7 Things You Need To Know About Subaru Before You Even Consider Buying One

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Before you even consider buying a 2020 Subaru Forester, Outback, or Crosstrek, there are 7 things you should know. You might change your mind about buying one after reading this.

The world is not a fun place right now and we need to lighten things up and have some fun at Subaru’s expense. The Subaru brand is made fun of because Forester and Outback owners are portrayed as liberal, granola-eating hippies, have stickers all over the back of their cars, and they love dogs more than their kids. While there is some truth to those things, there’s even more you should know before you buy one.

Subaru owners can’t catch a break and if you buy one you will be judged rightly or wrongly. According to custom license plate suppliers Click4Reg, Subaru Forester, Outback, Crosstrek, and WRX/STI drivers have the worst reputations among all car brands. They surveyed over 2,000 drivers to reveal the most common impressions people have of drivers of each car brand. If you drive a Subaru, you will not be liked by other drivers.

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Insurify says the national average is 11.28 percent of drivers have a prior speeding ticket, while 20.12 percent of Subaru WRX drivers have speeding violations. The study says Subaru WRX owners are guilty of getting the most tickets, but they don’t even mention the WRX’s higher-performance 310 horsepower WRX STI stablemate. We have to assume, the car insurance company lumped both models into its findings.

Subaru has one all-wheel-drive vehicle that has the highest rate of at-fault accidents than any car in America. According to another recent report from Insurify, the Subaru Crosstrek compact SUV is involved in more accidents than any car in the US. The national average is 13.64 percent of all models on the road that have had at least one prior accident. Subaru's third best-selling car, the Crosstrek, ranks number one of all car models with a 25.81 percent accident rate.

You might want to avoid Subaru Crosstrek drivers

Don't buy an older Subaru especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest or in the Rocky Mountains. There was a stretch when Portlanders kept waking up to find empty parking spaces. According to an Oregon newspaper, 20 older model Subarus were reported stolen each month in the City of Roses. Last December, a staggering 90 Subarus were reported stolen. Near Denver, Simply Subie club members were hit with “easily over 100 stolen Subarus” stolen in July 2017.

Bears love Subaru Outback models more than any other car for some reason. If you buy an Outback wagon and live near bears you could be targeted. It seems every spring or early summer, there’s a story about a bear trapped in a Subaru Outback destroying the inside. The bears are looking for food and Outback owners seem to leave food in their cars. Maybe it’s dog food.

Don't be surprised when a Subaru WRX STI flies by you

You'll love Subaru if you are a pilot

You should know Subaru didn’t start as a car company. In 1918, Nakajima Aircraft Company was founded by a Japanese naval engineer and built military aircraft. Eventually, the company split and Fuji Heavy Industries was born. Fuji Heavy decided to move into manufacturing several different fields, including its first vehicle the Subaru 360. Subaru still has an aircraft division and builds helicopters and wings for Boing jets to this day.

Who really knows what the six stars on the Subaru logo signify?

Last but not least, you need to know why your new 2020 Subaru Forester or Outback has six stars in the logo. Some say they are a reference to the Pleiades star cluster in the Taurus constellation, which is said to be easy to spot in the night sky above Japan. Others say the large star symbolizes Fuji Heavy Industries and the five smaller stars indicate the five companies that merged to form FHI. But who really knows?

You Might Also Like: The 3 Most Misunderstood Features On New Forester, Outback And Ascent

Denis Flierl has invested over 30 years in the automotive industry in a variety of roles. All of his reports are archived on our Subaru page. Follow Denis on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Subaru Report. Check back tomorrow for more Subaru news and updates at Torque News!

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Photo credit: Subaru DR

Submitted by PLandy (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 1:55PM

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Had two Subarus in the past, 2000 Legacy GT and 2012 Impreza. They are basically nice drivers, but the quality of the parts is very questionable. My Impreza caught on fire and was totaled. Car fires happen often, but I don't think I would buy another one.

Older EJ engine oil leaks from head gaskets that drip on to exhaust. Newer FB/FA engines develop cam carrier and timing chain cover oil leaks that drip on exhaust manifold and cat converters at about 7 years of ownership due to Subaru using silicone caulking instead of gaskets. Surprisingly there have not been enough people injured for Subaru to give a darn. One day this terrible company of cheap engineering will be no more!

