My Subaru knows it’s getting sold. It has looked, forlornly, at my recent press cars and has deduced that its hours are numbered. In exchange, it is haunting me with the most annoying issues on the way out the door.
If you’re new here: I bought a 2016 Subaru Forester (2.5, Premium, with the cold weather package) brand new in 2016. I’d reviewed one and, of all the crossovers for sale in 2016, I felt like it was good at just about everything even if not particularly great at any one thing. While I was tempted to get a Mazda CX-5, prices for Foresters were a lot lower at the time and I got a great deal on one so I pulled the trigger.
Plus, I thought, it should have the same approximate quality over time as the Honda we’d previously had. I was wrong.
Extremely wrong! As mentioned back in February, I have come to regret buying the car after too many issues for a vehicle that gets treated well and isn’t that old. I’ve had to replace the front suspension, the rear wheel bearings, and a million headlights, all before hitting 75,000 miles. The wheel studs are notorious for cracking off and, lo and behold, one just snapped off recently.
To add insult to injury, the already bad speakerphone is almost indecipherable and the Subaru’s infotainment system feels super laggy now. I could live with all of this a little longer, but now I’ve hit yet another speed bump (but not an actual speed bump because I’m tired of this car being unable to maintain an alignment).
Are You Kidding?
Not since John Densmore has anyone been madder at some doors.
Specifically, the locks on the front passenger door stopped working for some reason a few weeks ago. I clicked the unlock button on my keyfob and nothing happened. I clicked it again and heard the hollow, unsatisfying clink of all the other locks meekly opening, but no noise emanated from the passenger door.
I walked around to the driver-side door, found it was open, and peered in to see the passenger door was still stuck in the locked position. Oh well. I clicked it by hand and then hit the lock button. Of course, nothing happened. So I went in and locked it by hand.
For the next week or so I couldn’t defeat muscle memory so I kept going to the door and finding it either locked or unlocked depending on whatever the opposite of what I wanted happened to be. And then, when I got used to it, it started working again.
Whew. One less thing!
And then, a few days ago, the driver-side door decided to stop working.
One wonky lock is bad luck, two is bad design.
“Those Subarus are starting to age, their crap, cheap build quality is starting to shine through,” SWG told me in an effort to cheer me up. “That one I recently rescued was a mess of cheap snapped bolts/fasteners etc with the work I had to do to it and it was a rust-free southern car.”
And before you ask, it’s not the keyfob.
Otherwise, the rear doors wouldn’t work and, to this point, they still work.
I Am Too Over It To Fix It
Just to make it exciting, this doesn’t seem to be a consistent issue. Sometimes both doors work, and sometimes neither do. Sometimes it’s just one.
Assuming it’s the lock actuator it’s not the worst possible job:
But, as you can see, Subaru hasn’t made it exactly easy for a regular person to do.
Is this just me? As always, the SubaruForester.org forum seems to have plenty of examples of people having this issue:
And:
And:
As always, you can pretty much find any problem online if you just search for it, so I try to keep my browsing to specific forums like this one and NASIOC and only include the screenshots if there are enough to make it seem common. This is common and people claim to have been charged $700 for the repair, which I assume is mostly the annoying labor.
Am I being a little precious about my eight-year-old car? Just a little. All old cars have weird issues (and some new ones do as well). I just feel like the issue-per-mile is a little too high for my taste and the solutions always seem to require just a bit more work to fix than I’m used to having previously owned Volvos, Fords, and Hondas.
If all goes well I’ll have this sold and out of my life before the end of the month, so hopefully nothing else significant happens to it between now and then. I’m out, Subaru!
8 years isn’t even old, these issues are inexcusable.
8 years isn’t even old, these issues are inexcusable.
Matt, I think you should drive this across the country to LA, where the Forester should be traded in at Galpin for the Maverick you’ve been pining for…
And then David should review it as part of his trade-in series and be the impartial judge pf whether the car or the owner is to blame for this divorce haha
Matt, I think you should drive this across the country to LA, where the Forester should be traded in at Galpin for the Maverick you’ve been pining for…
And then David should review it as part of his trade-in series and be the impartial judge pf whether the car or the owner is to blame for this divorce haha
Was always a Subaru fan. But our 2013 Outback killed it for me. It wasn’t a BAD car. It just wasn’t a very good car. Loud, inefficient, the most uncomfortable seats, crappy materials, bad infotainment, not great build quality. Nothing objectively wrong with it, just nothing to recommend it.
We’d bought it thinking we would drive it into the ground. Instead sold it during the pandemic and bought a Volvo before prices went insane. Volvo has been 100% a better vehicle.
Was always a Subaru fan. But our 2013 Outback killed it for me. It wasn’t a BAD car. It just wasn’t a very good car. Loud, inefficient, the most uncomfortable seats, crappy materials, bad infotainment, not great build quality. Nothing objectively wrong with it, just nothing to recommend it.
We’d bought it thinking we would drive it into the ground. Instead sold it during the pandemic and bought a Volvo before prices went insane. Volvo has been 100% a better vehicle.
Man this is just some bad luck. I also had the 2016 Forester, except the XT so I’m a little better than you. and ZERO problems. Right up until a drunk driver at a high speed ran a red light and T boned my daughter in an intersection. And she was all right. It was a horrific crash and she was injured but in a number of other cars she would have been killed. Say what you will, it will always go down in my book as one of the greatest cars ever
that it’s what subaru stand up
Man this is just some bad luck. I also had the 2016 Forester, except the XT so I’m a little better than you. and ZERO problems. Right up until a drunk driver at a high speed ran a red light and T boned my daughter in an intersection. And she was all right. It was a horrific crash and she was injured but in a number of other cars she would have been killed. Say what you will, it will always go down in my book as one of the greatest cars ever
that it’s what subaru stand up
Subaru started going downhill around 2010 or so. 90’s was peak Subaru.
2005, actually, is the consensus on the Ultimate Subaru forum.
I’m a big Subaru fan but only own Subarus from earlier than that. Of the current cars, as a manual transmission fan, I’d only consider the BRZ and WRX theoretically, but I’m really a wagon guy.
I remember test driving a 2011 Forester. It definitely ranks among one of the worst cars I’ve driven (and I’ve driven hundreds of cars). The quality was so bad I could scarcely believe it was a 21st century product.
Just look to the values of first US gen STI’s to find what the US considers peak Subaru. 05-07 routinely ask in the $20Ks where I am. Lower mileage 08+ often go for less than that. I happen to drive an ’06 turbo Saabaru though so I may be biased.
Subaru started going downhill around 2010 or so. 90’s was peak Subaru.
2005, actually, is the consensus on the Ultimate Subaru forum.
I’m a big Subaru fan but only own Subarus from earlier than that. Of the current cars, as a manual transmission fan, I’d only consider the BRZ and WRX theoretically, but I’m really a wagon guy.
I remember test driving a 2011 Forester. It definitely ranks among one of the worst cars I’ve driven (and I’ve driven hundreds of cars). The quality was so bad I could scarcely believe it was a 21st century product.
Just look to the values of first US gen STI’s to find what the US considers peak Subaru. 05-07 routinely ask in the $20Ks where I am. Lower mileage 08+ often go for less than that. I happen to drive an ’06 turbo Saabaru though so I may be biased.
Just rotated the tires on my BRZ for the first time and snapped off a lug bolt, whoever had it off last had cross threaded it. Very annoying though not the cars fault. But I have heard similar whoes about soft lugs from the BRZ groups, so we will see how it goes. Unlike the Forester though the BRZ brings me constant joy so it could have a lot more problems before I’d be more than a little bothered. But yeah, if you want Honda/Toyota reliability you still gotta buy a Honda or Toyota.
Yeah but our BRZ interiors and electronics and top end of the motor, are all Toyota! So it’s already the best Subaru!
Just rotated the tires on my BRZ for the first time and snapped off a lug bolt, whoever had it off last had cross threaded it. Very annoying though not the cars fault. But I have heard similar whoes about soft lugs from the BRZ groups, so we will see how it goes. Unlike the Forester though the BRZ brings me constant joy so it could have a lot more problems before I’d be more than a little bothered. But yeah, if you want Honda/Toyota reliability you still gotta buy a Honda or Toyota.
Yeah but our BRZ interiors and electronics and top end of the motor, are all Toyota! So it’s already the best Subaru!
I had a door lock actuator go bad on my 2014 Impreza when it was about 6 years old. Annoying, but I was able to DIY replace it without too much hassle… until I got the door panel back on and learned that I somehow broke the power window switch during the repair process. Also had a small oil leak, failed O2 sensor, and failed brake light switch during my 8 years of ownership. None of these were devastating, but definitely not up to the quality standards of my prior Toyota or Honda.
I had a door lock actuator go bad on my 2014 Impreza when it was about 6 years old. Annoying, but I was able to DIY replace it without too much hassle… until I got the door panel back on and learned that I somehow broke the power window switch during the repair process. Also had a small oil leak, failed O2 sensor, and failed brake light switch during my 8 years of ownership. None of these were devastating, but definitely not up to the quality standards of my prior Toyota or Honda.
I’ve replaced this in one door of my 05 Legacy, the little motor in the actuator failed. You can buy the whole actuator for several hundred $ or get just the motor on ebay for $5. But that involves opening up the actuator and getting very greasy. The grease Subaru used is garbage.