2012 Subaru Legacy
This year drew an ordinary 90 complaints for a Subaru Legacy — the model's median is 87. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.9% of them mention restart, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Subaru Legacy, which began in 2010 and ran to 2014. 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 | 90 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 87 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Recalls | 16 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- restart — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (3.6×).
- near — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: near, holes, critical, structure.
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
THE TRANSMISSION SHAKES/SHUDDERS WHEN COMING TO A STOP OR TRAVELING SLOWLY. IT HAS HAPPENED WITH INCREASING FREQUENCY. SOMETIMES, WHEN THE SHUDDER OCCURS, THE CAR WILL DIE, REQUIRING A SHIFT INTO A PARK AND A RESTART.
STEERING WHEEL NEARLY LOCKED - BECAME IMPOSSIBLE TO TURN. HAPPENED WHILE MAKING A VERY SLIGHT RIGHT TURN AT ABOUT 5MPH FROM A SMALL SIDE ROAD ONTO A FOUR LANE HIGHWAY. WAS ABLE TO CONTINUE A VERY VERY WIDE TURN TO GET OFF THE ROAD INTO A PARKING LOT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V009000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V626000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V007000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V694000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 17V014000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V012000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 16. 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 2012 Subaru Legacy? What happened to yours?
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