Owners have filed 42 complaints on the Subaru Solterra, covering 2023–2025. The system named most often is Electrical System (10 reports). Worst years by volume: 2023, 2024, 2025; cleanest: 2025, 2024, 2023. 5 reports describe a crash. On average the car was 0.8 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Subaru Solterra
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 42 Solterra complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Electrical System 10 Read
Subaru Solterra - Sudden unexpected acceleration with no ability to brake or steer. Message appeared "System Malfunction" Crashed into woods; small trees slowed and stopped car; airbags did not deploy. No injuries but great risk if car had headed to nearby highway instead of trees. Car now at dealer undergoing…
Sudden unintended acceleration while maneuvering to park. The acceleration was instantaneous and forceful, that in less than 20 feet of rapid movement the car forced itself over some utility poles laying behind the intended parking spot, and jumped from the utility poles, fast enough so that the first ground contact…
This car has been having issues with the facial recognition. It consistently cannot see my face when I am looking forward, and always manages to give me an alert when looking in my mirrors or doing a lane change. I am concerned that due to the a out of highway driving I do, that the car will Stop on the Interstate,…
Vehicle Speed Control 4 Read
Car inadvertently accelerated when parking. Results $17,000 damages and stage two whiplash. Dealer inspected black box and claimed accelerator was inadvertently pushed full throttle, which is impossible as my wife isn't tall enough to push full throttle. Suburu will not share the results of the test so assume a…
My Subaru Solterra EV was parked in the driveway of an Airbnb in Virginia. We were about to depart to return home. Vehicle was turned on and driver commenced to back out of the driveway, however rear safety warning activated as car neared a bush. Driver stopped vehicle, then placed in Drive in order to pull forward a…
Ihad something happen 3 times with the car on my drive to work. It was raining and vehicles ahead of me were kicking up a significant amount of mist in front of my Solterra. I was using the adaptive cruise control feature and it is supposed to follow cars in front of you and slow down or speed up (to your max set…
Forward Collision Avoidance 4 Read
Adaptive cruise control gave out, due to air conditioning compressor failure
2 Items: 1st is the facial recognition camera, which causes the vehicle to stop if it can't see the driver. The recognition camera has often indicated an inability to see my face or my wife's face when she has been driving. On June 30th when returning home from work I had the driver's window open with bright sunlight,…
Under certain circumstances when using adaptive cruise control the car can accelerate towards a stationary vehicle. The last time that it occurred I was using the adaptative control at 35 mph and was approaching a stop light with the car correctly detecting a car in front which my car had detected and was slowing to…
Visibility/wiper 3 Read
The windshield has distortion and can make the driver and front seat passenger feel carsick when looking through the windshield. Not feeling 100% can affect a driver's ability to safely operate the vehicle and that can affect other drivers nearby. I showed a customer Rep at Fremont Subaru and he confirmed the…
The air conditioning has stopped working and after 30 days has not been repaired. Visibility issues during cold conditions
The Solterra's rear window in mounted at a flat angle and lacks a rear window wiper. It also has a black "spoiler" at the bottom of the window. These features combine to drive a significant accumulation of snow on the rear window that blocks all rear view in just a few miles. With no way to clear this without exiting…
Power Train 3 Read
Summary of Incident On February 21, 2026, a Level 2 charging event resulted in a catastrophic electrical failure involving my vehicle and the associated EV charging equipment. The incident caused: Severe damage to the EV charging connector (pigtail and receptacle) Destruction of my home inverter system Sustained…
On December 15, 2025, driving on a highway in low temperatures, my 2024 Subaru Solterra (VIN: [XXX] ) experienced a progressive loss of power. At 9:20 a.m., I departed NYC for Amenia, NY (91 miles). The range showed ~130 miles (no AC). For the first ~70 miles, the range indicator consistently remained higher than…
I must express my disappointment and concern regarding the actual range performance of the ELECTRIC vehicle 2023 Subaru Solterra. Subaru claims that the Solterra has a range of 228 miles, but I am consistently getting only around 160 miles. This significant discrepancy suggests that Subaru may have falsified the range…
Suspension 3 Read
When going over Speed bumps, or experiencing a change in approach angle, primarily at speeds between 15 and 25 MPH, the Solterra's Left Front Suspension makes a click. It's not a knock or a thunk, it's a click. I went to the dealer, let them know the situation. They were unable to recreate the noise. Paperwork included
The Toyota bz4x have a large crash rate, because the Car Computer System is different from the Driver mind on the Highway. Cars cannot be a Driver or Substitute on Streets for Now. Any Changes of the lines on the Highway need Signals before, If you don't, your Car bz4x can't changed your line. In the work zone, the…
I am writing to express my concern regarding a series of significant issues I’ve experienced with my vehicle, all occurring within a span of less than six months and well within the 3-year/36,000-mile warranty period. 1.Battery Failure in Cold Weather: After the first exposure to below-freezing temperatures, the…
Structure 3 Read
During a large rainstorm [XXX] in Colorado Springs, CO when driving through water amid the downpour, the front fabric like wheel well liners came loose and caught underneath the vehicle causing the front plastic undercarriage cover to also come loose. Despite the rain and lightning, and to mitigate any further damage…
Left and right wheel well liners , front undertray and rear undertray came off while driving at slow speed on a street that had about 8 inches of water during heavy rain. I took the car to the Subaru dealer to get fixed under the guarantee as the car was just 6 months old and 7,553 miles but the dealer said they could…
9/29/2023, driving through 4-5 inch of flood water on the road at around 10 miles per hour, the undercover piece under front engenie area fall fall and both front mud guard liners ripped off and broken. Brand new vehcile only been dirving for 1 month with only 775 miles. Went to Subaru dealership, and dealership said…
Service Brakes 3 Read
Solterra 2023 bought Dec 23, 2022 Report: 1. Unintended Acceleration while parking. 2. No braking power till few feet away from fence. Incident:1. Prior parking, owner had accidentally touched the Regenerative Braking Paddle which is right next to turn signal lever. 2. Approaching a row of trees within 2 feet, the…
Vehicle stopped dramatically at low speed in snow while sensors were freaking out and flashing reverse breaking sensor problem. Car has been in shop for 6 weeks. My concern is the breaks auto/over corrected and caused my car to slide in snow
The S pedal regenerative breaking shuts off randomly, causing the vehicle to stop breaking, and the need for an immediate use of the brake pedal
Solterra years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Power Train,electrical System | — | — | |
| 2024 | Electrical System | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | Electrical System,structure | 4 | — |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 18 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.3 |
| Worst single series | 4 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 0.8 years |
A model average of 2.3 hides a worst series at 4. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Solterra?
By complaint volume, 2023, 2024, 2025 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Solterra years are the cleanest?
2025, 2024, 2023 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Subaru Solterra have?
42 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2023–2025. Of those, 5 describe a crash and 0 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.