Subaru Not Reliable?

[Guest LGT-NY]

Reuben, you know what you could use.... Some fog lights!

[slm90legacy]

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!

 

amen!!!!!!!

[adidasoutback]

if every one went by what jd power and all those other useless magazines said wed all drive hyundais.

 

Those magazines have no idea how actually reliable car or brand is.

 

Subaru is known for their reliability as much as Honda and Toyota.

 

If you wanna know what unreliable is buy a late model VW/Audi/Porche or a jaguar or land rover.

[legandrex]

I consider them very reliable. Since driving a Subaru since 2001 I have had no mechanical issues. Only issues were cooling fan not turning off on 05 GT sedan and wagon, Tribeca needed a new oxygen sensor, and 08 Legacy needed a new electronic throttle sensor. All in all nothing that concerns me too much.

[ehsnils]

Just check out this thread if you want to see reliability figures, and some brands makes Audi look good: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116353

[captainhook]

Ahh, a revival thread, well here's the 2009 rankings:

 

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu325/tunedlgt/2009AutoManafacturerQualityRankings.jpg

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this graph (as far as Subaru), I've had an insane amount of problems with my car. Most of which were completely un-mod related.

[ehsnils]

I can't help to wonder if there is a difference between the US assembled cars and the Japan assembled cars.

[subarovsky]

I am on my second Subaru and have never had any problems except the recall on the rear diff. bearings, both are 2006 model, and Impreza and a LGT

[Jerboa113]

how do you have a 1/4 of a problem?

[ShrinerMonkey]

Ahh, a revival thread, well here's the 2009 rankings:

 

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu325/tunedlgt/2009AutoManafacturerQualityRankings.jpg

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this graph (as far as Subaru), I've had an insane amount of problems with my car. Most of which were completely un-mod related.

JD Power? Seriously? JD Power surveys are complete garbage. Who gives a crap about "initial" quality? All problems in this category would be fixed under warranty anyway. How about AFTER the warranty runs out?

[HarryN]

I can't help to wonder if there is a difference between the US assembled cars and the Japan assembled cars.

 

I have to agree. I remember a while back on cardomain.com, I was speaking with a member there that had a Liberty GT and a 2.5 LGT. He said the Liberty alone felt like the car was solid, handled better, responded better, and had fewer issues than his 2.5 LGT made in Indiana.

 

He still has his car, and his 2.5 LGT is gone. He got tired of the repairs he had to do after 72K miles. His Liberty is still going strong and turning heads.

 

I will send him an email and ask him to give his speal on here. As far as he is concerned, JDM > USDM.

[Jerboa113]

thats really kind of odd really considering most of the differences are the ethnicity of the guy putting the parts together and thats just about it..

 

I mean other than the interior parts and some options we dont have, the cars are basically the same.

[JoeFromPA]

JD Power have their uses, but this graph is specifically refers to, "The Initial Quality Study serves as the industry benchmark for new-vehicle quality measured at 90 days of ownership."

 

So basically, how many cars have one issue that the owner felt worthy of reporting within 90 days of ownership.

 

Now in the last few years Subaru had some engine problems that popped up. They introduced a few brand new models recently as well, though most automakers on the list did that and that's not an excuse.

 

This survey has no relation on long-term reliability of a vehicle.

 

Joe

 

P.s. FYI, my 2006 Honda Civic SI was delivered with an off-center steering wheel and needed to be re-aligned. That's an issue that would be reported here, but probably had to do with the car being incorrectly transported.

 

 

Ahh, a revival thread, well here's the 2009 rankings:

 

http://i660.photobucket.com/albums/uu325/tunedlgt/2009AutoManafacturerQualityRankings.jpg

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this graph (as far as Subaru), I've had an insane amount of problems with my car. Most of which were completely un-mod related.

[jond_68]

I have owned 7 subarus over the last 20 years. All have been reliable. I have put between 130-175k on most, before trading. I have had some issues with wheel bearings, headlights, thermostats, etc.

 

I did headgaskets on my 02 lgt. This is what I would consider the most expensive and disappointing repair I have had to do. Still, it was less than 1000 dollars. This is the only repair I had to pay for. Everything else on this car was a warranty item. I still drove this car to around 130,000 before trading in on 06 lgt. I feel I still could have driven it for another 50K, but was ready to trade.

