Voluntary Recall of 2005 Legacy

[b]Subaru of America, Inc. Announces Voluntary Recall of 2005 Legacy Sedans and Outback Sedans[/b] - Campaign to Address Side Curtain Airbag Problem - CHERRY HILL, N.J., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Subaru of America, Inc. today announced a voluntary recall on 2005 Legacy Sedan and Outback Sedan models to address a side curtain airbag problem. This recall involves all 2005 model-year Subaru Legacy Sedan and Outback Sedan models. The affected vehicles were produced at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. between October 2, 2003 and June 1, 2004. While approximately 1,960 vehicles are affected, only 130 vehicles have been retailed. The affected vehicles comply with the current side impact requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 201P and 214D. However, the newly designed side curtain airbags on the affected vehicles were not built to proper Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. specifications, which provide added occupant head protection, and therefore may not offer proper head protection in side impact crashes. There have been no accidents or injuries attributed to this problem. In early June, Subaru will notify all owners of the 130 retailed vehicles by telephone and by mail to return their vehicles to a Subaru dealer for installation of new side curtain airbags at no charge to the owner.

Wondering why this does not include the wagon.

Different side bag design, probably. Sounds like a supplier problem. Kudos to them for catching it and jumping on it quickly before it got big.

Still, the first thing on a giant, important new product launch is a recall? I'm glad they did it, but why did they have to? (scares me) I still don't trust an American built Japanese car 100% yet.

Lets hope this new model does not follow the example set by the Ford Focus and its numerous recalls.

Amen. However, this does seem like they caught a supplier not providing a device to their spec and nailed it early.

I give props to Subaru for announcing it early and not waiting forever to announce it to potentially sell more cars. I mean, Mitsubishi knew about the recalls for their cars and waited how long? :roll:

After their quality problems with the newly introduced 2003 Baja, Subauru has hopefully learned some lessons and improved their QAQC process, and incorporated them into the assembly of the Legacy. Consumer Reports rates the Subaru Baja as having reliability 98% worse than average. That poor score is comparable to VW. Both the Baja and Legacy are built in Indiana, from what I read on another thread here.

Ouch! And here I thought Subie quality was going to be good... I hope I'm right. Do you think this has anything to do with the cars being made here as opposed to Japan?

If I am reading the SOA recall notice correctly, the recall was because the bags were not created according to FHI specs. Doesn't sound like a Subaru "putting the car together wrong" kind of defect... more along the lines of "our subcontractor made the airbags incorrectly" kind of thing. I am assuming they have a subcontractor for the airbags. Most American manufacturers do.

I totally agree with you. The article does give the sense that it's not a huge problem. They do mention that the air bags met Federal standards. However, by Fuji specs the air bags do not deploy fast enough on the sedan models. It's more a situation of setting the proper deployment rate that FHI requires. I can only see that as a good thing since they have been very particular about the Subaru safety record. This should help maintain their excellent reputation on that.

[quote name='outahere']After their quality problems with the newly introduced 2003 Baja, Subauru has hopefully learned some lessons and improved their QAQC process, and incorporated them into the assembly of the Legacy. Consumer Reports rates the Subaru Baja as having reliability 98% worse than average. That poor score is comparable to VW. Both the Baja and Legacy are built in Indiana, from what I read on another thread here.[/quote] Just wondering where you got these reliability rates? I haven't heard anything of this. And I'm with the general consensus here, great to have them catch their suppliers problems and make sure they are up to company, not just DOT spec, and doing it early. Much cheaper that way and much more confidance in their efficiency to get this dealt with as quick as possible. No quams here.

So I guess B4_Maniac's Dealer was not BSing him after all.

I'm just glad it's not the wagon. I couldn't bear to have to take it in so quickly! :lol: -Ian

[quote name='SUBE555'] Just wondering where you got these reliability rates? I haven't heard anything of this.[/quote] Got it from the April 2004 issue of Consumer Reports. One quote from them regarding the 2003 Baja: "First year reliability has been dissapointing, uncharacteristic for a Subaru" The 03 Baja and the 03 Outback (6cyl) are listed by CR as used cars to avoid. The 2003 Legacy and WRX had average reliabilty, and the 2003 Forester had better than average reliability. This is consistent with the JD Powers surveys, where Subaru usually rates at average, below Toyota and Honda.

Everyone needs to calm down about the whole reliablitiy issue. As others have said, it's probably a supplier/subcontractor's mistake, not SOA's fault.

One thing to note about Consumer Reports listing and scoring of used car reliability: They only take into consideration the number of problems reported versus actual vehicles sold. Subaru is way below the amount of cars Toyota and Honda sells so this rating is definitely not indicative of overall Subaru reliability. If you sell 10,000 and get 500 reported problems it looks a lot worse than when you sell 100,000 and get "only" 5,000 problems reported. Subaru makes very reliable cars and unless you've owned many different older Subarus you wouldn't know this. I've never had problems with any of my past or current Subies.

[quote name='turboliberty']One thing to note about Consumer Reports listing and scoring of used car reliability: They only take into consideration the number of problems reported versus actual vehicles sold. Subaru is way below the amount of cars Toyota and Honda sells so this rating is definitely not indicative of overall Subaru reliability. If you sell 10,000 and get 500 reported problems it looks a lot worse than when you sell 100,000 and get "only" 5,000 problems reported. [/quote] This is incorrect. CR reliability numbers are rates (e.g. problems per 100 vehicles) and not a simple tally of problems. The number of cars sold becomes irrelevant. Overall in 2003, a new vehicle from Subaru had 17 problems per 100 vehicles (same as Ford and Chrysler), whereas Honda had 10 problems per 100 vehicles and Toyota had 11 problems per 100 vehicles. The average new 2003 vehicle had 17 problems per 100 vehicles. The Subaru does age well, as data for 3 year old and 5 year old cars shows Subaru moving up above average in the rankings. A 5 year old Subaru experiences 51 problems per 100 vehicles, Honda experiences 53 problems per 100 vehicles, and Toyota experiences 35 problems per 100 vehicles. An average 5 year old vehicle had 79 problems per 100 vehicles.

The aging thing is definitely true. The severity of the problems is another thing too, is it a burned out dome light or a transmission, something that's squeaking because it needs lube or a dead water pump? That doesn't tell either. In a way, the survey is a bit broad.

Another reason to get a wagon!

Does anyone know if Subaru has cleared the backlog of sedans affected by this recall (i.e. the vehicles that had left the factory but not delivered to dealers)? I ordered a GT 5MT Sedan on Sunday, and the salesperson wasn't sure whether the recall might delay the delivery date (they've already located a car at the terminal).