2021 Subaru Crosstrek

While driving in the left lane on a three lane highway (about 70mph) the car's automatic braking system engaged. The car would not accelerate creating a very dangerous situation on a congested highway at night. Luckily, we are able to navigate to a brake down lane without a collision. The check engine light, Eyesight light and RAB light turned on. The car would not function normally and was towed to a Subaru dealer (Patrick Subaru, Shrewsbury MA). Diagnosis was a failure of the Engine Coolant Bypass Valve P26A6. Other failure codes were: P0087, P2004, P2005, B2806, B2C22. I was told this is a known problem in Subarus of certain years, but, instead of recalling, the company has extended the warranty on the malfunctioning part. This incident happened without any previous warning and caused a life threatening situation for us and those around us.

There are occasional times (perhaps once or twice a month) where the vehicle does not respond with the expected acceleration of a depression of the accelerator pedal. Specifically, the vehicle "lags" when I depress the accelerator pedal. While I have not experienced a dire situation or collision because of it, I believe it might cause other drivers to experience a safety incident: a driver might want to perform a fast maneuver with elevated risk but not receive the expected acceleration. For example, I was once making a U-Turn with traffic oncoming about 2,000 feet away. I needed to make the maneuver swiftly but my vehicle lagged. I would like to report this issue in case other owners of the Subaru Crosstrek Plug-In Hybrid are also experiencing.

I was driving my 2021 Subaru Crosstrek slowly in a parking lot when it unexpectedly accelerated on its own without me pressing the gas pedal. I believe the Crosstrek was now going 40mph. I tried to shut off the engine and brake at the same time but neither one had any effect. I thought maybe I had two options. Either hit another vehicle or pedestrian or turn my car into the curb. I decided to turn into the curb which resulted in the breaking of both axels, flattening all the tires, and sustaining damage to the front fender and headlight. The car was then towed to a garage we’re it was declared totaled. I checked the internet to see if this had occurred to any other Crosstrek. It turns out their is a class action suit pending for the same reason. Police records will show I was not drunk, sleeping, and the car mat was off gas pedal.12