2008 Subaru Legacy
This year drew an ordinary 65 complaints for a Subaru Legacy — the model's median is 90. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.6% of them mention brakes, against 9.2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Subaru Legacy, which began in 2005 and ran to 2009. 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 | 65 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 90 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| EPA combined | 20.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 24.6% of this year's complaints, against 9.2% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- extremely — 12.3% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: extremely, melted, leaving, heat.
- own — 12.3% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: own, twice, instrument.
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
UPON COLD START, VEHICLE ENGINE RAN EXTREMELY ROUGH, PLACED TRANSMISSION IN DRIVE WHILE APPLYING BRAKE, VEHICLE LUNGED FORWARD WHILE APPLYING BRAKE WITH BOTH FEET INITIALLY HAD LITTLE EFFECT.
DASHBOARD HAS MELTED FROM SUN AND HEAT, HAS BECOME EXTREMELY SHINEY & STICKY, PLUS SUN & HEADLIGHTS REFLECT OFF THE WINDSCREEN.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V738000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V311000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 15V323000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V110000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Legacy 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 2008 Subaru Legacy? What happened to yours?
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