2010 Subaru Forester
This year drew an ordinary 262 complaints for a Subaru Forester — the model's median is 105. What they were about is the unusual part: 33.6% of them mention driver seat, against 7.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Subaru Forester, which began in 2009 and ran to 2013. 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 | 262 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 105 |
| Involving a crash | 21 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 17 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- driver seat — 33.6% of this year's complaints, against 7.9% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: driver seat, bracket, welds, collapsed.
- drivers — 22.1% of this year's complaints, against 8.7% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: drivers, drivers seat, dropped, looking.
- frame — 12.6% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (5.1×). Owners wrote it as: frame, seat frame, cushion, subaruforester.
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
SAT DOWN IN DRIVERS SEAT TO DRIVE, EVERYTHING NORMAL. APPROX 1.5-2 MINUTES LATER WHILE DRIVING STRAIGHT, APPROX. 10-15 MPH OVER A SLIGHTLY BUMPY NEIGHBORHOOD STREET, I HEAR A SMALL "SNAP" UNDERNEATH SEAT AND FRONT LEFT PART OF DRIVER SEAT COLLAPSES. SEAT FEELS…
ENTERED VEHICLE AND SAT DOWN ON DRIVERS SEAT AND THERE WAS A LOUD POP AND THE LEFT FRONT CORNER OF THE DRIVER SEAT DROPPED. REMOVED SIDE COVER AND FOUND TWO WELDS BROKEN FROM BRACKET THAT GOES TO THE SEAT BOTTOM. AFTER LOOKING ON SAFERCAR.GOV FOUND SAME ISSUE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V007000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V009000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V012000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 17. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Forester 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 2010 Subaru Forester? What happened to yours?
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