 

I guess my point is that while I have had some minor issues, I have never had a major problem, and most of the minor issues were handled under warranty.

[krzyss]

how do you have a 1/4 of a problem?

 

Out of 4 for people 1 reported a problem. 1/4 = 0.25.

 

Krzys

[Jerboa113]

 

well you're no fun.. with your rationality and not entertaining the idea of having a 1/4 of a problem..

[adidasoutback]

Initial quality is the STUPIDEST measurement of how good a car is going to be. Caddy and Porche are KNOWN POSs after and during the warantee period.

 

I tend to think subaru owners report more issues because they know more about their car and what little things are happening. The morons who buy escalades on 24s and assume that clunking noise in because the wheels are bigger, are why they arent so high in issues.

 

Not only that, I know my dealer made it a point to tell me that there is a 1 year adjustment period and to bother them about everything. I can tell you right now, as soon as you leave a cadi lot they never wanna see your ass again.

[GeraldG]

lol on the rankings. and +1 on shrinermonkey, "who gives a crap about initial quality?".

i have an b6 audi a4 and the lgt, the audi has waaaay more issues than the leggy.

[captainhook]

JD Power have their uses, but this graph is specifically refers to, "The Initial Quality Study serves as the industry benchmark for new-vehicle quality measured at 90 days of ownership."

 

So basically, how many cars have one issue that the owner felt worthy of reporting within 90 days of ownership.

 

Now in the last few years Subaru had some engine problems that popped up. They introduced a few brand new models recently as well, though most automakers on the list did that and that's not an excuse.

 

This survey has no relation on long-term reliability of a vehicle.

 

Joe

 

Well, in the first 90 days alone I needed:

1. Moonroof fixed, randomly stuck open and wouldn't shut

2. Driver seat frame replaced due to cracked weld (clearly I'm a huge guy at 180-190)

3. Steering wheel replaced due to SI-Drive button failure

4. Total TPMS failure. The system had issues since the first week of ownership. Everything was replaced: sensors, wiring, control module, and it still had problems.

5. Car needed to be realigned because it was pulling to the left after only 500 miles.

 

In the first year of ownership my car has spent LITERALLY 4 weeks in the shop for warranty work. That's my experience with Subaru initial quality.

 

Tons of 09 WRX+Legacy turbo motors popping in the first few thousand miles is an entirely other example. My friend with a new 09 WRX has gone through two complete motor swaps in the first 7K miles of ownership, that's complete bull.

[ehsnils]

thats really kind of odd really considering most of the differences are the ethnicity of the guy putting the parts together and thats just about it..

 

I think that's actually one of the problems here. In Japan they are deadly serious about failures. They even have special employees that only has as a task to perform apologies in case something goes wrong!

 

The term Kaizen is also a key issue in Japanese company culture.

 

Another catch is that it may be that the design of Japanese cars suits Asian people better than westerners since westerners often have bigger hands and thicker arms than Asians. That can actually be an issue during assembly that has an impact on quality.

 

And I also have an uncle that works for a manufacturing company for heavy equipment (Not Volvo) with sites all over the world that says that there are more quality issues related to assembly in the US than many other places. Everything from ignored correctly torque when assembling machinery to outright sabotage because a person was sacked.

[Jerboa113]

hrmm.. I hadn't thought about the cultural ramifications on build quality.

 

some people here in the us like their jobs (me. ) and want to do a good job.. others just collect a paycheck and dont care if they do a good job so long as it doesn't mean they dont get fired.

 

I kind of find it hard to beleive that the japanese people really have that much of a superior sense of quality in large enough quantities over americans however that their work on near identical things would be different?

[Max Capacity]

What can I say, 110,000 miles, engine and turbo are happy. Tranny's do'in well after the 3rd rebuild last Sept. Knock on wood...

 

The only odd thing was the drivers window stopped working back a few years, it was covered. The Stumbling engine and fans sticking on were also fixed by them.

 

I do feel sorry for the few out of the thousands that have issues. I will say I was amazed when the oil pick up tubes began falling off. Who missed the boat on catching that at the factory.