Well thats because your a moron or even an idiot and second I see more Toyotas Hondas even ford's on the side of the road dead and in more accidents. I don't know who wrote this but it's not even true and I can see the writer is biased. So the fact that you are hating on them because you can't afford one is just sad. The parts are actually pretty cheap and if well maintained a Subaru will last a long time. But if your like any of the retards today, then you probably don't know how to work on your vehicle because you think it will last forever. When no vehicle last forever without maintenance. So don't be a dumb and manipulated easily and listen to these biased people because they don't have any clue.

Submitted by Robert Bolling (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 2:35PM

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I own a 2016 Subaru WRX. I am 74 years old
and a retired physicist. My main observation is tha
It seems everyone wants to race with me.

If you are a physicist, you are supposed to be smart. #1 Why would you buy a Subaru? #2 Why would you not fix your grammatical error before submitting your post? #DUMBPEOPLE

Robert, you are spot on. I have a '19 WRX and people are constantly challenging me. On ramps are the most place where people like to tailgate behind me for some reason. Funny part is that it is really no contest one I got the gas.

I thought the same, what happened to journalists knowing how to spell? Don't they have to take a million English classes to get their fancy degrees from their fancy universities? #DUMBPEOPLE

Lol, I was already laughing when I saw how it was spelled in the article but now I've got an image in my head of a Boeing Jet making a "boing" sound as it breaks the sound barrier.

Submitted by Sifcell (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 3:39PM

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At first I thought this was just silly. It took to sentences to realize it was stunningly stupid. Even more stunning is the idea that anyone would get paid for this sorry piece of excrement.

You people really ought to be embarrassed.

Submitted by Antonio Parisi (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 6:19PM

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For sure Vette or camaro panes dont hace speed tokets. Very anti Subaru are you... One of the most save Brand, just Behing volvo.... tell me, how Manu Ford accidents you hace????

Submitted by ECameron (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 7:21PM

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Rubbish. I’m on my fifth Subaru. I pay less car insurance than others do for other Make and Models (Toyota or Honda). They are safe cars and fun to drive. Who cares if other drivers like you or not.

Agree. Thumbs up! I bought a 2017 Forester and a 2017 Outback for my two daughters (one car each, LOL). Bought them because of safety reputations. Great cars so far!

I just had to change out both rear hub and bearing assemblies on a 2018 Forester owned by a very good friend and a pastor....only 87,500 miles on it,. I've been in automotive since I was 15 in 1075...these things are ho carts...nothing more.

Submitted by RB88 (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 7:29PM

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The thing is - Subaru owners don't care how other people view them, and others should follow suit. Caring what other people think certainly shouldn't be a reason to NOT buy a vehicle.

Why do people care what the stars in the logo mean?

People buy Subarus for mainly valid reasons, like reliability, having a true AWD system, a top safety rating, and availability of manual transmissions.

This was a baseless, trash article and a waste of time.

Submitted by Steve Z (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 7:33PM

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I seriously doubt any of the validity of your article. How can somebody who proclaims to be an expert on Subaru not know FOR SURE that the name Subaru in Japanese means Pleaides and that is the logo ....a constellation of stars..that was chosen. Pretty basic FACT about the company of which you obviously were not aware... posing doubt in your article about the actual origin of the name Subaru

Submitted by Vlad (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 9:09PM

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This is by far the stupidest post I have seen in the last 5 years. Why waist time perpetuating old folks tails and ridiculous statistics.
I see less Subarus flying by me on highway than I see BMW , Toyota or Mercedes.
Now theft I do believe, but isn't a tribute to Subaru popularity.

There is absolutely nothing useful or even remotely interesting in this post to justify the 10 min I waisted reading it.
Sorry.

Submitted by Wow (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 9:54PM

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Doesn't count as journalism. 2000 people is a very low number of people to survey to make such conclusions.

Submitted by Eric Brandenburg (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 10:47PM

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I m on my 5th tree hugging Subby and there is not a better car. You could offer me a Porsche and I would say only Subaru

I have had 3 subarus (s is intentional)--- anyone for lemonade? The last fiasco subaru of America would not even reply. That was the clincher.

Submitted by Richard (not verified) on April 26, 2020 - 11:13PM

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Another thing to consider is that somewhere around 50k miles you will need to add oil between oil changes. If you pay a Subaru dealer 4 grand to fix the problem, it will start consuming oil twice as fast and the will deny any responsibility for it. Note: Small sample size, 2 vehicles, both with less than 80k miles. Prior to this we had Hondas and a Toyota which ran well over 100k miles and never used oil