I’ve spent the vast majority of my adult life driving as many new cars as possible every year. Hundreds and hundreds of cars. But until eight years ago, I’d never purchased a new car. That changed with the acquisition of an Ice Silver 2016 Subaru Forester Premium. If “love” is what makes a Subaru a Subaru, then I got shortchanged, because I like the car but haven’t loved the ownership experience.
The joke that’s been bouncing around my head is: Get a Subaru so you can have a Toyota driving experience without the Toyota reliability. While I haven’t been stranded by my Forester yet, I’ve had to replace so many parts of the car and deal with so many small annoyances in my first few years of ownership that I’m pretty much over it and looking forward to trading it for something that’s either more fun to drive or cheaper to operate.
This is only my experience, of course, so your mileage (both literal and figurative) may vary. But I’ve talked to enough other Subaru owners that I don’t think I’m alone.
Why I Bought A Forester In The First Place
One of the limitations in the way I’ve mostly reviewed cars is that I get a car for about a week and then it moves on to someone else. I can tell you what it’s like to live with a car for just long enough to get the radio presets right, but I can’t tell you what it’s like to live with that car for many more miles. It’s a good argument for checking Consumer Reports, a publication that buys its cars from dealers and puts real miles on them.
I didn’t do that. It was 2016. I was living in Brooklyn. My wife and I had just brought a tiny Hardigree into the world and, because of my wife’s job, I’d found out I was moving to this mysterious place called New York-outside-of-New York City and so I needed something dependable, safe, and big enough to schlep a new human and all the stuff you’re told a new human needs to thrive.
Did I actually want a Mazda CX-5 with a manual? Yes, but those were rare and expensive at the time. I was considering a C-Max Hybrid just because C-Max Hybrids are roomy and weird. On my list was also the Subaru Forester. I’d had one to review a few months earlier and both my wife and I thought it was good at everything, even if it wasn’t particularly great at anything. My old pal Tom McParland also offered to help and, based on my list, thought I could get the best deal on a new Forester somewhere in New Jersey.
He was correct. For just $25,000 and a low 1.9% interest rate, I could get a brand new 2016 Subaru Forester Premium with a sunroof and the cold weather package. It was an anonymous silver, but it was extremely affordable. The dealership experience was pretty good and very quickly I had a new car.
The Honeymoon Period
For the first two years or so of Subaru ownership it was pretty smooth sailing. Nothing major went wrong, it mostly needed oil changes and tire rotations, and our local dealer was fine. Was it Lexus-level of service? Nope. It was fine. Like everything about the car.
Even the driving experience was just fine. The boxer motor is a little noisy, but it was faster than the CPO Honda Civic we owned before and way zippier than the old Volvo 240 wagon I bought as a project car. Did I love the CVT? No. Almost immediately, I had to adjust to the car always feeling slightly wrong at low speeds, with the car’s transmission trying but always failing to find the ideal ratio to maximize performance and efficiency.
Handling was not Mazda sharp and the ride wasn’t CR-V soft. Was it nominally better in the snow than other cars? Yeah, maybe. In spite of the CVT, it sucked fuel around town (about 22 MPG), which is mostly where it was being driven. It was a little better on the highway (27-28) but, again, it couldn’t hold a candle to our old 2006 Honda Civic LX, which I feel like I put gas in twice in eight years.
Where the Forester does better is in general usability. It’s big and roomy, outsizing the Mazda CX-5 or the available Ford Escape, making it easier to load-in the kiddo and all the kiddos gear. Something about owning a Forester makes you want an REI membership, so we did that and bought camping gear and took the Subaru camping.
We even gave the car a name. Subie! We road-tripped her to Canada and all around New York. Good miles and great memories.
Here Come The Problems.
Based on my own experience and after talking to other Subaru owners, every Subaru is at least a little misaligned roughly 10 minutes after an alignment and for the rest of its life. The stock Yokohama-brand tires, therefore, wore super fast. This is something a lot of Subaru owners complain about. Given that the stock tires only lasted about three years, I assumed an upgrade to some Michelin CrossClimates might improve this.
They were better performers but still wore faster than I’d like. In year seven of ownership, at around 70,000 miles, I had to put another set of Michelins on and they’re already starting to wear at the edges.
