Loading vehicle data from NHTSA...
NHTSA recalls, safety ratings, and consumer complaints for the 2021 Subaru Forester.
| Overall Rating | |
| Frontal Crash | |
| Side Crash | |
| Rollover |
No recalls found for the 2021 Subaru Forester.
While driving the car, the engine stops completely. After a few seconds, it can be restarted. It does this several times a week at random intervals. It's very dangerous since it usually happens when we're driving in traffic. The dealer checked it out in July but couldn't find anything wrong. Even though it's a serious safety problem, they said to keep driving it until it does it every time the car is driven or until the car won't run. When this happens, all the dashboard warning lights come on and the word "Eyesight" is displayed with a diagonal line through it. A warning buzzer also sounds. This started last summer with very infrequent occurrences and is now several times a week.
Automatic start/stop fails to turn car on - intermittent. Taken it to Subaru detailer miltiple times and paid for services to correct the issue, but the issue persists. Fist time - replaced the battery in July 2025. 2nd time, went on a ride along for 1 hour, issue did not happen, replaced spark plugs, issue persists. 3rd time, updated TCM software, issue still persists. Subaru of America is aware of the issue and have not gotten a resolution either.
The contact owned a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 4 MPH and slowing to park, the vehicle accelerated on its own. The contact stated that the vehicle drove out of the parking lot and crashed into a wall. The contact stated that the air bags deployed and that the vehicle had then shifted into reverse (R) and driven out away from the wall and crashed into a parked vehicle and stopped. The contact stated she was unaware of any warning lights. The contact stated that she had 1 passenger in the front seat and 2 passengers in the rear seat. The contact stated that everyone was shaken and achy, but no cuts or other injuries. The contact stated later that the passengers went on their own to seek medical attention. The contact stated that the passenger front bumper, hood, and wheel well were damaged, and the rear bumper on the passenger side had damage from the crash with the parked vehicle. The contact stated that the other vehicle had minor damage to the right rear quarter panel. The police were called and issued a report. The vehicle was towed to a collision repair shop, but had not been repaired. The vehicle had not been diagnosed for the independent acceleration and reverse failures. The contact stated that her insurance provider had not yet declared the vehicle a total loss. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000.
The 2021 Subaru Forester has 0 NHTSA recalls and 199 consumer complaints on file. It received an overall safety rating of 5 out of 5 stars in NHTSA crash testing. The high number of complaints suggests potential reliability concerns — review the complaint details above before purchasing. For the most detailed information about a specific vehicle, decode its VIN using our free decoder above.
Enter a specific VIN to get the full report — specs, recalls, safety ratings, complaints, investigations, and technical service bulletins.
Car drains battery. 45,000 miles and has had 3 batteries and have been told it needs another. Dealer says start stop switch, requires a battery of 750 CCA and not the Subaru recommend battery. Car will die in traffic and driver seat adjusts to different positions by itself. Told that these problems will never stop unless I get a higher rated battery than required.
On January16,2026 while driving from Houston,TX to Austin TX the vehicle experienced a complete loss of power on Highway 71 W. We were traveling at approximately 70 MPH when the engine completely failed. We were forced to immediately pull over onto a narrow shoulder Our situation at that point was dire: we could not exit the vehicle as other cars were speeding by. Fortunately an emergency vehicle from the Texas Department of Transportation pulled up behind us with his emergency lights flashing. He told us we were in a dangerous situation and, due to our location, he was not able to tow us to safety. Our only option at that point was to allow the emergency vehicle to puss us to a safe location off of the highway. The driver pushed our vehicle approximately 1/2 mile to a motel parking lot. We contacted Austin Subaru, arranged for a tow truck, and proceeded to the dealer. The dealer technician advised us the Thermo Control Valve had failed. We were told this failure was common. The repair was at no charge since Subaru, being aware of the problem, had extended the warranty on this part. The action by Subaru to extend the warranty instead of proactively replacing the part before failure seems blatantly irresponsible
Vehicle was delivered with the wrong battery - reserve capacity. The car stalls out in idle position creating safety issues. My wife was stranded and we had the original battery replaced with the specs from the previous battery…causing the same issues to occur. Finally, we were informed of the improper battery installation
