Complaint volume
1025 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
2019 Subaru Outback Complaints
1025 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Subaru Outback, grouped by component category.
1025 Total complaints
22 Crash reports
2 Fire reports
11 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 electrical system, visibility/wiper, 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 22 crash reports, 2 fire reports, 11 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 466 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 15,557 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to electrical system, visibility/wiper, 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 2019 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.
2019 Subaru Outback
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2019 Subaru Outback complaints?
22 Crash
2 Fire
11 Injury
0 Fatality
22 Towed
7 Medical attention
What are the most common 2019 Subaru Outback complaint categories?
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 280
VISIBILITY/WIPER 271
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 124
VISIBILITY 55
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 27
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER 23
STEERING 22
ENGINE 14
STRUCTURE 14
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 11
1,025 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery drain, if you don't drive the car everyday, car will not start due to electrical parasite. My wife works overnight at a hospital and found car's battery dead after working late shifts. Frequent needs a jump after shift. Dangerous area where she works. Dealer indicated nothing wrong with car and blamed car started for discharge. Looking onsite, many experiencing same unsafe issue. Just purchased new battery and still discharge. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Trunk popped open and will not close. Power rear gate latch control needed to be replaced. Couldn’t fully open or close trunk while driving or even after stopped | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My radio and navigation screen started getting bubbles under the screen. Now the screen goes crazy constantly changing radio stations and changing information on maps. The screen is suppose to be a touch screen and nothing works. It randomly calls people if you're connected to Bluetooth, changes to different apps, goes to different destinations on maps and changes setting features. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Front windshield glass has cracked spontaneously without known or evidence of obvious impact. The crack was first noticed on 3/12/2023 while parked in garage and had continued to increase so felt it was critical to have replaced so not to experience issue with driver visibility or complete windshield failure. Claim has been filed with Progressive and windshield replacement is currently scheduled for 3/17/2023 with Safelite Glass in Cartersville, GA. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | My 2019 Subaru Outback is used primarily for short-interval driving within my village. On the initial instance during the summer of 2022, the car would not start and did not have enough battery voltage to crank the engine. Lights and electrical components were non-responsive. After recharging the battery, the condition resolved. On January 2nd of 2023 the car was once again experiencing a dead battery condition. My assumption was that the battery was approaching end of life and I replaced the battery with a new one. Once again the condition resolved. On February 27th 2023 the car again experienced a dead battery condition and would not start. The battery was less than 2 months old. After recharging the battery the condition resolved. I took the battery to the place of purchase for testing, and the battery tests normal. The car is available for inspection upon request. The safety of my family members that drive the car are at risk of being stranded at any moment if the car will not start. I have not had a dealer or independent service center perform a diagnosis. However, an independent service center informed me that this was a common problem with Subaru vehicles ranging from model years 2016 to 2019 and was related to a Subaru technical service bulletin (#11-174-17R) addressing potential battery discharging after repeated periods of short-trip-driving resulting in a dead battery. The newly purchased battery has been inspected by the place of purchase and deemed as functioning properly. There was no indication or symptoms prior to failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield replaced twice in an 8 month period. No visible chips, just spontaneous cracks that are longer the 24 inches and grow quickly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ENGINE | 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO UNINTENDED ACCELERATION. THE CONSUMER FEELS SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BEAR THE COST OF THE REPAIRS AND FEELS UNSAFE IN THE VEHICLE. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Screen of Harman Kardon stereo developed bubbling that at first only impaired visibility of the display. Visibility of the backup camera video became reduced as the bubbling progressed. Soon the unit began experiencing electrical issues like not responding when the screen was pressed or acting like it had been pressed when it had not. Trying to use Apple CarPlay will occasionally result in the entire system freezing the rebooting. Audio using Bluetooth connections will skip. I took the car to the dealership and they confirmed they have seen this issue multiple times before and the screen may be overheating and shorting out. