2017 Subaru Legacy
This year drew an ordinary 118 complaints for a Subaru Legacy — the model's median is 87. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.5% of them mention deploy, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Subaru Legacy, which began in 2015 and ran to 2019. 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 | 118 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 87 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- deploy — 8.5% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (4.5×). Owners wrote it as: deploy, deployed, front end.
- state — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: state, aligned, enter.
- twice — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: twice, wait.
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
HAD A FRONTAL IMPACT HITTING A DEER IN CENTER OF FRONT GRILL AT 45-50 MPH. DURING IMPACT STEERING WHEEL AIRBAG DEPLOYED AND ALL SIDE IMPACT AIRBAGS DEPLOYED. PASSENGER SIDE DID NOT DEPLOY. CANNOT GET ANSWER AS TO WHY...SIDE IMPACT AIRBAGS DEPLOYED?? SUBARU DEA…
I HAD AN ACCIDENT WITH MY 2017 SUBARU LEGACY AND INITIALLY SAW A DEER TO MY LEFT AND TRIED TO STEER SLIGHTLY RIGHT. NEXT THING I KNOW THE COPS ARE THERE AND TOOK ME TO HOSPITAL. THEY SAID THE CAR WENT OVER AN EMBANKMENT. IT HAD MASSIVE DAMAGE AND AFTER TWO MON…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V716000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 16V292000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
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 2017 Subaru Legacy? What happened to yours?
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