I am writing to file a formal complaint regarding repeated, severe, and dangerous malfunctions of the vehicle's engine Start/Stop (Idle Stop) feature. The system is failing to operate as intended, resulting in the engine stalling while the vehicle is in motion or under crucial driving circumstances, creating significant safety hazards. History of Incidents I have experienced four separate incidents where the engine unexpectedly stalled or shut down, creating extreme risk: Incident 1 (Railroad Tracks): The engine stopped while I was actively driving over railroad tracks. The car stalled on the tracks, and within seconds of the engine restarting, the crossing gates came down and a train passed. I narrowly avoided being hit by the train, missing the impact by approximately ten seconds. Incident 2 (Heavy Traffic/Bridge): During heavy, back-to-back traffic as a bridge (PGA bridge) was opening, the car momentarily stopped and then resumed movement. The unpredictable stopping motion created a severe risk of being rear-ended, as the following vehicle would have had difficulty anticipating the sudden, unintended stop. Incident 3 (December 2025): While taking a right turn, the engine stopped suddenly, with dash lights blinking, during only a slight pause in vehicle movement. This occurred while the vehicle was still maneuvering. Incident 4 (The following day): The engine stopping malfunction described in Incident 3 occurred again the next day. Attempted Repair and Ongoing Concern Two years ago, the dealership installed a new battery following the first two incidents. However, the problem has now recurred this week (December 2025). The dealership has informed me that using a third-party device to permanently disable the Start/Stop function would void the powertrain warranty. Causing Mechanical Stress: I believe the continuous, potentially faulty activation is putting unnecessary stress on the battery, electrical system, and engine components, which may ultimately shor
My Subaru has an auto start/stop. I was at a complete stop, making a left-hand turn, and my car completely shuts off with the following message: For safety, auto restart disabled; eyesight with a \ through the words, put car in park and restart vehicle. In the time it took me to put the car in park and restart, I was almost T-bone. This was terrifying. This had happened on previous occasion in stop and go traffic which is dangerous because my car has come to a complete stop without any warning to me where the driver behind me There are no warning symbols, warning lights, or any type of signal or symptoms to notify me that my car was going to stop completely.. Typically I remove my foot from the break, the car starts and then I put my foot on the gas pedal and the car moves forward. In the situations described above the car just stopped.It just flat out stopped. There’s never been any indication or signal to indicate the car is not going to restart The retailer replaced my battery and said it should help. I called the Subaru factory rep who was of no help. She said she is not a trained technician and all that she could offer to do was to contact the retailer. The dealer was not able to reproduce the problem. The retailer replaced the battery without any response about the safety issue. I asked if Subaru had a safety board I could report this too and the factory rep said no, but she will document it and they’ll do an internal review to see if we have any other similar issues reported, however, they will not contact me because they don’t talk to the public about these issues. I told her there are hundreds of these if not, thousands concerns online stating the same issue. The rep said she would document my concern. Documentation is good if there’s a fix but I’m concerned about the unnecessary death of a driver.The retailer also advised I could do the auto start override, I’m trying to make a point of how serious of a safety issue this problem can be. Thank you!
The vehicle has experienced four separate engine shutdowns while stopped in traffic. Each time, the engine turned off unexpectedly, requiring a manual restart. One incident occurred near a railroad crossing with my child in the car. The vehicle also lurches forward at low speeds and hesitates when accelerating after being stopped. These issues persist despite service visits. I believe they may relate to Technical Service Bulletins regarding the Auto Start/Stop and battery systems (TSBs #16-147-24, #10232217, #07-218-23R, #10251098). Subaru service staff have acknowledged awareness of these problems. I’m submitting this complaint to ensure the safety risk is documented and investigated.
Issue started with hearing a clunking noise from the front of the car, had the dealer inspect at 37,000 miles. They said they the clunking was caused by ECU issue and reprogrammed the ECU to correct it. Obviously, a software update did not correct the noise. Had an independent repair shop inspect the vehicle and found both front control arm bushings were cracked and torn allowing the control arm to move around causing the noise. Since the control arms are an integral component of steering the failure of these bushings could've caused loss of control, or an accident. They were replaced by the independent shop and now the noise is gone.
