2020 Subaru Legacy problems
Owners have filed 143 complaints with NHTSA about the 2020 Subaru Legacy. Wipers, windshield & visibility is the most reported problem area, at 46% of complaints. After that come electrical system (10%) and forward collision avoidance (6%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 143 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Wipers, windshield & visibility 46% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 1 and 2
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 6,000 miles 59 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 50 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 7 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 1 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 59 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 6,000 miles. For wipers, windshield & visibility specifically, the median reported mileage is about 6,000 miles (40 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a crash; 2 complaints mention a fire; 1 injury reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 90% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2020 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 34 model years of the Subaru Legacy with enough data (139 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 6 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
The contact's wife owned a 2020 Subaru Legacy. The contact stated while his wife was driving approximately 3 MPH in a parking lot the vehicle suddenly accelerated and jumped the curb into woods and collided with a tree. The contact said his wife was not aware of any warning lights being illuminated. The vehicle front bumper and hood hit in the center and were both crumpled back about six inches. The contact hit the top of his head severely damaging the windshield on the passenger side and sustained minor cuts.
One hour into traveling on the highway smoke began to come from under the hood so we pulled off to the side of the road. Upon opening the hood, after the smoke cleared, a fire was observed. At that point the passengers exited the vehicle and called 911. There was no warning lights or sounds indicating any problems prior to this. The car burned very quickly and the firefighters extinguished the fire but not before the entire car was burned to ashes.
Windshield has cracked on both sides inward when stationary. There doesn't appear to be any rock chips or hit marks. Just split and chipped on its own.
The built in display/infotainment by default will display weather warnings for an area around the current location of the vehicle. When these are displayed, the rest of the display is not usable until an "ok" button is touched on the display. When this first happened on our vehicle, multiple tropical storm warnings were active around the area, and each time "ok" was touched, a new message popped up - a total of at least 10 messages popped up.