Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | |||
| 04/08/2010 | |||
| I was pulling into an intersection with an oncoming car at a safe distance for me to safely pull out. upon pressing the accelerator pedal the car did not respond. it only idled. and moved the car along at idle speed. suddenly the approaching car that was at a safe distance when i pulled out were getting very close. fortunately the driver was alert and slowed down so i could pull off the road - at about 3 mph. i fairly certain that it was a sensor in the gas pedal that went wrong. similar to toyota's problem, but instead of accelerating uncontrollably, it would not me out of harms way fast enough. | |||
| 07/05/2005 | 5000 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2005 subaru forester. while driving 3 miles per hour in a residential driveway, the vehicle abnormally accelerated without warning and crashed into the garage door. there was no mention of an injury. the failure mileage was 5,000 and the current mileage was 52,000. the vin was not available. | |||
| 04/29/2007 | 12000 | 1 | |
| After buying it new and owning it for two years with no problems, in 2007 we had spontaneous acceleration problems with our 2005 subaru forester, resulting in 2 low-speed crashes into buildings and one that i managed to stop before hitting anything. no one was injured, but we had repair costs and insurance premium increases. the dealer said they found no problems, even though when i tested it with them, we reproduced a similar event. my detailed communications with subaru of america (including information from the internet about other earlier similar subaru problems) resulted in their denying any problem. i had a class-action attorney in juneau, ak write subaru of america with the same results of denial by subaru. all of this occurred in alaska (our main home). the dealer was very kind and in 2008 took it as a trade for a honda fit since we could not sell it with that history. i assume that other subaru owners have had similar problems, which should begin to surface now. thank you, and i look forward to hearing from you. *tr | |||
| 05/04/2005 | 5 | 11/30/2004 | |
| I recently (end of november, 2004) purchased a new subaru forester. when the car is started, maybe six times in the four months i have had the car, it immediately lurches into full speed the second the accelerator is touched, and sends you twenty or more feet forward (once backwards) before you can possibly brake. i have narrowly avoided several potentially fatal accidents. today i had a real accident. when i went into carter subaru this morning, they would not listen to me. told me they had never heard of such a thing ever happening to a subaru, that something that only happened once a month was impossible to check. the manager basically called me a liar and asked me to leave. it isn't just this accident, the car can be repaired, but this is a car defect that can certainly kill someone. on at least two occasions, once in grocery lot and once leaving my driveway, it was only by chance i didn't hit a pedestrian. i feel the car is unsafe and shouldn't be driven, but even more disturbing is subaru's attitude that nothing can be done, and that i am a liar. bruce mcalister | |||
| 03/11/2005 | 85 | 0 | 03/11/2005 |
| My 2005 subaru forester suddenly accelerated as i approached a stoplight. the car was in neutral, the clutch was not engaged and my foot was on the brake. the acceleration subsided after i placed the car in first gear and slightly pressed on the gas pedal moving the car forward about a foot. this sudden acceleration occurred over a dozen times in the course of 24hrs. the car was taken to the local subaru dealer where several test runs were performed as well as a monitor test. no codes showed up so i took the car for a test run with one of the service advisors and the car accelerated several times within 10-15min. i took the car for a second test run with a mechanic who believed the throttle was improperly opening. the mechanic then inspected and cleaned the pin connectors at tps and map sensors. he then road tested it several times to determine if the problem had been resolved and found no more sudden acceleration problems. it was determined that the problem most likely was a sticky throttle.the car now runs well. | |||
| 03/22/2005 | 0 | 3 | 01/31/2005 |
| My 2005 subaru forester suddenly accelerated on its own while my foot was on the brake. i had to push really hard on the brakes to avoid surging ahead into traffic.*ak | |||
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL - CRUISE CONTROL | |||
| 06/07/2006 | 500 | 20 | 01/21/2005 |
| On several occasions while using the cruise control the vehicle deceleration lever, which subaru labels coast was depressed. the vehicle slowed to the desired rate of travel and the lever was released. the cruise control system was supposed to maintain the same speed as when released, but the vehicle accelerated apparently back to the previous set point. i contacted subaru of america by e-mail and they stated that i should take the vehicle into my local subaru dealer. the dealer found nothing wrong with the system after performing their electronic tests. i asked them to contact subaru of america to see if they had released any bulletins regarding this problem and the person contacted at subaru (jody) stated to kent melchior of ed reily subaru in concord, nh that they had never heard of the problem according to his report to me on 6/7/2006. as you can see from the nhtsa complaint website, there have been several complaints against subaru for this type of an intermittent cruise control system failure. therefore, subaru of america is either incompetent or lying. *nm | |||