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while stopped at a traffic signal, the vehicle stalled. No warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The contact stated that on a separate occasion, while driving over railroad tracks, the vehicle stalled. No warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The contact continued to drive, and two blocks later, the vehicle stalled. No warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with battery failure. The battery was replaced. The contact picked up the vehicle, and on the drive back to the residence, the vehicle stalled. The contact stated that the vehicle was almost rear-ended by the vehicle behind. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The dealer replaced the fuel injectors. The contact picked up the vehicle, and the following day, while driving to work, the vehicle jerked abnormally and the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to the dealer; however, no cause for the failure was found. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure persisted. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 32,000.
Unintentional Acceleration - 2 times within 4 days of each incident. 9/17/25 while stopped to pull into a parking lot my 2021 Subaru Forester accelerated as I was stopped. I had to slam on the brakes, take a deep breath and was shocked at the pull and speed the car wanted to go. 9/20/25 Pulled into a parking spot, not moving and the car again pulled and accelerated. Again I slammed on the brakes to stop from crashing into other vehicles or whatever was in the vicinity the car wanted to go. There were no warning messages, no symptoms prior to these 2 incidents. The car only has about 24,000 miles on it and all maintenance has been done on time and at the dealership. No outside mechanics have ever worked on the car. I called AAA to tow me as I was not safe to drive the car and had it towed to the Suburu Dealer where I purchased the car. This is an extremely dangerous situation. The floor mats were not near the gas pedal or the brake pedal and It was absolutely 100% not my error in foot pedal placement. I will not drive the car any longer until the dealer calls to tell me what is wrong or what they have found to be the problem. There is a civil lawsuit against Subaru for this situation but when mentioning it to the dealer they acted like they knew nothing about it. This is not something that should be ignored. I was lucky the 2 times it happened and I hope to God it never happens again!
I was going down a highway using the lane keeping assistance feature. Suddenly the vehicle stopped following the road and ran me into a ditch. I was able to steer back onto the road, but if the ditch had been deeper I believe there would have been a rollover accident. The root cause is that when the audio system is turned up in the vehicle, the warning chimes do not interrupt the music or sound loudly enough to be heard over it. When the vehicle needs manual intervention assistance staying on the road, the driver may not hear the warning sound in time before the system disengages. The warning chime sounds need to be able to be heard over the audio system. This exact thing has happened to me 2-3 times in the last year.
driving on [XXX] in NJ on [XXX] at approximately [XXX] my car just stopped in traffic and steering locked up and all lights came on dashboard along with a constant beeping sound-I was in the middle of a four lane highway traveling south-I could not get out of my car and feared someone would hit me as I was a "sitting duck" while cars were swerving around me-my only saving grace was that my flashers worked after I turned them on-I called roadside assistance as I was starting to panic and was told they could not help me as I was on a private road-I saw a helicopter overhead and at the same time a police office weaving in and out of traffic behind me to slow and stop the traffic-he then proceeded to push my car off the road with his car to the shoulder and called a tow truck-car was towed to nearest Subaru dealer where they performed a diagnostic test and found NOTHING WRONG WITH MY CAR!! How could that BE?? I was then charged for the test and the tow-have called Subaru customer care several times but they say they cannot help me because the test result showed nothing-Please help me as I no longer have peace of mind driving this vehicle and I am [XXX] who needs to drive long distances several times a month- there were no previous warnings in my car it just stopped INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
After arriving home from a short drive to the grocery store I parked my car in the drive way and went inside. On the drive home I could hear a low humming coming from the speakers and the car was decelerating when the accelerator was not being pressed, no warning lights or sounds came on. About 10 minutes after I parked a neighbor knocked on the door letting me know my car was smoking from inside the hood. Within a minute or 2 the entire hood of the car was engulfed in flames. The entire front half of the car burned to a crisp, the fire also burned half a tree. The car was burning so hot that it melted the hood of the car, had I parked it with the hood facing my house my house would have caught fire. The problem has not been reduced or confirmed by dealer or independent service. The vehicle is being stored by the insurance and for the time being is accessible for investigation. Because I was having trouble with the infotainment system, the humming coming from the speakers, and a recent warranty extension by from Subaru for the infotainment system due to known issues I suspect that the fire was caused by electrical issues.
Showing 15 of 199 complaints