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,VISIBILITY/WIPER | I own a 2019 Subaru Outback Touring. This is the second Subaru Outback I have owned. In Aug of 2022, my windshield cracked out of nowhere. The crack came up from the center and spread out across the windshield. I had it replaced at the Subaru dealership in which I bought the car. Everything seemed fine until 12/23/22, when we got some heavy rain and I get in my car only to see water steadily dripping inside via the vehicle the left A-pillar on the front drivers side. I return to the dealer where it turns out that there was a problem with the brand new factory-brand windshield that was replaced in August, and it had been slowly leaking water into my car over those 4 months, resulting in massive damage to the airbag system, electrical system, among other things. These damages came to over $10,500. The water had gathered under my carpets and padding and started growing mold. All of this needed to be replaced. This was the third time I had to replace a windshield on the two Subarus that I have owned. Due to this, I have been without a vehicle for over 60 days now. It has caused me incredible stress, time out of work, and money. I am a caretaker for my paraplegic father who has also suffered due to my being without a vehicle to care for him, run errands, and food shop for him. Throughout my research, I have come to learn that this is a known problem in the Subaru brand vehicles yet they choose to ignore it and do nothing about it. I am not comfortable driving my car any longer, which still has electrical issues and unfortunately, I am losing trust in Subaru as a brand. It is unfortunate that they will not address this and fix this issue because I believe it is damaging their reputation. I have not been left in a good position here, with a junked car that is only 3 years old, 40k miles, and that I owe $15,000 on still, and I now need to find a new vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The windshield cracks and chips excessively easy. I'm 47 years old and have never needed to replace a windshield til this vehicle and I've now had 4 cracks in the 2 years I've owned it as well as numerous chips. I know road hazard happens - but this has been excessive! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | In November 2022, I reported my radio unit was faulty due to a peeling covering for the radio. The resulting problems includes: flashing screen, continual beeping, self-navigating menu changes, making phone calls, sending messages, etc. I was told in early Nov it would 10 days before a radio would be available. In early December I called the dealership to inquire of the progress, now overdue. I was told it would be 10 days again and the representative told me he was going to re-roder it. In early January 2023 the radio began to flash, beep, and self-navigate menus including factory resetting itself while in operation. The covering at this point was peeling more. Explaining that it was no inoperable and was being covered with paper to avoid distraction while driving though the beeping was still happening. I called the dealership to inquire and was told no radio replacement was available and to call Subaru direct with my issues. I called Subaru directly and was told a radio replacement would be available in 10 days and to call back if I didn't hear from them. I called back with no response. I called several more times with no response. In early February 2023, I called an opened another case but was re-routed to the original case and was told radios were being replaced for orders in late October/early November and mine would likely be available soon and to call back in a few days if I did not hear back. I called several times without a response. The radio is flashing, beeping, self-navigating menus, turning on, turning off, turning on the radio, changing stations and volume while in motion making driving unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Today is Monday February 20th 2023, The car (2019 Subaru ) will not start if it's not driven daily or if a door is left open for longer than 20 minutes (i.e. cleaning, loading/unloading) because the electrical system is faulty and draws too much on the battery when the car is off. We already replaced the battery and the issue continues. Subaru is aware and I hope they issue a recall soon to repair this broken electrical system. It's a serious safety hazard when your car is unreliable, for example it's frightening to be a stuck in an unfamiliar area. So far I have had the nicest people jump start the battery. But it's already caused many losses by causing me to be late to work and doctors' appointments. These are real life scenarios in which so many of us have been affected by this faulty system. Subaru, please provide a recall with a lasting solution. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Bought a new car battery and a battery charger because the car is often dead. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Several models of Subarus from 2017-2020 have a known parasitic drain that kills the battery frequently. My Subaru Outback (2019) battery has died four times in one year. This occurred more recently in December and the dealership replaced the battery and updated the software, saying it would fix the problem. It happened again (now in February) after I was out of town for a week. Anytime you don't drive every day, this will happen, and Subaru has admitted that there is no fix. There is a class action settlement that did nothing but pay for a couple replaced batteries, no fix, and even that is limited to lower miles and for a certain time. That doesn't begin to cover the cost of having to sell my car, buy a new one at a higher price, when a 2019 outback with low miles should have lasted me at least ten years. They should do a recall. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Driving 60 mph on freeway in Northern California for about 20 minutes. Ambient temperature about 50 degrees. Drove over a slight dip in road and hear a loud pop and my moonroof glass exploded outward. Moonroof cover was closed so no glass came into interior of vehicle. Moonroof is OEM Subaru (Aisin -Pilkington) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Unknown randomly cracked one day while parked. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | AIR BAGS | The air bag warning light has come on multiple times and I have received notice from Subaru StarLink to have the vehicle serviced. Upon taking the vehicle to multiple dealers I was advised that there is no problem detected. The vehicle was last checked out at Reedman Toll Subaru on January 17, 2023 and no problems were found. The vehicle was previously checked out at Glanzmann Subaru and again no problems were found. On January 28, 2023 the air bag light came on and I received a StarLink notification. I reported the incident to Subaru and they are looking into the possible cause. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | STEERING,SERVICE BRAKES,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | I went to reverse, then drive and Left turn into a parking spot inside a small flattop parking lot. My car made a popping noise and grating sounds after the reverse and turning of the steering wheel. I turned off my car once in the spot and looked under the car is it sounded like something was grating against the ground. I didn’t see anything. Upon restarting the car, the sounds continued when I tried to accelerate or turn. I could not accelerate past 10 mph and all my warning lights lit in the dash. I turned the car off and put in park. The car would roll forward unless I had the emergency brake on. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I was out of the country for 4 weeks. While week 2, my daughter tried to start outback but the battery was dead. I have 2019 Subaru Outback, total mileage now is 16,400. I don't see why this car's battery die just little after 3 years. We called AAA to start the battery, few days later after driving few hours a day, again my car's battery is dead. The same goes to my remote key. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Was driving with little to no traffic on route 65 PGH Pa there was a very loud pop/crack I did not see anything. After a few minutes a crack started from the very bottom of the windshield and goes up about 4 inch then spreads into 2 cracks that are approx 16 inches each there is no visible point of impact the window we’ll be seen by windshield repair co on Friday Jan 27 2023 the crack and bang startled me and could have caused me to wreck and the integrity of the windshield is no longer what it should be and if cont to drive could blow in | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | AIR BAGS,SEATS | 2019 Outback 2.5 Limited purchased new Feb 2019. Driving car with no passengers when Airbag Warning Light and Red Exclamation light came on along with warning message to consult owners manual. Manual says the airbag system is turned off when these lights come on and take car to authorized repair center. Found pulling passenger seat belt out all the way would turn off the lights but then they would turn back on a short time later. Dealer found all harnesses where properly plugged in and no wiring damage. Dealer said vehicle needed a new front passenger occupant detection seat frame as a result of the malfunction. Service advisor stated they have seen several cars with the same fault and that our Outback was not under a manufactures recall for this problem. Dealer was well aware other Subaru models have recalls for this problem. Service advisor recommended contacting NHSTA over this problem since when the airbag system shuts down occupant safety is severely compromised if an accident were to occur. Total cost of repair was $1,922.07 | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Ever since this car was new it has always dragged while starting. Like the battery was weak but, its my first subaru so figured it was the style of starter. After a couple years the battery got weaker and weaker until it died. Replaced battery and it started doing the same thing. Now, the car is 4 years old and this is our 3rd battery. The alternator charges 14.6 volts which is perfect. But, sitting overnight the battery is constantly being drained. If i put a charge on it and remove it from car it holds the charge. So, it isn't the batteries plus, we had the battery and alternator tested and those aren't the problem. The vehicle constantly drains the battery while sitting overnight. After a few days it won't start at all. Subaru says there isn't a problem. I have a sickly parent living here and he has to go to the hospital regularly and we need that vehicle to work properly. Is there anything we can do about this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I have a 2019 Subaru Outback. The Navigation unit is having Ghost touches making it impossible to focus while driving the car. The Unit Ghost touches every button on the screen while driving and when a mobile device is connected it automatically makes calls to the contacts with the Ghost touches. Many users have reported these issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EQUIPMENT | The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, or while the vehicle was parked, the Infotainment system and screen made abnormal sounds with the screen flashing. The contact stated that the Navigation and Bluetooth also malfunctioned. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the failure was diagnosed as a malfunctioning audio unit that needed to be replaced. The contact stated that the repairs were not completed because the parts were on backorder. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 34,000. The contact stated that the failure mileage was actually 43,000. The issue with the display causes a distraction while driving. The dealer was contacted several times but with no remedy. The dealer only states that they are waiting for the parts but has no provided an ETA. | Crash: No Fire: No | 43,000 |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Has seemed to have low battery for many many months At least 5 times we have had to jump start Rear hatch was beeping and did not want to close or respond to any buttons Passenger side window would not open or close with driver side buttons Took to dealer, battery failed and they replaced it I picked it up next day and still felt slow to start like battery was drained Now dealer stated I may have to pay for further diagnostics regarding battery drain | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |