The car was parked and idling for a few minutes as a passenger exited the vehicle. While parked, the car began to shake slightly, it was then placed in reverse to get out of the parking space. Still shaking. When it was put in gear to go forward, the car began to accelerate on its own. The driver was able to use the brake to stop the vehicle but, when she took her foot off the brake to make a left turn and towards the park exit, the vehicle accelerated abruptly, and the car surged towards a main road. The passenger in the seat next to her was able to see clearly that the driver’s foot was not on the gas pedal. The driver was able to steer the vehicle clear of the park visitors, avoid other vehicles in the parking lot, and stop the car prior to reaching the traffic light at the main road. Stunned by the incident, the driver decided to return the vehicle to the parking lot, so she opted to make a U-turn at the light. As she turned the vehicle, the vehicle accelerated once again without her foot on the gas pedal. After the driver was able to maneuver the car into a parking space, the vehicle started to shake violently, and the driver shut off the engine. When the driver attempted to restart the car with the intent to drive home slowly, the driver placed the vehicle in reverse, and applied her foot to the gas pedal but, the vehicle would barely move. The engine revved when the pedal was pushed all the way to the floorboard but, the vehicle only moved at approximately 5MPH. Once parked in a space, the vehicle shook violently, and the dashboard lights lit up. The vehicle was turned off and emergency call button inside the vehicle was used to contact Subaru. The car was towed to the dealership.
2020 Subaru Forester fuel system complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 14 of 14, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The fuel saving stop/go feature is unsafe. It stops engine at signal lights and during stop and go traffic. When it restarts the engine shakes and hesitates to go when signal lights changes. This model doesn't allow the owner to permanent disable this function as in other models. It will cause lots rear - end related or other serious accidents on high speed roadways and freeways as this function continues.
At one year old this vehicle was involved in a frontal collision with a deer and immediately upon impact burst into flames. The fire breached the firewall between the engine compartment and passenger compartment within less then a minute. Within 2 minutes the engine compartment and front seat area was completely engulfed in flames and within 3 minutes the entire vehicle was engulfed. It appears the fire started as the fuel shut-off system that is supposed to stop the fuel from flowing once the airbags are deployed failed. This put the occupants of this vehicle and any others had this been a collision with another vehicle in extreme danger of serious injury if not even death. Had the driver been incapacitated, not been able to open the door or had a child to remove from a car seat there would have been certain death due to the extremely rapid spread of the fire throughout the entire vehicle. This has been reported to Subaru of America. The vehicle is currently being inspected by the insurance carrier. There were no prior warnings that there were any concerns with the safety features of this vehicle. It was just serviced by the dealer one month prior to the accident. In reviewing other complaints on the federal safety agency website there is a complaint of a 2019 Subaru Forester that experienced this same complete and total destruction due to a fire erupting upon impact in what should have been a minor frontal collision.
Both my wife and I have run out of gas on this vehicle which has less than 5,000 miles on it. The low gas indicator is limited to a brief warning in the screen behind the steering wheel. We both find this very easy to miss and there is no persistent visual or auditory warning. Running out of gas unexpectedly is an extreme safety hazard, we were lucky to avoid being rear ended, but had to park at some risk. Neither of us can recall running out of gas in our other vehicles for over 20 years.
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