In year four, Subie’s front wheels started to judder at speeds over 55 mph. That required swapping out the passenger lower control arm, at great cost (I did it at the dealer and it’s not covered on the warranty), and then, not many miles later, it happened again and I had to swap the other lower control arm. Both times Subie needed a realignment.
At under 70,000 miles I had to replace both rear wheel bearings because they were screaming. This time I skipped the dealer and went to my mechanic, who informed me that this happens to most Foresters he sees of this vintage and, oh, yeah, I’ll probably need to replace the front lower control arms if it hasn’t happened yet.
I’ve had to undergo multiple recalls, including for the old 3G modem in the vehicle. The most annoying one is for the mat airbag sensor in the passenger seat, which had to be replaced (the tech also left some parts in the car which I found when I vacuumed). It still barely works and often gives me a false reading if I so much as look at it wrong. The battery went early, though the new one seems to be holding up better (although there’s a class action lawsuit about that, which I think is my second battery-related class action lawsuit.)
What Finally Broke Me
One of the perks of Subie is that she doesn’t have complex headlights or other parts. Everything is theoretically replaceable without taking the car apart.
This includes the headlights. I know this, because I have to keep replacing headlights. I had two go out on me at the same time, at night, last year. I replaced them and, big surprise, it’s been less than a year and the passenger side went out again. This, too, appears to be an issue that Subaru owners are used to dealing with, though some owners haven’t had issues.
Is the alternator throwing off too much voltage and cooking them? That’s my guess, and I’ll have to confirm that when the driver-side light goes out any day now.
Why I Wouldn’t Do It Again
This is the only new car I’ve ever purchased and the only car my daughter knows, besides our project cars. Parting with it will be difficult because it does hold a lot of precious memories. Also, new cars are expensive and I don’t want a car payment.
I understand that new vehicles are still vehicles and they still have wear items so it’s foolish to expect that nothing will go wrong and nothing will have to be replaced. Unfortunately, the tempo of replacing wear items and other necessary fixes have been way above what I expected when I bought the car. In the roughly 7.5 years I’ve had it I’ve spent around $7,500 keeping it running on top of the cost of buying it.
That seems high to me given that I’ve spent a lot less on previous, used cars that I’ve owned.
If the car were stellar. If it made me happy diving it every day. If it looked great and made me feel great I’d maybe feel different. It would maybe be worth it. I just can’t imagine spending money again on a new Subaru. I drove the Forester Wilderness and I liked it, but it wasn’t that much nicer than my car, had the same CVT issues, and I can just imagine how expensive it would be to keep running.
After driving the Corolla Cross Hybrid, I’m suddenly thinking about the ease of Toyota ownership.
HAH! I bought a 2018 Subaru Impreza Limited. Loaded with just about every option, did a special order. Sold it at a loss a year later for a GTI.
Worst car I’ve ever had. Named it “Squeak” because that’s all it did. Interior rattled and squeaked. CVT sucked. Infotainment was broken. Would blast AM/FM radio at you every time you started the car. Would sometimes lock up and do that on long drives. Was underpowered. Mileage was awful. Tires wore quickly.
Never again.
I was thinking of an Impreza or Outback because I want a hatch. But this article and comments have me steering clear. GTI was another I was considering, but how is ownership? People love to complain about VW reliability on every car site.
I loved my GTI. Was my favorite car I’ve ever had. I put 25k trouble-free miles on it with a JB4 tune. Made me giggle every time I drove it. I just traded it for an RS3 because it sold me on the VW/Audi MQB platform and that 5-cylinder makes amazing noises.
IMO we’re at peak petrol right now, so if you’ve got the opportunity to buy something like an RS3/RS4/RS5/AMG/Porsche/etc and want pure gasoline noises/experience, now is the time. Everything from here on out will be mild hybrids/EVs – and that’s fine, but we’ve spent 100 years perfecting the gasoline engine and I want to enjoy that.
