2017 Subaru Impreza
This year drew an ordinary 125 complaints for a Subaru Impreza — the model's median is 75. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.8% of them mention call, against 5.7% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Subaru Impreza was redesigned for 2017. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 125 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 75 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 28.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- call — 20.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the other years of this generation (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: call, might, those, buying.
- per — 8% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the other years of this generation (15.4×). Owners wrote it as: per, records, safety complaint, fixed before.
- required — 11.2% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (5.6×). Owners wrote it as: required, premature, bearings, sealed.
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
After reading forums online and my own experience I’m convinced the Subaru sun visors are improperly installed or fitted and pose a danger to drivers and those on the road. The sun visors on the driver and passenger side are incredibly loose and prone to falli…
There is an open recall on the Halogen headlights on my car. Notice was mailed to me in Oct 2022. Why is this not resolved? I need to sell my car but I cannot due to the open recall. It’s been 4 months !!!!
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V264000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 19V744000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 19V745000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 19V743000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 17V216000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 17V132000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V624000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING 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 2017 Subaru Impreza? What happened to yours?
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