to be replaced. The first crack was in May 2018, the second was in March 2020, and the 3rd (most recent) happened December 30, 2021. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery loses charge overnight for no reason. New battery placed in vehicle and same issue still present. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | My husband and I were driving on the freeway at 10:05 am on 12/23/21. Suddenly we heard a slight noise that emanated from the windshield. I 13 1/2 inch crack appeared on the passenger side windshield. Upon closer inspection there is a minute ding mark near the bottom of the windshield that may have been caused by a very small pebble, causing the windshiedl to crack upon impact. The vehicle is available for inspection. Safety concerns are visibility of the road, other vehicles, and possible Eyesight system failure that is embedded in the windshield. I am reporting this prior to any inspection. I will now call the insurance and the manufacturer for repair. There was no warning system of any kind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | STRUCTURE | Rock hit windshield and cracked windshield, from a small rock cracking the windshield and leaving this much damage if it was a bigger one it could have gone through and hurt us. This will be the second time I’ll have to repair the windshield. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | AIR BAGS | I was rear-ended on August 30 in this vehicle while at a traffic stop by a truck traveling 65+mph. Upon impact, I was pushed into the vehicle in front of me at a high rate of speed. Despite being hit from behind and pushed into the vehicle ahead of me no airbags deployed in the vehicle. As a result, my head struck the steering wheel knocking me unconscious, and has resulted in a traumatic brain injury, labyrinthine concussion, whiplash, and damage to my vision and hearing. The vehicle was totaled out by my insurance company and the vehicle was sold to CoPart and I don't believe anyone has investigated it even though all parties have been made aware of it. Prior to the accident there were no warning lights and all vehicle safety systems appeared to be in working order. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery is draining over time. Vehicle is now on 3rd battery in 3 years! Dealer replaced original battery during 2nd year and claimed it under warranty. Now that battery has failed and a different brand of battery has been installed (Dec 2021). Unknown cause of battery drain. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | We have a 2018 Subaru Outback with 87,000. As of yesterday our car is now on its third battery. The original battery lasted about a two years, then we purchased one from Autozone, that battery only lasted 15 months. There is obviously an issue with the electrical system on these cars causing the battery to have a shortened life span. With so many electronics in the car it seems the battery may be to small, it is only a 25 series battery. It could possibly be there are issues with the electrical system cause constant drain. We do know that the car showed no real signs of battery failure before the battery is dead. No slow starting, dim headlights, etc. Both batteries were working well, until all of a sudden they did not. I have read online where this seems to be a real problem with these cars from 2016 to 2019 and possibly the 2020 models. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | Carry Handle, Shell, Base | I was in an accident 11/26 and would need to replace my care seat | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |