2009 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 111 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 293. What they were about is the unusual part: 9% of them mention hood, against 1.8% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Subaru Outback ran from 2005 to 2009, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 111 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 293 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 13 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hood — 9% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the other years of this generation (5×). Owners wrote it as: hood, latch, claim, unlatched.
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 HOOD LATCH HAS FAILED REPEATEDLY CAUSING THE HOOD TO BECOME UNLATCHED WHILE DRIVING, PRESUMABLY RISKING THE HOOD FLYING UP AND IMPAIRING VISIBILITY. A DIFFERENT SUBARU MODEL WAS RECALLED FOR THIS FAILURE BUT NOT THE OUTBACK MODEL (2009 OR OTHER). THIS KEEP…
I RECENTLY FILLED OUT THIS FORM (COMPLAINT # 10837114) CONCERNING MY HOOD LATCH BECOMING UNLATCHED ON ITS OWN. IT HAS HAPPENED AGAIN. AFTER AN APPROXIMATE 16 MILE ROUND TRIP DRIVE I PARKED THE CAR IN THE GARAGE AND NOTED THAT THE HOOD OF THE CAR HAD BECOME UNL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V358000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V026000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V014000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 13. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Outback 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 2009 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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