2022 Subaru Outback

1. Vehicle doesn’t start when sitting just for a couple of days. Battery isn’t dead as lights, radio, etc work. The vehicle will start if jumped. Happened last year and was in and out of the dealership 3 times with this issue. They replaced the battery, but issue still persisted. They ended up doing a “software update “ which seemed to fix the issue. But just a year later I’m having a very similar issue with the vehicle not starting. This vehicle only has 14,000 miles on it. Do their batteries only last 1 year/ 7l miles? 2. The information screen freezes quite a bit we’re you’re not able to control the radio, air/heat etc. there seems to be electrical issues with this vehicle.

The contact owns a 2022 Subaru Outback. The contact stated he had taken the vehicle to the dealer for standard maintenance. When parked, the contact noticed that smoke was coming from underneath the vehicle. A loud popping noise occurred then a fire started underneath the hood of the vehicle. The fire quickly spread. The fire department extinguished the fire. There was no damage. There were no injuries and medical attention was not needed. A fire/police report was filed. The vehicle was towed and is with insurance waiting for the condition of the vehicle to be determined. The vehicle had not been officially diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 4,260.

The contact owns a 2022 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, she entered the vehicle to start the vehicle; however, the engine failed to turn over. An unknown electrical system warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the battery tray and battery holder needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 9,322.

On January 28, 2023 at approximately 1930 hours, vehicle battery was dead after being in a parking garage for a week. Vehicle was jump started and being driven on a highway for about 10 miles at highway speeds. At a location on the NYC Harlem River Drive, traffic came to a stop for a minute or so. The 'Auto Start Stop System' stopped the motor as designed. When traffic started to move again, the motor would not restart and the battery was dead. We were disabled in the left lane of an unlit high speed, high volume highway in the dark with our emergency flashers rapidly going dim. After about 45 minutes and numerous near serious collision misses, a tow truck arrived to tow us off of the highway. The system that failed was the 'Auto Start Stop System' and the vehicle is available for inspection. I have 40 years of investigating and reconstructing fatal and serious motor vehicle collisions and this defect put the safety of the motoring public at a serious risk. It is unknown if the problem has been reproduced and the component has not been inspected by the manufacturer. There was not any warning indicators or other symptoms of the problem. To the contrary, the vehicle operator had the false assumption that all systems were operating properly. This defect presents a high risk of serious injury to highway users.

Main Wiring harness / Main Electrical system malfunction, causing all dash lights to consistently be on. which in turn prevents all of the ADAS functions to no longer work. Vehicle has now been in 2 accidents which could have been prevented by these safety features. vehicle had had main harness replaced at dealers cost at dealership , and one at cost of insurance, problem remains unfixed/unfixable. vehicle is specifically 2022 Subaru outback Onxy XT.

On or about April 28, 2022, while traveling on route 95 North (an interstate highway) utilizing the Factory GPS system which is in the center console, the entire console went blank. I immediately grew concerned the vehicle steering or acceleration was about to fail and pulled over on the shoulder of the interstate. I turned off the vehicle and restarted it, yet the screen remained blank, which meant I could not control the heat, defroster, air conditioning, GPS, radio, the USB ports, the telephone connections, and etcetera; all were inoperable. As I continued to drive the screen remained blank or blacked out. I pulled into a rest area and waited 20 minutes with the vehicle turned off, and when I restarted the vehicle, it operated normally. On April 29, 2022, vehicle mileage 10,389, I took my 2022 Outback to Subaru, while at the dealership the dealership diagnosed the problem as follows: a new center console Cockpit Control Unit Assembly-Navigation and Display Assembly was ordered. I was told the dealership would contact me when the part arrived. I did not hear from the dealership and on June 27, 2022, vehicle mileage 16,282, I returned to Subaru for the third (3rd) time, and I informed them the problem with the center console continued. I was advised that additional testing was needed. According to the service records a miscellaneous check for the latest software was completed, issue was not resolved, the console failed to accept the updates and a new console was ordered. No warning lamps, codes or errors were noticed, the screen goes blank and the driver wonders what will occur next. In this model, 2022 Outback XT Limited, the screen is over 12 inches tall and is the predominant electrical system in the vehicle. The problem was replicated by the dealership on 5 service visits, it is available for inspection, although the concern occurs daily it is intermitent. After 6 visits the problem has not been repaired/rectified.