10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
0 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2016 Subaru Crosstrek:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #3

Jan 272023

Crosstrek

  • miles
Car caught fire from what seemed to be an electrical issue. Car became engulfed in flames within a few seconds. Fire department was called to extinguish the fire. I was lucky myself to make it out in time. The fire became so big, so quickly, I was concerned for the safety of the surrounding property. Luckily, no one was injured and no property damage took place. Car was inspected and totaled by insurance. The headlights were constantly needing to be changed. Otherwise the car was fine. I had just replaced the battery and just a few hours later the fire happened. The fire appeared to start somewhere under the hood on the passenger side.

- Visalia , CA, USA

problem #2

Apr 022023

Crosstrek

  • miles
On 3/30 my steering column started to make a grinding sound when I turned my steering wheel over 90 degrees to make a turn. On 3/31 the airbag light went on and I made an appointment to bring it in to get looked at by my nearest Subaru dealership (Tacoma Subaru). I was told the light meant the airbags would not deploy if I got into a car accident so I didn-??t drive my car until I needed to pick up grocery order on 4/2. On 4/2 I was making a slow right hand turn into the parking lot and my airbag deployed as I turned and hit/burned my forearm through a heavy sweatshirt. I didn-??t bump it, experience an impact or accident of any kind. It simply deployed while I was turning without any warning.

- Tacoma, WA, USA

problem #1

Jun 012021

Crosstrek

  • miles
This is a suspected problem with the side airbags located in the driver/front passenger seats. The seat upholstery has two straps that guide the airbag into the upholstery seam when the airbag deploys. Over time, the straps chafe on the sharp edges of the seat frame and wear through. As a result, there is a risk that the seat airbag will not deploy correctly. I discovered this problem when I was performing the following procedure https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10140486-9999.pdf.To be clear, my airbag has not deployed and I do not know what would happen had the airbag deployed. I'm attaching some photos. The photos show the two straps, one of which is mostly worn through. They also show the straps in their intended install location. There is a photo with some arrows and comments. Another thing to note is that I have seen multiple seats with this problem from cars with much lower mileage. I have another set of seats from a Subaru WRX that also has this issue. Subaru seats share a common architecture and the airbags are the same on Crosstrek/Impreza/WRX/Forester. In addition, a fix seems rather simple. This would involve applying some strong tape to the sharp edges of the seat frame to cover the sharp edges.

- Sunnyvale, CA, USA