I’ve never enjoyed driving a Subaru that didn’t have a clutch AND a turbo. (Oh and that one Justy I flogged in the snow for a day)
After 20 years and 143k miles I’m less mad about the 2 wheel bearings, both front control arms, one clutch, one starter, and one radiator than I am the AC relay and the front axles *twice*. Hmmm: also wiring at the wagon hatch, washer tubing front and back, and they broke my washer tank replacing the radiator. Coming soon includes the steering rack and at least one rear control arm. I learned my lesson on Silverstar bulbs the first time they lasted a year, the rest have been reasonable. I blame myself for tires and brakes, I AM a jackass.
Other than that Ms Lincoln, the play was fantastic.
Next one is from TMC.
“I regret” and “Subaru” appearing in the same sentence is probably one of the most common car-related occurrences out there.
It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru. Plus new head gaskets in the 90k-130k range.
My neighbor across the street, a retired civil engineer who typically keeps his cars for closer to two decades, just traded in an identical Forester because he was sick of its shit. I don’t understand how Subaru has such a good reputation, when they’re actually such hot trash.
I think they’re still trading on the goodwill that they built up during the BRAT/ GL Wagon (G1 & G2)/XT era, bleeding in to the OG Legacy. I know plenty of extra hippies and ski bums (myself included) who drove these deep into six figure mileage.
By the G2 Legacy things started to fall off, by G3 the head gaskets would fail if someone in the next county had the temerity to sneeze, and the overall reliability went downhill from there.
Sounds about right.
You could say they’re living off their LEGACY.
That was me: two EA81 GLs and a ’90 Legacy that I loved. There’s a reason I stopped after that.
Worst thing on the missus’ 2016 Crosstrek? Wheel bearings. 5 were put in before the extended warranty went off at 100k. I think one was bad out of the box, but still – WTF?
My wife has had three of the same generation Forester SJ. First 2014 XT Touring. Got rear ended badly and they fixed it but wasn’t right after that so she got a 2016 Forester XT Touring same color red. She decided to get the last year 2018 XT Touring before they were gone and no more turbo Foresters. She she still drives the 2018 daily now. Never have had any mechanical issues other than a few factory recalls which they took care of without issue. We’ve replaced the tires at 40k and an alignment then as well. I look at that as normal maintenance stuff. Since these are all turbo Foresters they get up and scoot quite quickly nothing to complain about there. She loves the Forester and they are very mechanically reliable in our experience. Personally, I cannot stand the CVT and thus I always prefer to drive one of my two older subies with 5EAT, proper transmissions
From someone who comes from a Subaru family and every family member, as well as many extended family have owned a Subaru, the company definitely has been on a downward slide in quality since the GFC.
My mum just traded in her manual 2.0L 2007 Impreza (last of the 2nd generation) which she bought brand-new on a Suzuki Vitara Turbo.
Her comments on test-driving the 3rd generation Impreza and subsequent Foresters and Outbacks is that they just felt ‘cheap’ compared to her Impreza which made her stay with the same car for 17 years.
Having worked on my girlfriend’s 2010 Impreza, I tend to agree that they definitely cost-cut in a number of places.
That being said, on both of them I seemed to replace the headlight bulbs pretty much annually, and I replaced the headlight connectors on both as well after they melted.
Meanwhile, the factory Xenon lights in my 2006 WRX just keep on keepin’ on.
I really have no clue why anyone ever buys a second Subaru. It’s like a special form of Stockholm syndrome.
As a counterpoint… we have a 2016 Outback… and have had none of the issues you’ve described.
Ok… it’s not fast… but it’s been extremely reliable and has taken our family of four (five, counting the dog) everywhere we’ve asked it to. From Nevada to Quebec to Southern Florida and all points between.
Zero regrets.
This is our experience as well. Wife had a 2016 3.6R Outback (used) and had no problems. Full disclosure, I did change a metric shit ton of light bulbs. She traded it in on a 2022 Outback (new), and it’s been great as well. As stated in the article, YMMV.
I’ve never changed a bulb (that I can recall). Weird. Changed the tires and battery once… which seems reasonable for an 8-year old car.
We’ve “sold” friends and family members on Outbacks. To date they are still friends. And I don’t think I’ve been written out of the will. At least not for that.
