Subaru Outback

"Unit will cycle on and off every few seconds when connected by cable. At times, screen will stay blank for the duration of the drive. At times, the system will freeze when iPhone plugged in and wont unlock until ignition is turned off"

"apple carplay works intermittently. Have used different cables but still occasionally drops out"

"What's to tell. The electronics in this vehicle are junk. Poorly implemented and under powered (processor power). Even the seat belt alarm doesn't work properly"

"Periodically, the screen freezes and no new data (eg. the navigation) does not function. This happens about every six months and will last a few minutes. The cause of the problem has not been identified."

"Screen would freeze up and not respond to touch"

"On a trip it just went blank No GPS and no guidance at all After we stopped overnight it resolved This happened several times and included the radio Not a good experience traveling and using the system. Went to out iPhone for guidance"

"The screen will go blank at times. It could take 5 minutes for it to appear when starting the car. It does not do it all the time but you can be driving down the road and the screen just goes blank I have had to pull over and restart the car for it to come back"

"This cures every week or 2. Display usually remains blank on start up. You can wait it out, try to restart the car or drive it that way."

"It went blank when I paired it with my phone. Dealer replaced it"

"When I start the car the screen is blank. No radio, navigation or anything. I have to shut off the car and restart it to see if I can get it to work. The whole navigation and electronic system was almost useless. No reliable voice commands. No reliable Bluetooth pairing. Will never buy another Subaru."

"The problem is very intermittent so difficult to fix. The screen will go blank and eventually restart itself. It only happens on average maybe once every week or so. It has happened for a few years now."

"Screen went black-no radio etc. After stopping and starting again the problem was resolved"

"The center console display has gone blank since shortly after we bought the vehicle in 2020. They've said every OTA update will fix it, and none of them have. It's worst in the winter, but c an happen any time. Having this problem means you can't do any screen based changes, which is almost everything. I will do my best to avoid cars that use this kind of screen control in the future."

"The display was experiencing ghost touching. Subarus TSB stated the issue could not be fixed by a software update, that the hardware required replacement. The dealer just updated the software anyway in spite of what the TSB Stated. I was told if it does it again, bring it in when it is malfunctioning. The problem is it only does it occasionally and so far, only on hot days with extended highway driving"

"It is the overall infotainment system that is the problem. It is clunky, unpredictable, and the most frustrating thing about this vehicle."

"Display screen was messed up"

"Bluetooth drops intermittently, but onna regular basis"

"Unable to receive text messages on screen. Dealer had to replace computer module."

"GPS stopped working after 3 years as I needed to buy subscription. I just use Google maps"

"never worked correctly so use sysyem on phone"

"Navigation seems to have a mind of its own too frequently. Frequently corrects itself, but not always."

"The GPS is garbage. The software is slow in putting in the address and in most cases it can not find what was typed in. This is the biggest reasons I will not purchase another Subaru"

"Map updates expired and requires expensive subscription fee. Dealer did not advise me until already expired."

"Map shows location of vehicle 1000s of km from actual location. According to the display Im currently parked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Dealer is unable to fix."

"One day the gps started identifying location a few hundred miles south of my actual location. Rebooting the system on my own a few times didnt help. About a week later it showed me in midtown Manhattan, not moving, even when driving the car. Required 1.5 hours of labor at dealer where they updated the infotainment system software."

"Using the display to control/use/set/adjust the cars climate to me is dangerous as it requires the driver to take their eyes off the road in order to access the electronic buttons. It is particularly bad when traveling on rough roads as there is no way to access the desired button when the car is shaking."

"Also the factory battery failed, wasaknown problem so free replacement by dealer but with same problematic model"

"Over the air updates were a fiasco. Outback forums provided fixes using USB."

"Over-the-air updates don't seem to work at all. I have to take the car to the dealer to have them installed."

"Looses paired settings frequently."

"Pairing attempts failed multiple times under various settings and after restarting phone and disconnecting/reconnecting. The Subaru Dealership (Landers'McClarty Subaru in Huntsvilled, TN) worked on the car and talked me through resetting things so that my phone actually paired up again with the Subaru."

"Display indicated that Bluetooth with phone was not working, but when I tried to make the connection, it indicated it already was connected."

"The radio controls will intermittently freeze and will usually work properly when restarting the car."

"I was just told about this by another driver; said the radio (on Sirius SM) kept fading in and out. I don't know anything more yet."

"xm radio stops working. Have to reboot infotainment system to get back working."

"The radio tends to overheat after extended play usually associated with a long road trip. It appears there is inadequate ventilation under the dashboard causing the output transistors to overheat."

"sound went off (twice)"

"It happened several times but was finally fixed by dealership, I hope"

"Radio is randomly distorted. Reported to be a common issue"

"Voice commands do not seem to recognize most Canadian addresses. Search almost always seems to come up only with US addresses. Typing commands in does get better results, but means one has to park."

"The entire system to open the rear hatch needed to be replaced. Too over three weeks for dealer to diagnose problem and fix car."

"The driver side window sometimes doesnt want to come all the way up, and automatically rolls back down. The dealership looked at the problem and it was fixed for about 4 months and then started happening again."

"Im not sure its a problem yet. I bought it last week for my daughter. It has 60000 kilos, Ians I paid $26.000, I noticed the coolant overflow tank was empty. I added some but it keeps dropping after a week. I would say the issue is under investigation, I will know more after my service appointment on May 20 2024"

"TomTom navigation systems is very poor when compared with Google Maps. It is difficult to install and update. It is unable to search for a store or town - one need s a specific address to search which means looking up a store etc to get their address. Very annoying and disappointing."

"Rear hatch motor failed because I pushed it to shut."

"The battery went dead would not hold a charge had to replace"

"It isn't the car, it's the dealer. On the last two oil changes with snow tires changed to summer tires, my wife was told to spend lots of money. Last year they said she needed a new battery, for $400. She said no. The old one is still working perfectly. This year they refused to install the summer tires even though they had lots of tread. We also needed an alignment since it ruined the tires so badly. We took this to Les Schwab - they measured the tread several places on all tires and found plenty of tread and no indication of uneven wear. We scheduled an alignment, once on the machine, it showed perfect alignment, no adjustment needed. Cost: $0 The dealership is owed by Auto Nation."

"Hatch lift pistons froze and lift could not be opened"

"Drivers seat started to split at the seam."

"Battery died. In order to determine if a replacement or re-charge was needed, a pricey evaluation was needed according to dealer. After deciding to replace rather than spend money on an old battery, the evaluation (which is included with new purchase), it was determined that the electrical system contained a power leak. After three weeks of the dealers inability to solve, the evaluation was still charged. Dealer justified inasmuch as they never the leak. Otherwise warranty would have all costs!"

"Driver side window got stuck in the open position"

"Front windows stuck in down position. Know problem, new channels were the fix."

"2 cracked windshields"

"auto stop brakes. Can't turn of permanently."

"Drivers seat leather had prematurely worn and split. Covered by manufacturer "after" speaking with them"

"Driver side window motor failed making it impossible to open or close the window."

"Dead battery after 6,000 miles"

"4 times in the last 6 months, it acted like the battery was dead. Electronic analyzer did not show codes. Dealer has replaced battery twice. Waiting to see if that was the problem."

"We feel the premature battery failure is partly due to the auto start system that cannot be disable permanently and require deselection with each engine start."

"The front passenger and driver windows operated poorly in temperature 40F and below. The windows rolled down and up slowly. At times, the windows would not go up for five minutes or stop up, stop up and go down. This happened last year and this year. Subaru finally fixed the problem for $200, while saying the actual cost was $1500."

"When trying to start car, all lights on car were flashing but engine wouldn't start. Had to be towed from our garage to dealership. They didn't find a problem, but replaced battery. I believe."

"auto tailgate will not work further if it is opened manually. has to be reset (ez to do but really?) every time it is manually opened or shut. Tailgate will NOT latch otherwise."

"The car showed no signs of a problem prior to the issue. We turned it off one night. In the morning, it failed to start. Ater a great deal of charging from another car, we were able to jump it and drive it around to recharge the battery, but it wouldn't start after that. We replaced the battery and the technician (a AAA technician, I believe) told us it was a common problem with our model of car. He said a part of the on board computer stayed on and drained the battery. He also suggested Subaru knew about it, but had not issued a recall or admitted it was a known problem at the time. I never pursued the issue with Subaru, but we did eventually receive a notice from Subaru about their acknowledgment of the problem. We have not had the issue since."

"Telematics Data Communications Module drains battery when car is off"

"Battery died, recharged, replaced"