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The All-New Subaru Forester on display during the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards

The 2018 Subaru Forester Is Experiencing a Growing Number of Complaints

Subaru makes a lot of great cars that have many fans, but that doesn’t mean that they’re perfect cars by any means. One of the more popular cars in Subaru’s lineup is the Forester, and unfortunately for Subie fans, the 2018 Forester has been seeing a lot of new issues. Here’s a look at the …

Subaru makes a lot of great cars that have many fans, but that doesn’t mean that they’re perfect cars by any means. One of the more popular cars in Subaru’s lineup is the Forester, and unfortunately for Subie fans, the 2018 Forester has been seeing a lot of new issues. Here’s a look at the 2018 Subaru Forester and the growing number of issues that it has.

Car Complaints’ trend list

Car Complaints keeps a list of the most severe issues that are popping up in cars in the last 90 days. This trend list currently shows a disturbing trend for Subie fans. Of the top 10 most severe issues, four of them belong to the 2018 Forester, and one of them belongs to the 2015 Forester. This may purely be a coincidence, and it may ultimately mean nothing – or it could be a troubling sign of what’s to come. 

That said, fortunately for Subie fans, while Car Complaints said that these were the most severe new complaints in the last 90 days, Car Complaints also said that there aren’t that many overall complaints about the 2018 Forester.

For example, overall, Car Complaints said that the 2014 Forester was the worst model year, and the 2015 Forester had the most complaints. The 2018 Forester is far behind those two model years in terms of overall issues, but it may catch up soon.

The 2018 Subaru Forester’s expensive new issues

The most costly new problem for the 2018 Forester, according to Car Complaints, had to do with its compressor breaking. With just 43,000 miles on the odometer, a 2018 Forester owner complained that the car’s warranty “definitely falls short of the quality of the vehicle and the repairs needed so early on.” Repairing this issue cost the owner $1,000, and, as a result, Car Complaints rated it as a “pretty bad” issue.

Another costly new issue for the 2018 Forester was the fact that an owner reported their car’s side-arm controller breaking. Once again, their Subaru was relatively brand-new, and it only had about 44,000 miles on it. The owner had to pay about $650 to fix this issue, and as a result, Car Complaints rated it as a “fairly significant” problem on the severity scale.

Again, while these issues occurred with a relatively new 2018 Forester, Car Complaints did not receive many complaints overall about these two issues. They were simply the most recent and the most expensive ones that Car Complaint owners reported.

The 2018 Subaru Forester’s other new issues

Car Complaints reported two other new issues with the 2018 Forester, but unfortunately, there is no data on the average price of repairs for these problems. That said, they could potentially be serious issues. The first issue had to do with the car’s windows not rolling up. The owner thinks that this may be an electrical issue, but they didn’t want to take their car into the shop for a diagnosis. 

Once again, the mileage on this Subie was also relatively brand-new, as it only had about 40,000 miles on it. Car Complaints also said that it was a “fairly significant” problem. The other new problem on the 2018 Forester, once again, happened at about 40,000 miles. And, once again, the owner did not want to take their car into the shop for a diagnosis, so it’s not clear how much it’d cost for repairs.

That said, this could potentially be a serious issue. This issue had to do with the 2018 Forester’s backup camera not working correctly from time to time. Obviously, this could be dangerous in some situations, but it’s also not clear how common a problem it is. In any case, Car Complaints said that this issue is “definitely annoying.”

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