2009 Subaru WRX
This year drew an ordinary 41 complaints for a Subaru WRX — the model's median is 14. What they were about is the unusual part: 82.9% of them mention firewall, against 0% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 41 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 14 |
| Recalls | 10 |
What the complaints were about
- firewall — 82.9% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (414.6×).
- welds — 70.7% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (353.7×).
- pedal — 80.5% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (15.4×).
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 WELDS CONNECTING THE PEDAL ASSEMBLY TO THE FIREWALL HAVE BROKEN. VERIFIED WITH PHOTO PROOF.
THE WELDS WHERE THE CLUTCH PEDAL ATTACHES TO THE FIREWALL ARE BREAKING. THE SAME BRACKET IS ATTACHED TO THE BRAKE PEDAL. THE ENTIRE BRAKE & CLUTCH ASSEMBLY COULD BREAK OFF OF THE FIREWALL. THIS COULD RESULT IN A LOSS OF BRAKING.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V149000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V003000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V002000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V297000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V012000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V014000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru WRX 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 WRX? What happened to yours?
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