But as has been said…YMMV. (Mine has varied wildly. I used to try to “hypermile” on trips between DC and Baltimore and could regularly see 36mpg. But low 20’s is more typical. But when you’ve got a packed car, a packed roof pod and 4 bikes on the trailer hitch carrier… that’s probably reasonable.
Similar, had a 2011 Outback for 5 years and put well over 100,000 miles on the clock and no issues. OEM tires lasted at least 50,000 miles. Swapped them out for Michelins. Replaced headlight bulbs only one time. Only warranty work was a loose heat shield that was dislodged driving home from Chicago in a blizzard. The CVT was abysmal but the rest of the car was solid, trustworthy and extremely functional.
Your gas milage would be waay better than 22 with the Toyota. Ouch.
I used to love Subaru, but that was when they were small, quirky, cheap cars. There were things that were annoying about owning them, namely the oil consumption of the boxer engine, but they were also charming. My old 2000 2.5RS was a blast to drive, even if not particularly fast, but pretty much everything that made my 2.5RS fun is gone with modern Subaru. Modern Subaru really is just Toyota without the reliability, except I replaced my Subarus with Toyotas and cannot see myself going back to Subaru, so Toyota must be doing something right besides reliability.
I thought you were getting a Maverick.
As the owner of a Mazda CX-5, because Oregon is overrun with Subarus I have to say I told you so. Whatever I gave up in space is offset by never needing a repair. I have replaced tires after 5 years and a battery at 6 years. Plus no CVT
Yeah the automatic they put in them has an interesting design too. In most cars I always prefer the manual. But in the Skyactiv-G cars, I would rather have the auto/AWD. Mazda has engineered the things to really perform well. Both in outright oomph and in fuel economy.
Mazda is the AWD car for regular people to buy right now. Not Subie.
Thanks for the honest and thorough ownership recap. Very interesting.
Oh, and your daughter is beautiful and I’m sure amazing. You don’t deserve her.*
*Not a dig. I don’t deserve my daughter, either.
I think you’ve gotten particularly unlucky / a bad vintage of Subaru. In the 4.5 years I’ve owned my ’19 Outback, the only major gripes I have with it have been:
a) Subaru seems to use a pretty anemic battery for these cars, so you can kill them pretty easily
b) relatedly, there doesn’t appear to be any way to fully turn everything off with the doors open and a push-button ignition, there’s always some little lighting turning on and off when the key is within ~50 ft
c) the OEM tires are garbage that wore down to 3-4/32 in 31k miles, hoping these new tires with a 60k mileage warranty will do better
d) it developed a cam carrier leak that required dropping the engine out and doing a light rebuild to replace all those seals and gaskets, under warranty thank goodness.
On the other hand, it has had some pretty big triumphs in its time with me:
a) handled whiteout conditions in the mountains like a champ, at one point we lost grip going around a slippery corner momentarily but the traction control kicked in and maintained enough composure to come to a safe stop, preventing a 3-car accident. My passengers riding along were saying “I should really buy a Subaru” by the end of that trip.
b) drives in even heavy rain like it’s nothing
c) has very good handling compared to a real “SUV” especially at speed because of its lower CG and longer wheelbase (the Rav4, CR-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and even Lexus RX350 all drive like total bricks by comparison, and I have driven relatively recent examples of all of those cars. The only passable one is maybe the RX350).
Lastly the dog mileage is easily attributable to the full-time AWD system and lack of hybrid options (and being a relatively big car in general). Even engine start-stop tech wasn’t integrated until like the 2022 model year. When these things are taken into account, the mid-low 20’s MPG are a decent and obvious result.
All that said, I will probably sell my good boy off in the next few years sometime to get either a PHEV or full EV SUV, but overall, I’d say it’s a decent car if not quite as absolutely reliable as Toyota or Honda. Stuff like the cam carrier issue does make me worried for what happens after we get up beyond the 80k mile mark and there isn’t an all-encompassing warranty to cover the odds and ends.
I had a great 2006 Forester XT that did require maintenance but was fun and always functioned. Since then, Subaru seems to have wandered off.
Regrets, ‘bout my Subaru
Well, here’s a few I’d like to to mention
Alignments, that don’t stay true,
The tires worn through from that suspension.
Wheel bearings whine, headlights don’t shine,
Control arms broke out on the highway.
And more, much more than this
Means it’s soon gone from our driveway.
The Chairman of the Board salutes you!
Everything listed here is a far cry from the old ones, but that’s why I stopped buying them. That said, while I’ve only bought 4 new cars (Mazda, Ford x 2, and Toyobaru), the OEM tires were garbage on all of them and even average name brand tires were better by nearly every measure, especially life span. Counting that and 70k miles for only two sets of tires would be great to me for any car, but I’m sure there’s a difference in driving style.
We bought a 2017 Forester XT Touring new and haven’t had the same problems at all. I can understand the CVT hate, but the driving feel is totally fine when backed by the turbo power. Ours reports 26 MPG average. I have never replaced a bulb on it. (Our headlights are LED I believe.) I live in the desert southwest and have replaced batteries at the typical rate here. All of the unexpected service was covered by warranty, and we haven’t had any issues yet out of warranty. That said, it got lower control arms under warranty. There was a small oil leak at the turbo that was repaired. I reported a transmission leak, and the dealer resealed it. I later reported it was leaking again, and they replaced the whole transmission. Throughout this the operation of the transmission was never impaired; I just kindly asked them to look into a drip.
The knocking sound you just heard was the sound of three-quarters of the residents of Colorado shaking their heads in agreement…
Along with all of vt who forgot that their parents just whipped around in rwd American malaise barges, awd is the biggest lie the industry has sold the consumer.
Excellent point, but I’d add “All Season Tires”, which basically mean you get stuck in all seasons now. Put real snows on just about anything and you’ll be fine as long as you don’t drive like an idiot.
Agree, snows, a few bags of sand over the axle will do just fine, especially when you’re hooning the fancy Stowe McDonalds parking lot until they send the manager out to ask you to leave.
As a former New England resident, I’m quite sure you’ve mistaken me for someone else and would never do donuts in the Stowe McD’s parking lot.
Well since you’re already used to doing tons of maintenance, it’s time to go buy a manual BMW wagon. At least it’ll be more engaging to drive in exchange for having to fix stuff.
I just drove my manual BMW sedan today and I love it.
This story makes me remember something I had completely forgotten about my ’13 Legacy – it was ALL OVER THE ROAD. I mean it felt like I could never get that thing to stay in a straight line. So much so that I worried I’d be pulled over for drunk driving!
I had a 2013 Legacy Limited from new. Leased it for next to nothing after I could no longer bear to limp my VW Passat (yes, B5.5) for another year of service after 11 love/hate years. I thought I was a genius for about 1 day. Yes, not having to worry about breaking down every day was nice, but the god-awful CVT and engine were enough to make me pine to drive my wife’s 6-year old VW rabbit because it had a real transmission. Some of the other things that struck me about the Subaru: sheet metal was of some paper-like gauge that would dent and deflect if looked at wrong. The paint was shit and would come off if a bird pooped on it. The gauge cluster was designed by a UI-dropout and showed no useful information in the digital dial, the radio was awful, the seats terrible, etc.
I also nearly had to jump the car multiple times in cold weather because the battery sucked so bad.
I dumped it after 1 year for a small loss. And guess what I got next? A VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI in BROWN. That thing had character. Let’s just not talk about Dieselgate.
Subaru has good marketing. But their cars are not at the level of the other Japanese mainstream brands, and their designs are 10+ years behind the times. And I’ll not look at another one until the CVT dies out.
I had a ’15 WRX for almost 3 years and then sold it for reasons that I cannot remember and were probably non-sensical. Loved it.
Now 7 years into a Honda Pilot and that thing is making me think about getting an Outback XT (the more powerful OB option) and Ford F150 hybrid for our two car family. Maybe statistically neither one of those should be more reliable than a Honda. Having a long standing relationship with our local Honda dealer and getting some Goodwill out of warranty repairs, I’d be many thousands more poor than I already am keeping that 44K mile / 7 year old Pilot on the road.
Maybe the smart’err option would be a Toyota Highlander and Tundra Hybrid.
Yeah ditch that thing. Either get the Corolla Cross hybrid or even better wait until Mazda drops the CX-50 hybrid with the RAV4 drivetrain.