2014 Subaru Impreza
This year drew an ordinary 108 complaints for a Subaru Impreza — the model's median is 75. What they were about is the unusual part: 13% of them mention having, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Subaru Impreza, which began in 2012 and ran to 2016. 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 | 108 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 75 |
| Involving a crash | 16 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 24.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- having — 13% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- required — 7.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: required, medical, contact sustained.
- assembly — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: assembly, appears common, towed local.
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
WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS IDLING AT A RED LIGHT WITH THE BRAKE PEDAL DEPRESSED, THE ENGINE REVVED AND THE VEHICLE [VIN] WITHOUT WARNING. AS A RESULT, THE CONTACT'S VEHICLE CRASHED INTO THE REAR OF ANOTHER VEHICLE. THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY. THE CONTACT SUSTAINED…
WHILE DRIVING AT A LOW RATE OF SPEED TO MAKE A LEFT TURN, ANOTHER VEHICLE WAS TURNING RIGHT AND THE CONTACT BUMPED INTO THE REAR OF THE VEHICLE. THE DRIVER'S SIDE AIR BAG DEPLOYED IN THE STEERING WHEEL AND BELOW THE KNEES. THE CONTACT SUSTAINED INJURIES TO THE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V149000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 18V772000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 16V738000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Impreza 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 2014 Subaru Impreza? What happened to yours?
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