2023 Subaru Forester
This year drew an ordinary 73 complaints for a Subaru Forester — the model's median is 147. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.8% of them mention another, against 4.8% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 4 of the Subaru Forester, which began in 2019 and ran to 2024. 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 | 73 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 147 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- another — 17.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.8% across the other years of this generation (3.7×).
- given — 11% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: given, screen, hear.
- caught — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the other years of this generation (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: caught, oil change, leaked, catalytic.
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
In driving our 2023 Subaru Forester at 45mph at 10:00 am in the morning, with NO cars in front of us, in back of us, or on either side of us- suddenly the brakes locked up! Had there been anyone behind us, there could have been a dangerous collision. We have o…
I have owned the vehicle less than 6 months. There is now a 6 inch crack in my front windshield for no apparent reason. It just appeared one day last week. I have heard from other Subaru owners that this is a common problem. They suggested I report the issue h…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V754000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
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 2023 Subaru Forester? What happened to yours?
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