2023 Subaru Outback
This year drew an ordinary 87 complaints for a Subaru Outback — the model's median is 293. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.9% of them mention shadow, against 0.9% 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 | 87 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 293 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- shadow — 6.9% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (7.7×). Owners wrote it as: shadow, driving night, beams.
- attention — 6.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation (6×). Owners wrote it as: attention, ground.
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
Issue with low beams. I live in a rural area with limited street lighting. Low beam Visibility approx.15 ft. or less. Once or if I would observe an object or person on the roadway my stopping distance would be limited. A hooded shadow from the lighting limits…
the headlights were very dim while driving at night. Additionally, the contact stated that a black square shadow would appear in the illumination of both headlights which also impaired her vision while driving at night. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V647000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V755000 POWER TRAIN 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 2023 Subaru Outback? What happened to yours?
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