2022 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 460 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 291. What they were about is the unusual part: 35.2% of them mention cracked, against 12.8% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 4 of the Subaru Outback, which began in 2020. 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 | 460 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 291 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 27.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- cracked — 35.2% of this year's complaints, against 12.8% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- impact — 26.7% of this year's complaints, against 7.7% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: impact, without impact, impact windshield, windshield impact.
- starting — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation (3.1×).
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
Windshield spontaneously cracked while we were starting the car in a parking lot. No movement and no impact points along the crack. Initiated at the bottom of windshield exactly at the center point and worked up toward the middle. Dealers (West Houston Subaru,…
Found the windshield cracked starting in the middle of the ream on the passenger side. I did not feel any impact point when running my finger on the crack line. Subaru dealer already replaced the OEM windshield for me. I am filling the complaint because I thin…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 22V473000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 22V712000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 23V755000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 24V227000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
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 2022 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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