2026 Subaru Outback: Recalls, Complaints & California Lemon Law

DRIVING ON RTE 81 SOUTH IN THE AREA OF WILKES - BARRE WHEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN MY ENTIRE DASH ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WENT COMPLETELY BLACK, NOTHINGWAS SHOWING, NO GAS, NO SPEED OMETER, DATE,TIME , BLINKERS, LANE CHANGE ETC. AND THE NAVIGATION SCREEN TURNED LIME GREE. ABOUT 30 SECONDS LATER THE LIME GREEN TURNED BLACK. I HAD NO ELECTRONICS AT ALL. I WAS IN THE MIDDLE LANE DOING 55-65 AND COULD NOT SIGNAL TO PULL OVER. ABOUT 2-3 MINUTES (FELT LIKE AN ETERNITY) WENT BY AND ALL OF A SUDDEN EVERYTHING RE-APPEARED. NOTE, THE CAR DID NOT TURN OFF. I PULLED OVER, TURNED CAR OFF, WAITED A COUPLE OF MINUTES AND STARTED THE CAR AND IT NEVER DID IT AGAIN.

NHTSA #11741448

I bought my 2026 Subaru Outback 3/20/2026, I plugged in my FIXD sensor into the OBDII port of my new car and there was nothing available. I made an appointment with Austin Subaru to check why the OBDII port was not working and my assigned rep told me that they were having issues with all of their 2026 Subaru Outbacks, I signed in for my appointment on my arrival 4/7/2026 and the following day I was notified that I had missed my appointment. I called the Rep. and requested a call back but that did not happen. I was at the dealership no more than 15 to 20 minutes while they tried their equipment and I was told that it was not working and that I should come back at a later time. I think that they might be hiding something.

NHTSA #11730401

I am reporting a severe saftey and crash-compatibility defect on the front passenger side of the 2026 Subaru Outback Premium trim. This vehicle is equipped with a fixed-height passenger seat that is positioned unsafely high relative to the headliner and sun visor assembly. Because the seat height cannot be lowered, an adult passenger of average height sits with their head in immediate proximity to the sun visor. Under standard deployment of the vehicle brakes, forward occupant kinematics cause the passenger’s forehead to travel collide into the rigid, unyielding lower edge of the sun visor, which act as a hard/sharp parts cut the forehead and twisting the neck seriously. During a recent braking event, this lack of structural clearance caused a direct head-strike incident. The occupant’s forehead collided with the sharp bottom edge of the visor, acting as a blunt knife edge that resulted in a laceration to the forehead and a hyper-extension strain injury to the neck. This is a critical design failure where occupant safety clearance envelope was poorly designed for this elevated fixed-seat configuration. In a high-speed collision, this layout poses an imminent risk of severe facial trauma, skull fractures, or catastrophic cervical spine injuries from the visor before the seatbelt pre-tensioner can fully lock. This requires immediate investigation and a mandatory safety recall to provide height-adjustable/lower seat frames to affected vehicles.

Allegedly reported: 1 injury (as reported to NHTSA). NHTSA #11741702

I have a Suburu Outback 2026.. I was driving 30 mph on a country highway in Monroe, Michigan when my sun roof tempered glass window exploded upward... it sounded like a shotgun went off in my car… the Suburu warranty claim was rejected… they determined it as “outside influence”… that caused my Sun roof window to implode… if this had happened on a highway, it may have caused a serious injury accident. Since that time, I have researched to see if other people have experienced similar incidents.. it appears that sun roof spontaneous explosions are not uncommon. This is why I am reaching out to you.

NHTSA #11743404

The seatbelts in the back row when uses occasionally lock up, when driver is not hitting the breaks and it let go, then as you try to loosen the seat belt it, it retracts more and more tightening more and more to the point that it feels like there is a rope going through your neck, the only way to make seat belt loosen is to completely take it off let it fully go back to place then put it back on again. This is an intermittent issue and it does not happen every time. But it does happen often enough that once my back seat passengers had to ride without seatbelts because of it

NHTSA #11737307

When driving in the rain, the vehicle flashed a collision warning indicator and applied the brakes as if there was an imminent collision with an object ahead, but the street ahead was completely empty - no vehicles or other objects that would warrant deploying the pre-collision braking system were present. If there were a vehicle behind me at the time, it is likely that their safety would have been put at risk when my vehicle suddenly started braking strongly for no apparent reason. The vehicle has been inspected by a Subaru dealership, who could not identify any issue. The dealer attempted to apply a software update to the EyeSight camera system that controls pre-collision braking, but was unable to apply the update. It is my belief that the camera-based EyeSight system interpreted rain on the windscreen as an obstacle and erroneously deployed pre-collision braking when there was no actual hazard ahead.

NHTSA #11742331

I bought a new 2026 Subaru Outback Limited XT which came with Bridgestone ECOPIA H/L 422 Plus 225/55R19 99H. Went on a trip and noticed when going 60mph and above a low humming noise and felt a vibration in the steering wheel and floor. This happens on all road surfaces, concrete, blacktop etc. Took car to the dealer, they drove it and confirmed what I was noticing, after doing a road force balance they said all (4) tires were "quote" way out of spec. They did what they could to help with the vibration, they said it's better but after driving it home it's not better by much. The service rep said this was becoming a common complaint with these Bridgestone tires. They told me Subaru is a where of the problem and they were expecting to see a TSB in the coming weeks. It's been almost a month now and no word yet about what Subaru is going to do about this issue

NHTSA #11727776

HVAC system heating to dangerous levels and still radiating heat into the cabin even after HVAC system was turned off. To mitigate, direction was changed to feet. Temperatures of over 100 degrees F were observed for sustained periods. Issue is intermittent, however it was reproduced consistently when it was cold outside (cold being cooler than 55 degrees F). I set the temperature to 65 degrees F with the AC on and recirculate, however it didn't make a difference. When this bug happens, it puts out a lot of heat and the only way to get it to cool is to drop it to the lowest cool setting ~60 degrees. I took it in 3 times to the dealer and they said they were unable to reproduce the issue, and while it has been intermittent, I was able to frequently reproduce the issue when it was cold outside, including yesterday, 04/19/26. It does not appear to happen when it's warm outside, although it hasn't been consistently warm to be able to conclude that at this point. What is certain is that the system does not appear to be functioning as designed (which is what both the dealer and Subaru of America (SoA) claim, SoA just restating the dealer's comments). Both LaFontaine Subaru of Commerce Township, Michigan and Subaru of America have at this point ignored the issue despite me bringing it up consistently.

NHTSA #11732409