Once or twice a day my vehicle hesitates from a light and I have to almost floor it to get it going again.I have brought it to 2 different Subaru dealers 3 times and they say they can't fix the problem.
2021 Subaru Forester
Owner reports · Recalls · Investigations
Similar to other model years
Owner complaints for the 2021 Subaru Forester do not stand out strongly from the model-year median of 131.
About this comparison →How this year compares
Owner complaints by model year
Compare all Forester years →Counts vary with age, sales and reporting. They are not failure rates.
What owners reported most
All reported categories
Tap a category to read its complaints. One report may name several components.
When problems were reported
Mileage at the reported incident
Limited mileage data: 37 of 207 reports include usable mileage. There isn’t enough coverage to show a useful chart.
NHTSA’s mileage field refers to the reported incident, not necessarily the filing date. This shows report counts, not the likelihood of a failure.
What to inspect
Issues worth paying extra attention to based on owner reports.
- Visibility/wiper. Review the 76 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
- Electrical System. Review the 33 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
- Engine. Review the 32 owner reports in this category and discuss these concerns during a pre-purchase inspection. Read reports →
NHTSA owner reports · September 18, 2026 snapshot.
What owners actually said
207 reportsMy vehicle starlink infotainment system does not work. This is a safety hazard because it prevents drivers from using their back up cameras and this car has many blind spots. This also frustrates drivers and causes distraction as navigation is not available. The screen display abruptly stopped working. I brought my vehicle to t…
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My vehicle starlink infotainment system does not work. This is a safety hazard because it prevents drivers from using their back up cameras and this car has many blind spots. This also frustrates drivers and causes distraction as navigation is not available. The screen display abruptly stopped working. I brought my vehicle to the dealer and their solution was to spend $1700 on a new infotainment system. Owners should not have to be paying to utilize safety features marketed for the vehicle they bought. There were no warnings prior to the system breaking.
My Forester was parked and when I started the car I heard a pop, pop, pop. Looked at my front windshield and watched it crack from the lower left - driver side - up to the center of window, with each pop. Googled - the community has posted similar problems with Subaru windshields. Temperature on [XXX] in Phoenix was 60 deg…
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My Forester was parked and when I started the car I heard a pop, pop, pop. Looked at my front windshield and watched it crack from the lower left - driver side - up to the center of window, with each pop. Googled - the community has posted similar problems with Subaru windshields. Temperature on [XXX] in Phoenix was 60 degrees at the time of windshield popping. No impact, parked car, started engine and crack just started and I watched it expand from 2 inches to 24". Very scary! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Thermo control valve failed at about 42000 miles on 2021 Subaru Forester Premium, on 1/1/24. Owned 3 yrs 1 mo. Car was parked at work. Immediately after car was started up for return commute -- check engine light was on, ADAS systems ("Eyesight") disabled, blue low coolant temperature light on, and no heat through HVAC. Fort…
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Thermo control valve failed at about 42000 miles on 2021 Subaru Forester Premium, on 1/1/24. Owned 3 yrs 1 mo. Car was parked at work. Immediately after car was started up for return commute -- check engine light was on, ADAS systems ("Eyesight") disabled, blue low coolant temperature light on, and no heat through HVAC. Fortunately car driveable, despite safety being compromised with disabling of the safety features (blind spot monitor, rear cross traffic alert) and concern about damaging engine being forced to drive home with check engine light on. Engine failed to warm despite 40+ min highway trip. As this was commute vehicle, forced to take next day off work to have check engine light looked at. The next morning windshield ice had to be manually scraped (no heat). Drove car gingerly to dealership (<10 mins) avoiding freeways, for fear of damaging engine. Unknown if windshield defroster would've worked if started fogging mid-trip (safety concern). Dealership inspected vehicle - diagnosed thermo control valve failure, and replaced part. I was not charged as the car was still covered under powertrain warranty. No warning prior to the failure. Drove normally on the morning drive to work. Dealership replaced TCV with a part that has the same part number, per Subaru's TSB. Given experience of others indicating high failure rates of TCV after 3-4 years, and what I suspect is genuine design defect, I expect replacing the part to only have temporarily reset the clock -- seems certain to fail again. I have no confidence that Subaru has implemented an actual solution. I do not know if the next failure of this powertrain component will happen under warranty, or if it will incur signficant out of pocket costs (well over >$1000 to replace). Furthermore, if TCV fails whilst driving (as could have happened, and has been reported by others elsewhere), this will be a safety hazard with sudden disabling of blind spot monitor / rear cross traffic alert.
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the automatic emergency braking system activated, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the d…
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The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the automatic emergency braking system activated, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 24,000.
Tire size: P225/60R/17 98T Was driving around a roundabout @ about 25mph. There was a "Bang" and the right front tire went instantly flat. At no time did the vehicle either hit an object on the road or a curb. Vehicle was pulled over immediately. There is no rim damage that might indicate a curb strike. Upon examinatio…
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Tire size: P225/60R/17 98T Was driving around a roundabout @ about 25mph. There was a "Bang" and the right front tire went instantly flat. At no time did the vehicle either hit an object on the road or a curb. Vehicle was pulled over immediately. There is no rim damage that might indicate a curb strike. Upon examination of the tire there is a 2 inch rip in the sidewall of the tire. The tires (4) had been installed on the car @ 20,988 miles. They had been rotated at 27,427 miles. The blowout occurred @ 33,721 miles (12,733 miles from installation. I was told that there is no warranty on the tire(s) since we were not the original owner of the car when they were installed.
Barely pushed on inside of windshield with foot and it cracked in a million directions.
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 10 MPH, the vehicle became inoperable. The vehicle stopped independently and failed to respond to the brake or accelerator pedal being depressed. The vehicle was turned off and restarted and returned to normal functionality. The contact stated that the Eye…
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The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 10 MPH, the vehicle became inoperable. The vehicle stopped independently and failed to respond to the brake or accelerator pedal being depressed. The vehicle was turned off and restarted and returned to normal functionality. The contact stated that the Eyesight detection warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was diagnosed but the cause of the failure was not determined. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact to bring the vehicle in for an extended time. The failure mileage was approximately 34,000.
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH, the front windshield cracked from the side and extended to the center of the windshield. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no …
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The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH, the front windshield cracked from the side and extended to the center of the windshield. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 13,000.
I slowly pulled into a parking space at a grocery store. I took my foot off the accelerator, and the car jerked forward, traveling maybe 2-3 feet. I quickly put my foot on the brake and was able to stop the car. I took the car to the dealer, and the service consultant told me that she thought that a memo had just come in addr…
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I slowly pulled into a parking space at a grocery store. I took my foot off the accelerator, and the car jerked forward, traveling maybe 2-3 feet. I quickly put my foot on the brake and was able to stop the car. I took the car to the dealer, and the service consultant told me that she thought that a memo had just come in addressing the kind of incident I had. She also told me that another customer's car had accelerated into a bush and that the owner was so rattled that she traded her car in for another car. However, the service repairman said that he ran a lot of codes and was unable to find anything wrong. He told me that Subarus have never had unintended acceleration problems. Now I have a loaner car from Subaru, and my car is at the dealership awaiting a visit from a higher-up Subaru person who is over the local technicians. Last year, I brought the car in for several issues, one of which was an unintended acceleration while parking at another grocery store. Last year I was told that the instrument that looks for problems ran lots of codes and could find no record of the incident.
Official recalls
0No recalls in this snapshot.
Model-level recall history does not show whether a particular VIN is affected or has received a repair. Check a VIN with NHTSA ↗
NHTSA investigations
0No exact-year investigations in this snapshot.
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