2018 Subaru Forester: What to check before buying

Cracks appear in the windshield with little or no visible impact. Reports describe cracks forming overnight in a parked car, after a hard frost, while scraping ice, or from a pinhead-sized pebble. A small crack often spreads across the driver's line of sight within hours. Many owners have replaced the glass more than once, and some say the replacement Subaru glass cracked again. Failures range from nearly new cars to well past 30,000 miles. Most owners pay for the glass themselves or through insurance.

Glass fractures without any impact, often discovered on a parked car, and some cracks appear while driving at moderate speed. Cracks start low on the driver or passenger side or near the heating element. They can spread across the glass within hours and block the driver's view. Some cars crack again after a replacement. Reported mileage runs from about 10,000 to 75,000 miles, with several reports near 30,000. Dealers tell owners the glass is not covered under warranty.

The front passenger airbag shuts itself off. The SRS warning light turns on and off whether or not someone is in the seat. Sometimes the system treats an empty seat as occupied. The cause is the passenger seat occupant detection system, covered by recall WUM-98 for some cars with heated seats. Many owners say their VIN is left out of the recall and they pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to fix it. Others say the fault came back after the recall repair. In two crash reports, the airbags did not deploy.

Batteries go dead after the car sits for a few days. Owners describe parasitic drains that dealers often cannot find, repeated battery replacements, and no-start strandings. Some reports blame the telematics module, which keeps trying to reach shut-down 3G networks. A 4G replacement is quoted at about $2000. This category also includes A/C failures that return after recharging, intermittent passenger airbag warnings, a frozen touchscreen that disables the backup camera and Bluetooth, and blind spot detection that cuts in and out.

The front end shakes, rattles, or vibrates at highway speed. Mechanics usually trace this to worn front lower control arm bushings, and owners report replacing control arms and transverse bushings. Separate reports describe the power steering cutting out with a fault message, steering that goes heavy for a few seconds after startup, and lane assist locking the wheel while driving. Dealers often cannot reproduce the steering faults. Two crash reports in this category describe unintended acceleration while parking.

The car surges forward or backward at low speed. It usually happens while pulling into a parking space, entering a garage, or shifting gears. Drivers say their foot was on the brake and the car kept going. Nine of these reports involve crashes into buildings, garage walls, or parked cars, often with no warning lights beforehand and airbags that did not deploy. Dealers and Subaru technicians often find no stored codes. Other reports describe high idle, revving at a stop, and a delay before the car moves.

The CVT hesitates, jerks, or stops pulling for a few seconds while the engine revs, which can leave the car stuck in a traffic lane. Owners also report stalling, lurching shifts while merging, and one transmission lockup at highway speed. Subaru extended CVT coverage to 10 years or 100,000 miles, but some owners say dealers denied their claims. One remanufactured transmission did not fix the problem. Three crash reports describe sudden acceleration while parking. Worn rear wheel bearings and a cracked catalytic converter also appear.

Power drops suddenly at highway speed, sometimes with every warning light on. Owners describe narrow escapes in traffic. In one case the dealer found two failed catalytic converters. Other reports describe a delay in throttle response followed by a hard lurch, exhaust manifold gasket leaks that whistle on cold starts, a warped manifold leaking exhaust into the cabin, camshaft seal leaks, and fuel in the oil. One fire report involves an A/C compressor that sparked and caught fire after its belt melted.

Spontaneous windshield cracks make up most of these reports, including on parked cars and at low speed, and some owners replace the glass every year. Three crash reports describe the car accelerating while shifting or parking. In these reports it kept moving with the brake and parking brake applied. Other complaints cover door rust where seam sealer was applied poorly, with warranty claims denied until the metal rusts through. One owner reports a hood that came unlatched at highway speed.