Complaint volume
289 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
2021 Subaru Outback Complaints
289 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Subaru Outback, grouped by component category.
289 Total complaints
7 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
2 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 7 crash reports, 1 fire report, 2 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 60 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 8,787 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 2021 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.
2021 Subaru Outback
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Subaru Outback complaints?
7 Crash
1 Fire
2 Injury
0 Fatality
6 Towed
0 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Subaru Outback complaint categories?
VISIBILITY/WIPER 86
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 44
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 37
AIR BAGS 14
VISIBILITY 10
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 6
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 6
ENGINE 4
POWER TRAIN 3
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 3
289 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V227000 (Air Bags); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | POWER TRAIN | I have had this happen several times on my 2021 Outback and my 2013 Outback. The dealership has never been able to recreate this issue. I will be driving (gear in D) and it randomly shifts to 1st or 2nd gear. I have been in a parking lot when it has happened or entering the interstate. I notice it because I hear the engine roar and look down to see it shifted gears. I only use D so this should never happen. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while driving 60-75 MPH, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure recurred while driving downhill with adaptive cruise mode activated. The contact stated that the failure recurred several times while driving. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 25. | Crash: No Fire: No | 25 |
| Dec 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The speed control (adaptive) doesn't work. The interior heater doesn't work. Several lights including the 'check engine' light come on the dash. The lane departure system doesn't work. (It appears the thermo control value subassembly may be at fault.) The car has approximately 25K miles on it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V227000 (Air Bags); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V227000 (Air Bags); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I was driving when I heard a loud explosion sound. I first thought a rock or gunshot hit my car and pulled over to examine my car. I checked all around the car and didn't notice any damage on the side of my car but then I noticed that my sunroof was shattered. The glass was pushed outward which meant that it was not hit by an object. Luckily, my interior cover to my sunroof was closed at the time so I was not harmed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | PARKING BRAKE,POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH, the check engine, ABS, and brake warning lights illuminated. The contact pulled over to the side of the road. The contact turned off the vehicle and waited for several minutes before restarting the vehicle; however, upon restart the transmission failed to shift into the desired gear. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the vehicle was not covered under warranty due to a third-party damage to the rear brake cable. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 24,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 24,000 |
| Oct 2024 | ENGINE | Thermo control valve failure. Would not cover it | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Since owning this vehicle, we have replaced the windshield at least once a year. The first due to a 1/16th inch chip that evolved into a 10 inch crack over the course of a day. The second was a crack from driver side pillar that appeared overnight, no chips prior. Third was a 8" crack from passenger pillar that appeared overnight while garage parked, after a day, it grew to reach the center of the windshield. I think it's unacceptable that windshields can just crack overnight less than a year after install. It's beyond concerning knowing that our windshield could crack at anytime, or that superficial chips must be taken care of IMMEDIATELY or we run the risk of replacing the entire windshield. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery keeps draining if car isn't driven for a few days battery is drained to point of it being dead, cannot get into car, will not start, leaves you stranded. This is the fourth time this year, dealer checks it out tells me nothing is wrong. I have read many problems with parasitic battery drain with subaru's even that the alternator is programed not to fully charge the battery to save gas. getting tired of the issue to the point where I am thinking of selling the car and finding something that will not leave me stranded. This time when I checked the battery voltage it was 5.80 volts and .29 amps. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | The auto restart does not work and requires a car restart to fix. The latest software update caused this is to happen. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Parasitic Draw on battery: Original battery was dead after sitting 5 days; Bought new AMG and it has also died after 4 days sitting. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | ON thursday night at about [XXX] i was driving in the carpool lane going north.in the [XXX] , with full tank of gas ; suddenly i felt and here a noise, and the vehicle (2021outback base) start losing power, at the point that totally stop. call 911, and few minutes after the hway patrol came and push us out of the freeway, there was not any shoulder to be safe out. when the police officer try to turn it on the vehicle star but no power was available even when the vehicle was on.. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE | The car flashed “eye sight off” before flickering and shutting off while I was braking at a stop light. I tried putting my car into park and then turning it off and restarting it but it would not turn back on. I tried this a few more times but I was in the middle lane of a heavily trafficked street. The steering wheel was locked and I was not able to immediately remove it from the road and maybe an hour later it was able to be shifted into neutral and moved out of the street. However, it would still not turn on and when I did open my power gate, the gate would not secure closed. I took it to the dealership that I purchased it at and where it is also regularly serviced (with the last service date only over one week ago,) and they were not able to determine what happened but instead mentioned that my car had no internal data of any errors occurring and that the car was able to be started when they serviced it. I took a picture of the dash as it was flashing with all of the error codes and submitted that to the tech that was working on my car, but they asked me if I’d had someone “clear my codes” which is not something I’m familiar with or even capable of doing- I don’t even know anyone that would be capable of doing that for me. The whole ordeal cost me a day of work and now my peace of mind as I am unsure of if this may happen again and now I am worried it may happen while my kids are in the car. I’ve had similar issues with my center console messing up but nothing as urgent as my whole car shutting down and my steering wheel locking in the middle of traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Battery drains quickly and renders the car inoperable. Possibly due to Controller Area Network (CAN) not entering sleep mode when vehicle is not being used resulting in a parasitic battery drain. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Today while waiting at a stop light the auto start stop engaged. When the light went green I put my foot on the gas and the vehicle stalled. The car was on but not running, several alarms were on the dashboard. I had to put the car in park, turn it off and then restart the car. This is a repeated issue and has been going on at least once a month since we purchased the car in 2021. We've brought it to the dealer and they said there was nothing wrong because there was no OBD code. I have checked myself and I have not found any code. This is extremely unsafe | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 2021 Subaru Outback Limited | ~13000 miles | Component: Battery | Car suddenly stopped and ALL warning lights started flashing at a busy traffic signal, while I was waiting to take a left turn (lucky to have escaped safely from that situation). I had to turn the car off and restart it. 2 days later, the car would not start at all. Tried jumping it multiple time in vain. Had to tow the car to the nearest Subaru service center. Technician ran a diagnostic and concluded that the battery was not holding any charge at all and it was deemed faulty. Reading many posts on reddit and other forums of many Subaru owners facing the same issue from older (2015) to newer models. Many of them also complained of Parasitic drain on the battery due to faulty DCM on Starlink. Note: there was no warning lights/messages or any other symptom before this. This was a Subaru certified pre-owned car that went through a 152 point inspection in 2023. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Driving home on a farm road, a truck passed by, picking up a pebble that hit my windshield. On my other vehicles, that same impact would leave a chip on the windshield but due to its light thickness, it immediately formed a long crack that is continually growing in size as it is currently my daily commuter to work. That was a huge bummer given I had purchased it recently and it didn't have any blemishes on the windshield. The pebble hit the upper driver side part which led the crack to form out toward the roof and is going diagonal to the passenger side below the visor. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V227000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The air bag warning light was illuminated. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was approximately 29,000. VIN tool confirms parts not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | 29,000 |
| Jul 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Front windshield on my 2021 outback has numerous large cracks for no reason. This is a known issue via Google and class action law suits for windshields. This is a safety issue and needs to be addressed. I emailed Subaru and filed a complaint with them, Case#240708-220236. Asking them to replace windshield with new one that won't crack like this one. i have photos if needed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield cracked under heat from parking in sun. The windshield spontaneously cracked when wiper fluid was turned on after parking on hot (85F) day. The whole windshield spidered indicating it is under extreme stress. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while attempting to start the vehicle, the vehicle failed to start. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact was able to jumpstart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the vehicle was diagnosed with battery failure. The contact was informed that the battery needed to be replaced. The battery was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The dealer was contacted, but the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 57,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 57,000 |
| Jun 2024 | STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | On[XXX] while accelerating to travel speed (45 mph) on a rural Maine highway, the little used glass moon roof of our 2021 Subaru Outback Touring with 24,100 miles on the odometer exploded with a huge, shocking BANG!. Weather was clear and bright, wind ~5 mph, temperature about 68ºF, no traffic. We never saw or heard anything strike the car, either from the road or falling down from the trees at or prior to this incident. We had the interior shade closed so no glass fell into passenger compartment thankfully. Upon inspection at the road side and discovery of the problem, the glass panel had a large hole in the middle and the edges of the remaining glass looked like it had been blown upward. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Outback. The contact stated while starting the vehicle, the starter motor was making an abnormal clicking sound. The contact stated that after several attempts the vehicle was started. Additionally, the contact stated that at times the instrument cluster was blank. The contact stated that he purchased a battery charger and recharged the battery; however, the failure persisted. The contact stated that once he had fully charged the battery the vehicle was started; however, sometimes the vehicle failed to shut off and the battery terminals had to be disconnected. The contact drove the vehicle to a local dealer who diagnosed that the OE battery was not sufficiently powerful to start the vehicle and provide power all the electrical functions. The dealer installed a new battery with more amperage and new cables. The vehicle was repaired. The contact was informed by the dealer that the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 34,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 34,000 |