Complaint volume
447 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
447 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2022 Subaru Outback, grouped by component category.
Buyer interpretation
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
447 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
The most common categories are visibility/wiper, unknown or other, electrical system. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Enriched records include 10 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 4 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage is available on 37 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 18,243 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
447 total complaints on record
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Went out our Outback this morning and noticed a crack in the windshield. The crack originates from the drivers side edge of the windshield, at approx. the midpoint of the vertical edge of the windshield. I drove the car yesterday without incident. There was no crack in the windshield when I parked in the driveway yesterday, late afternoon/early evening. There does not appear to be a rock chip or impact crater at any point of the crack. The crack appears to have formed spontaneously without an impact to the glass. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield cracked while driving in low temperatures, forming a foot long crack from the passenger side edge inward. No impact was felt or heard, but the Subaru service department claims to see an 'impact event', so they're not covering it under warranty. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Went to work one morning and noticed a crack from black piece of windshield under wipers 12 inch up center of windshield with no impact noted temps in upper 30s | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Minor pebble chip hit the lower area center of the windshield (with the sound effect of maybe small paper clip equivalent). Initial impact created a 3" crack, which spidered to about 36" in total within a few hours. Impact 12/7/2022. A minor impact should not compromise a windshield so significantly and so extensively and put passenger safety at risk with poor glass quality. Independent windshield replacement company has observed unusually high volumes of windshield replacements for late year Subaru Outback models. Windshield replaced asap 12/12/2022. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Vehicle windshield shattered without noticeable impact from object, producing a 12 inch crack on center of glass. Dealership refused to warranty the glass, claiming that they did not see the damage occur and cannot verify it was spontaneous. Repair costs were egregiously high given that a camera recalibration is mandatory to ensure safety, quoted at $675 - more than the price of the replacement glass itself. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield spontaneously cracked on lower right side. Crack spread within minutes across entire windshield. This happened in May 2022 in fairly decent temperatures in the upper 60’s | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | On January 28, 2023 at approximately 1930 hours, vehicle battery was dead after being in a parking garage for a week. Vehicle was jump started and being driven on a highway for about 10 miles at highway speeds. At a location on the NYC Harlem River Drive, traffic came to a stop for a minute or so. The 'Auto Start Stop System' stopped the motor as designed. When traffic started to move again, the motor would not restart and the battery was dead. We were disabled in the left lane of an unlit high speed, high volume highway in the dark with our emergency flashers rapidly going dim. After about 45 minutes and numerous near serious collision misses, a tow truck arrived to tow us off of the highway. The system that failed was the 'Auto Start Stop System' and the vehicle is available for inspection. I have 40 years of investigating and reconstructing fatal and serious motor vehicle collisions and this defect put the safety of the motoring public at a serious risk. It is unknown if the problem has been reproduced and the component has not been inspected by the manufacturer. There was not any warning indicators or other symptoms of the problem. To the contrary, the vehicle operator had the false assumption that all systems were operating properly. This defect presents a high risk of serious injury to highway users. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY | The windshield cracked during a severe weather incident where outside temperature was -24 degrees. There were no stone chips or any other issues with the windshield. I drove the car for approximately 20 minutes with the defroster on, when I got home I pulled the car into the garage, when I got back into the vehicle the windshield was cracked from the bottom left of the driver’s side across the windshield toward the middle. I took the vehicle to safelite first, they said the sandwich piece of glass between the exterior section and interior section of the windshield had suffered a failure to to extreme temperature differential. They had seen a number of similar failures since from the prior weekend. They said it is a manufacture issue and said to take it to the dealer for a warranty issue. I took it the the Subaru dealer where I purchased the vehicle, they inspected the windshield and took a number of photographs to submit to Subaru. I was told their windshield experts would examine the photos and get back to them with an answer, that will be four weeks ago tomorrow, Friday the 27th. Meanwhile I’m driving a vehicle with a broken windshield which is not safe. I called Subaru customer care and they are trying to contact the dealership about the claim submission but haven’t been successful. I can certainly pay to replace the windshield, however, if it is a manufactured error I believe Subaru should honor the claim and replace it. I searched the Subaru Outback owners portal and found numerous similar incidents where owners claimed the windshield failed under similar circumstances. According to safelite, Subaru windshields are softer than most manufacturers in an effort to save weight and expense. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I was driving to work, temps in the mid-thirties, and I heard a crack. It was confusing because there was nobody else on the roadway with me. That's when I looked and saw a 12" crack, beginning at the bottom-middle of the windshield and extending upward. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I woke up in the morning and my windshield crack with no apparent damage by an outside object. It started on the left side where the black meets the clear glass. Please look into this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The windshield cracked on its own overnight (temperatures in the low 30s). The crack starts at the bottom of the window at the center and goes upward and towards the passenger side. The crack is roughly 14" long, but has extended another 2" since the initial crack started. It impairs the view for most drivers. The dealer confirmed that there was no impact mark and have submitted photos to Subaru of America. Subaru has come back with stating it was caused by 'external influence' even though there is no evidence of that. The dealer is doing their best to appeal this with Subaru. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | A 6" crack appeared on the front windscreen at the passenger side at the bottom right corner extending towards the center. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Ive been through 2 windows already. They have cracked randomly and with no damage. It always happens in the winter when I turn my car on to pre heat before I drive it and the heat change cracks it. The OEM glass and the Safelite glass are inferior. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness - 20k Windshield crack develop -Rain and wind, but no other cars / obstructions visible, defroster on, loud bang sound, windshield shows 8” x 5” curving crack near rear view mirror. -No impact / dent / uneven indentations visible. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN | Pulled into my driveway, put the car in PARK, ran in the house for 5 seconds, car was rolling down the driveway when I came back to it. Got back in the car to leave (also checked to see that the gear shifter was in park which it was). I have several videos of this incident happening via cameras attached to my house. In the video you can see my wife (who is legally blind) jump out of the car because she didn't know what else to do. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I woke up one morning to find a few cracks in my windshield that were not there the day/night before. The dealership says it was from impact, but I hadn't driven it yet that day, it was fine the night before, and I have covered parking at my apartment. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield obtained significant crack for seemingly for no reason (parked in driveway; no trees/debris around). Crack continued to grow to 2-3 feet while remained parked. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The windshield on out 2022 Subaru Outback cracked at 4200 miles. Car was traveling at 55 miles per hour and outside temperature was about 45 degrees. No other cars in sight. Nothing hit the windshield. Had been driving for about a half hour. Dealer would not replace window for no charge. Said they had never heard of this happening. However I looked on many Subaru forums and it appears to be a major problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The windshield suddenly cracked at the very edge of the windshield obscuring visibility on the passenger side. As I awaited for my appointment for a windshield replacement, the crack became longer, affecting my right-side visibility. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | We are on our 3rd windshield for a 2022 Subaru Outback that currently has 7300 Miles on it. The first windshield cracked on it's own, completely unprovoked by anything. The second was actually a very small rock that hit us on the road and caused a small crack that just kept running until our field of vision was obstructed. The 3rd was a defect in the glass that caused a stress fracture, so it's possible that's what happened with the 1st one. All 3 incidents happend within a 5 week window. When I go online, there are cases and cases where these Subaru's have cracked windshields and it IS dangerous to have a massive run in the windshield when you are driving down the road. There are 100's of these complaints, it's just that no one is reporting them. Please look into this, it's NOT safe to have glass that cracks that easily. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Main Wiring harness / Main Electrical system malfunction, causing all dash lights to consistently be on. which in turn prevents all of the ADAS functions to no longer work. Vehicle has now been in 2 accidents which could have been prevented by these safety features. vehicle had had main harness replaced at dealers cost at dealership , and one at cost of insurance, problem remains unfixed/unfixable. vehicle is specifically 2022 Subaru outback Onxy XT. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | 3 months after purchase, in December 2021, my windscreen cracked for no apparent reason. I replaced it 4 months later with OEM glass from dealership waiting—due to no extra money. Now, 8 months after that, it cracked again. I woke up in the morning to a long crack coming from the edge of the seal that was not there when I parked for the evening. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Subarus forward looking eyesight and rear auto braking functions will stop working periodically also the stereo/infotainment system will go blank causing you to no longer access the the safety features of the car or any controls for the heating/AC system. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | 1.) Our windshield has had to be repaired 3 times in the last six months. Anything that comes in contact with the windshield will cause a massive crack that takes up the entire windshield and marks the car unusable to drive 2) The can is unable to be driven during normal conditions as anything can cause the windshield to break. 3) It has happened 3 times in the last 6 months 4.) The first time we had it replaced, it was completed at the dealership. The next 2 were through our insurance company vendor that ensures the windshield is installed properly. 5.) No. Upon the last time, we researched and found that Subaru has outstanding lawsuits for faulty windshields pending and it looks as if nothing has changed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The entire electronics system resets while driving, all driving metrics, speed, eye-sight/collision detection shows reboot screen, and infotainment system goes blank for several seconds. It would appear that none of this vehicles safety systems or speed indicators are online for several seconds up to 20 at times. I have tried to catch this on camera, but since I am the sole driver of this vehicle, I am rarely in a position to safely operate my phone. It has been going on since I purchased the vehicle, but I am seeing more and more posts with other drivers and the same issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |