all vehicles · every Outback year · method

Subaru Outback 2012

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.36 per 1,000

better than this nameplate’s own median · from 40 complaints filed in the first three years, of 293 ever. 95% lower bound 0.25.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.56	25
2009	0.30	15
2010	1.37	102
2011	1.15	113
2012	0.36	40
2013	0.75	88
2014	0.51	66
2015	1.51	220
2016	0.86	145
2017	1.03	192
2018	2.20	405
2019	3.07	553
2020	4.30	720
2021	1.46	225
2022	2.62	396
2023	0.52	81

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Power Train 107 complaints

converter	38	36%
torque	37	35%
torque converter	35	33%
coming stop	28	26%
stalls	27	25%
stalling	19	18%

Engine 50 complaints

stalls	17	34%
torque converter	10	21%
torque	10	21%
converter	10	21%

When it breaks

22% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 90,000 miles, from 199 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

1 investigation covering this model year, 0 of which list a recall campaign.

Autoliv Air Bag Propellant Mixture

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10441373 · 10445646 · 10451209 · 10452906 · 10458083 · 10462554

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is verified against a published figure.