Subaru Outback

Which Subaru Outback years should you avoid?

Going by 9,787 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Subaru Outback years to avoid are 2019, 2017, 2020, 2018 and 2000.

• 20191,036 complaints, 4.6× a typical Outback year, most often about the electrical system.
• 2017921 complaints, 4.1× a typical Outback year, most often about the electrical system.
• 2020904 complaints, 4.0× a typical Outback year, most often about the wipers.
• 2018816 complaints, 3.6× a typical Outback year, most often about the electrical system.
• 20003.0× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (5 fires, 17 crashes, 3 deaths).

5 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →