2022 Subaru Forester

The contact owns a 2022 Subaru Forester. While the contact's wife was driving at an undisclosed speed, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with a failed inhibitor switch. The contact was informed that the inhibitor switch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was being repaired. The contact was informed that parts were on back order. The contact referenced an unknown recall; however, the VIN was not associated with a recall related to the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 51,000.

I am writing to report a serious safety concern involving my '22 Subaru Forester, which is equipped with the Auto Start/Stop feature. This issue created a dangerous driving situation that could have resulted in severe injury or death to myself, my family, or other drivers on the road. While driving on the highway, our Forester's Auto Start/Stop system malfunctioned causing the engine to shut off completely while the vehicle. Specifically, the vehicle shut down in the left lane of traffic and failed to restart immediately leaving us unexpectedly immobile. Fortunately, my husband remained calm and immediately placed his foot back on the brake, placed the vehicle in park and restarted the vehicle manually by pressing the ignition button. However, had he hesitated during the confusion by not placing his foot back on the brake we could have been rear-ended, possibly by a large semi-truck which would have propelled us into the vehicle in front of us. Our dealer said the Auto Start/Stop system failing to restart the vehicle due to a weakening battery—for which there is no warning. The fact that a non-critical feature like fuel-saving Start/Stop is allowed to override the engine's operability based on battery voltage is deeply concerning. Batteries degrade over time. But a degraded battery should not be allowed to disable a moving vehicle.Having spoken directly with Subaru of America about this issue, they acknowledged and documented my case however I was told that it would be used as data for potential future action if other similar cases arise. In the meantime, no corrective action is being taken by Subaru, with me as an owner or proactively with the feature design.I respectfully urge the NHTSA to investigate this matter as a potential safety defect. The Auto Start/Stop system, as implemented in certainSubaru models (specifically the 2022 Forester in my case) may compromise safe vehicle operation when battery voltage drops below a certain threshold which is a safety flaw.

My new 2022 Forester Wildness is equipped with an automate "Start and Stop" function which (while driving) shuts the engine off if the sits still too long in traffic or a stop light. While the car has a button to disable this function. You must press the button every time you start the car to disable the auto SS. Today I had forgot to disable the function. The car stalled at a busy intersection nearly causing me to be rear ended. I think there is a safety concern here. Someone could get hurt trying to save a small amount of gas. Also, the wear and tear on the starter and associated engine components could result in premature failures over the life of the vehicle.