2020 Subaru Outback

A fire started under the hood of my car while I was driving. There were no warning lights on in my car and the temperature gauge was in the middle where it usually is. Earlier in the day, I smelled gas, but I thought it was a different car as the smell of gas went away after a car that had a lot of exhaust coming out was no longer in sight.

[XXX] and I were driving to Sean’s for dinner on Friday night [XXX] when the sunroof glass exploded at approximately [XXX]. [XXX] was driving on the [XXX] . We heard a loud bang and thought we were in an accident. We noticed sounds from the sunroof so I slide the cover open slightly and saw a massive hole so immediately closed it again. We pulled off and used the emergency ramp to examine the damage and take pictures. We think the glass exploded for no reason as we did not see any debris in front of us and were not under an underpass. We did not find any debris or scratches on the car indicating an external object as the culprit. I dropped my car off with Subaru Carlsbad on June 17, 2025 and am waiting for an update. My service advisor was shocked by the occurrence as she had not seen something like this. I pointed out that the glass exploded outwards and asked her to check the cabin pressure vents as we found discussion pointing to those as a potential issue when researching online. We also heard complaints that Subaru has specifically excluded this piece of glass from the warranty so I let my advisor know that I hope / expect this to be covered under warranty. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

2020 Subaru Outback rear auto liftgate randomly automatically closes after opening. It has hit me, the owner, in the head as I was attempting to place items in the rear. It has hit various store personnel as they were attempting to load products in the rear. I have reported this to my local Subaru dealer many times over the last five years, even leaving my vehicle for several days for inspection. Their responses have been - if we don't see it, we can't help OR no problem is detected. I have reported to Subaru Consumer Advocate twice with no resolution.

I am on my third windshield in les than a year. The tiniest pebble will crack the windshield, or sudden changes to weather has now caused a stress crack. Seems to be poor weight distribution on the design. There is extensive customer complaints on line with the same issue. Insurance will only cover two a year. There were no warnings of this issue when the car was purchased. This is an expensive hazard to keep having issues with. They need to do a recall on a fix.

Defective windshields. The vehicle has been in my possession for 4 years. During these 4 years i've had 5 windshield replacements. 2 of which have been from rocks. 3 of which I have no idea what caused the damage, it seemingly happened out of nowhere while driving. This is well known (but not well dealt with) issue with Subaru vehicles with eyesight. People on multiple forums have the same issue, as do many people I know personally. Its a shame nothing has been done about this despite countless reports and complaints. This is a safety hazard.

Problem component: exterior mirror on driver side It was raining, I was driving, I heard what sounded like a loud explosion by my driver side window. After the initial shock, I thought a tire had blown out, but car drove ok and no tire warning light came on. It was a rural road with no shoulder, only deep stormwater ditch along the roadside, so there was no place to safely pull over in traffic to assess what may have happened. I drove about 2-3 miles before I could pull over at a safe spot.There I saw that the back side of my driver side mirror had completely disappeared. Wires were exposed. It appeared to have exploded off for no apparent reason. The body of the car was completely fine, the white exterior paint of the car was perfect, the actual housing of the mirror showed no marks, there are no dings or cracks in windows. No sign of any debris hitting the car. I reported it to Subaru general headquarters, and gave them all the info. I have an appt with local Subaru dealer this week. The mirror and housing are still on the car, minus the back, which is gone. My husband returned to the scene a few minutes later and searched for the piece that had propelled off the mirror or for any debris that could have caused the mirror to explode. There was nothing on the road, so wherever the back of the mirror went, it must have propelled far off the road. Safety issue: because an explosion like that nearly caused me to lose control of the car. And the piece that propelled off the mirror could have hit another car. Additional info. at the time of mirror exploding: my windshield wipers were on, it was a warm day so my air-conditioning was on, good chance my front dehumidifier was on. Car is equipped with heated mirrors, but heat was off.