Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Subaru WRX

What it says about you

Opinion

Still the answer to a question a lot of people stop asking in their thirties. You did not stop asking.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

21 model years on record, 447 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2017 (went), 2015 (went), 2008 (welds). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • firewall 2008, 2009 peak 82.9% of that year's complaints
  • pedal 2008, 2009 peak 80.5% of that year's complaints
  • welds 2008, 2009 peak 72.3% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 nothing on record 0 complaints
  2. 2025 0 recalls 2 complaints
  3. 2024 0 recalls 13 complaints
  4. 2023 1 recall 7 complaints
  5. 2022 1 recall 25 complaints
  6. 2021 1 recall 13 complaints
  7. 2020 1 recall 17 complaints
  8. 2019 2 recalls 30 complaints
  9. 2018 2 recalls 42 complaints
  10. 2017 went 53 complaints
  11. 2016 3 recalls 34 complaints
  12. 2015 went 52 complaints
  13. 2014 10 recalls 6 complaints
  14. 2013 11 recalls 7 complaints
  15. 2012 12 recalls 2 complaints
  16. 2011 11 recalls 4 complaints
  17. 2010 12 recalls 1 complaints
  18. 2009 10 recalls 41 complaints
  19. 2008 welds 65 complaints
  20. 2006 4 recalls 14 complaints
  21. 2005 5 recalls 19 complaints

What does a Subaru WRX say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.