2019 Subaru Legacy: What to check before buying

Windshields crack with little or no impact, often while the car sits parked overnight or in a garage. Reports describe a pop followed by a crack running from the lower edge across the glass, and a tiny chip can spread to a foot or more within hours. Repeat failures are common. Some cars are on a third or fourth windshield, and replacement glass cracks too. Early cracks appear around 3,300 to 5,500 miles. Dealers often decline coverage, owners pay out of pocket, and many see the weakened glass as a safety risk.

Windshield glass cracks without any impact. In one report this happened at about 50,000 miles, and the manufacturer said it could not help after the glass was replaced. The other complaint concerns the driver's side mirror, which cannot be angled to show a car in the blind spot, and a blind spot warning light that comes on inconsistently. With only two reports, no broader pattern is visible here.

The infotainment touchscreen delaminates, with bubbles or white spots behind the glass. It then registers phantom touches, skips radio stations, refuses to turn off, and dials phone contacts unprompted. Spots can block the backup camera view. Reports place this between 34,000 and 50,000 miles. A second pattern is a battery that dies after the car sits for a few days. New batteries do not fix it, and owners and shops point to a parasitic drain from the DCM module. One report describes the engine racing past 6000 RPM at a stop while the brakes held the car.

Reports are few and scattered. A plugged catalytic converter at 56,000 miles overheated and damaged the O2 sensors, lit the check engine light, and switched off safety features. Another car leaks oil from the cam carrier seal at 80,000 miles, and its owner worries about oil dripping onto the exhaust. Other complaints describe oil burning without a visible leak, brief stalls with an odd engine noise at about 15,000 miles, and repeated dead batteries from a parasitic drain.

Power drops off when pulling away from a stop. The engine hesitates, shakes, and feels close to stalling, sometimes in the middle of an intersection with traffic behind. Reports place this around 56,000 to 65,000 miles, and owners suspect the fuel pump. In one case the pump failed outright and the car shut down near a busy intersection without warning. The remaining complaint is a dealer dispute over which service bulletin steps to perform during fuel tank work.

EyeSight driver aids fail to prevent low-speed collisions. Two of the three complaints involve crashes. In one, reverse automatic braking did not stop the car before it backed into a parked vehicle. In the other, adaptive cruise accelerated into the car ahead without a warning. The third describes a sudden loss of speed control in heavy highway traffic. The driver later traced it to cruise control switched on by accidentally pressing a steering wheel button.

The wheel can lose power assist or move on its own. One report describes power steering that stops working. Another describes the wheel turning left unprompted at 30 mph, then jerking left and stiffening during a turn at 45 mph, at only 2,400 miles. The dealer could not reproduce it, and warning lights appeared later. A third describes a dead spot on center and a change in feel while unwinding out of highway curves, with the car turning in harder than expected.