09Limited Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 Fellow Legacy Owners: On May 4 of this year, I leased a 2009 Subaru Legacy 3.0 R Limited with every possible option except the extendable armrest and Homelink mirror. The sticker was a little over $33,000. Now I write to report some general gripes about the car. As a brand new car, I believe that it should have absolutely no problems. However, I've had to have the following things repaired or worked on: 1. Had door padding installed because the plastic door trims buzzes and rattles terribly as a result of the speakers. The door padding did not help, and I have had to stuff wads of paper down into the door pockets to alleviate the buzzing. It still does it from time to time and I cannot enjoy my music. 2. I have had the tires balanced and rotated twice because the whole car shimmied on the highway when I drove 65 m.p.h. or faster. One dealership failed to remove the original factory wheel weights (they just added a new set on top of the originals), but the second dealership removed all of them and fixed the problem. 3. I had to have the front brake rotors lathed because the whole car would shimmy if I used the brakes while driving at a fast speed. For example, if I was driving on the highway and I would slow down to make a turn, the car would shake. I had the rotors lathed at about 3,500 miles. 4. From the first day I took possession of the car, the transmission shifted strangely. Almost every time it would shift from 3rd to 4th gear, the whole car would vibrate. But as soon as the gear would shift, it would immediately stop, so I knew it was related to the transmission. I took it into the Subaru dealer and I had to drive a loaner over the weekend while they diagnosed it. It turned out that it needed a new torque converter! It only had about 3,000 miles on it as this time. They said there was a technical service bulletin for the issue, and they replaced the torque converter under warranty. 5. Just recently, on Thanksgiving day, I got in my car to drive two hours home to be with my family, and it would not start. It only clicked. I had Subaru emergency roadside services come out because I thought it was just a dead battery, but the battery had 12.5 volts. So, I had to have it flat-bedded to the closest Subaru dealership which is an hour away. As it turned out, the ground wire attached to the starter came "unhooked" for unknown reasons. The service technician said he has never seen this before, and it must have been loose from the factory. So, I was stranded all by myself without my family on Thanksgiving day, and of course the dealership and all rental car agencies were closed for the holiday. Come on! Call me a whiner, but this is simply unacceptable for a brand new $33,000 car. Keep in mind, the dealership is an hour away, so each time I take it in, I have to spend a lot of time traveling. I'm thankful that nothing has cost me any money yet as it still has its bumper-to-bumper warranty, but this is unbelievable. I regret to say that I will never, ever purchase or lease another Subaru. I had the highest expectations for this car, but it keeps having troubles. I just thought I'd report these issues to you guys to see if any of you have had similar troubles. Wish me luck in the future!
bisbers Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 Sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having. All cars have issues but I agree that it is unacceptable. As far as #5 goes, I've seen similar behavior in our 99 suburban - the wire that connects the battery to the alternator becomes just loose enough that the car shuts off randomly. A quick tightening up, everything is fine again, but it happens approx once a year. Local service station cannot figure out the root cause, so we just recognize it and tighten things up. Sure is scary though! Best of luck with the subaru, hope things settle down and your opinion of the vehicle improves!
Gasaraki Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 1-Same problem here. You might have to take it to a car audio pro and have them place some dynamat or something. I currently have a hand towel stuff in the lower passenger side pocket. It seems to help. Sorry about your other problems. My 08 was pretty trouble free.
bravonoj Posted December 1, 2009 Posted December 1, 2009 I take a large issue with my 09 ltd as well with the audio system - they put a capable and relatively nice system in this car (dont get me started on the craptastic subwoofer in the rear) only to RUIN it by not damping the doors enough...I put some dynamat on the inside of the door pockets, but havent taken the door apart yet to see if I can secure anything in there... I also have a rattle in the sunroof controls, which turns out to be the cabling rattling around, so I just need to stuff something (foam?) in there to quiet that up... If you do something about the door rattling from the speaker do let us know - also if the dealer fixed it let us know that as well! thanks!
JL9000 Posted December 2, 2009 Posted December 2, 2009 Don't quote me on this but perhaps #5 has something to do with the repair work for #4. It's not uncommon for grounds to slowly work themselves loose after not being properly secured during major repairs.
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