2018 Subaru WRX — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 65 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Engine11 (16.9%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2015–2016.
• Electrical system10 (15.4%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2012–2015.
• Fuel system7 (10.8%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2018–2019.
• Steering7 (10.8%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)6 (9.2%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2023.
• Air bags (restraint system)4 (6.2%)Official recall records for this system: 8, covering model years 2012.

Other / uncategorized: 8 classifications (12.3%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (596 records, model years 2012–2025) are most frequently classified under: engine, electrical system and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).
• Manufacturer communications (4,393 records, model years 2012–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 23reports included a mileage
• 18,469average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2012 233 records for 2012 233
2. 2015 494 records for 2015 494
3. 2016 456 records for 2016 456
4. 2017 457 records for 2017 457
5. 2018 404 records for 2018 404
6. 2019 417 records for 2019 417
7. 2020 314 records for 2020 314
8. 2021 233 records for 2021 233
9. 2022 270 records for 2022 270
10. 2023 206 records for 2023 206
11. 2024 174 records for 2024 174
12. 2025 40 records for 2025 40
13. 2026 29 records for 2026 29

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 6mention a crash
• 1mention a fire
• 4mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 2
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 358
• Owner complaints NHTSA 44

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P0606 in 2 records
• P2096 in 2 records
• P2610 in 2 records
• P0116 in 1 record
• P015A in 1 record
• P0300 in 1 record
• P0420 in 1 record
• P0841 in 1 record
• P0852 in 1 record
• P2004 in 1 record

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.