Federal complaint record · Subaru Forester · model year 2005

2005 Subaru Forester

Owners submitted 93 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 19th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2003 to 2007 compact suv cohort. The largest reported component group is fuel system. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Fuel system · 22% · group n = 23Suspension · 20% · group n = 21Speed control · 16% · group n = 17Engine · 10% · group n = 10Brakes · 7% · group n = 7
93
Complaint records on file
80,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 79 complaints reported mileage
22%
Of classified component reports name fuel system · group n = 23
19th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 29 model years

Fuel system · 2 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Fuel system22%

Fuel system reports

Subaru Forester · model year 2005

Reports in this group23
Share of classified reports22%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2004
0.2complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
219 matched incidents
This car
2005
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
93 matched incidents
2006
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
88 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Brake performance · 13 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 1 of 22005 Subaru Forester
Fire or smoke · 7 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 2 of 22005 Subaru Forester

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

Published model-year records · free · no login

Check the next car before the test drive

NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

Browse all Subaru records How the index works