Bought the car from a Toyota dealer in June 2011. Within 5 days of buying it, when driving the car on highway, within 15 mins of driving, all of a sudden the car jerks, with a sudden drop in speed, with the check engine light turned on and cruise light starting to blink. Car would not speed up no matter how much the accelerator is pressed. I had to pull the car to the side of the road. I have taken it several times to Subaru service...they seem to know what the problem is and attempt to fix it - I pay them and drive it back home and, the same problem persists. I get the same code each time - P0638. Replaced throttle body. Replaced timing belt. Replaced the throttle control relay. Etc. The mechanics seem to test drive it and find no problem with it. Every time they seem confident that they have fixed it. But, everytime I begin to drive, the car faults and the speed drops in the middle of the road. It is a danger to anyone in the car and to passengers in other cars.

- Laramie, WY, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that the accelerator pedal would intermittently become unresponsive. The dealer repaired the defect, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was not contacted. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 65,696 and the current mileage was 75,000.

- Ronoake, VA, USA

I have been having a problem with my car for the 2-years and has been getting worse. The throttle pedal at times will become non-responsive and the engine idle cannot be controlled. At this time the check engine light is on with a code. P2138. I have taken the car to the dealer with no luck they could not find anything wrong. The car has left me stranded several times and I had to limp or be towed home. The RPM can be anywhere from idle to 3000 RPM and as I said the pedal has no control. I have replaced the accelerator pedal assembly and the problem was gone for the past six months. It has now failed again.

- Ellenton, FL, USA

Following a few weeks of a ruff idle at stop lights, the throttle position sensor failed on my 2005 Subaru Outback 2.5I. After getting off of the highway and sitting at a stop light, the gas pedal would not work. The vehicle was running, however there was no reaction at all from pushing the pedal all the way to the ground and the check engine light was on. After turning the car off and restarting it normal function returned, however I was informed that failure could occur again at any time including while driving. My mechanic read the code as the throttle position sensor and replaced the accelerator pedal position sensor.

- Newington, CT, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Subaru Outback. While driving with the cruise control set to 75 mph, the contact applied repeated pressure to the brakes yet the cruise control would not disengage. The contact used the cruise control off button but to no avail. The contact was unable to stop the acceleration of the vehicle and proceeded to crash into an unknown object. The vehicle was destroyed. The driver and passenger sustained unknown injuries. A police report was available. The vehicle was towed to the contact's insurance company lot and was not examined for the cause of failure. The failure and current mileages were 77,000.

- Bluemont, VA, USA

The contact owned a 2005 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that the brakes failed to engage and the vehicle crashed into a tree and caught fire. The air bags did not deploy. Four people were injured and police and fire reports were filed. A month prior to the accident, the vehicle was inspected and no failures were found. The vehicle was inspected after the crash and it was discovered that the tumbler system was defective. The VIN was unavailable at the time of the complaint. The current and failure mileages were unknown. Updated 7/16/10 updated 07/27/10

- Pittsburgh, PA, USA

This complaint concerns the intermittent refusal of the cruise control on my 2005 Subaru legacy Outback to give up control of the engine when the cruise control handle is pulled down to the coast position and to cause an unexpected, dramatic increase in car speed when the intent is to disengage the cruise control and slow car speed ("the problem"). the problem has existed since purchasing my Subaru as new in 2005. The problem has been intermittent, occurring "out-of-the-blue" and when least expected. On more than one occasion when I wanted to slow but not break the car by pulling the cruise control handle to the coast position, the cruise control would refuse to give up control of the engine and, in some instances, the engine would advance to greater speed, almost causing a collision with traffic I was following. In one test I conducted after almost slamming into the rear end of car being driven in front of me, not only did the cruise control not give up control of the engine when I pulled the cruise control lever to the coast position, the engine continued advancing from a speed of 65 mph to 80 mph during the entire time that I held the cruise control lever was in the coast position. The only was I was able stop the cruise control from controlling the engine was by breaking the car. The problem has occurred regularly and continuously on an intermittent basis since my purchase of the car on 5/14/2005 from lithia Subaru in reno, Nevada. Although causes appear to differ, the problem is similar in nature to Toyota cars experiencing unexpected speed increase due to defective accelerator pedals as now being described in the news media.

- Reno, NV, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Subaru Outback. When the contact attempted to move forward, the vehicle accelerated on its own and crashed into another vehicle. There were no injuries. The failure occurred a total of three times. The most recent failure was on January 10, 2009 while parking the vehicle. She took the vehicle to the dealer, but they could not duplicate the failure. A report was filed with the manufacturer and they stated that there was no recall for the vehicle. The failure mileage was 30,000 and current mileage was 44,000.

- Wytheville, VA, USA

2005 Subaru Outback. The car was in park and my right foot was tucked back behind my left foot which was resting on the foot rest pad on the far left side of the floor. The engine was idling normally when suddenly it went to very high revs for 4 to 5 seconds and then returned to normal idle. Later the same evening, as I slowly entered my garage and applied normal brake pressure, the car first slowed (as expected) then suddenly began to accelerate. I applied hard brake pressure and the car stopped. It did not seem like the engine had revved as high as the earlier incident and it only lasted for a couple of seconds, but there was a definite, brief surge forward as I entered the garage.

- Topsfield, MA, USA

2005 Subaru Outback faulty cruise control. Consumer states that the invoice states that it turns off on its own but it should state that it turns on by itself. The consumer stated while the cruise control was in use, suddenly and unexpectedly the vehicle lunged forward at a high rate of speed, jumping a 10 inch curb, striking a pine tree, then down a grassy slope and off a second curb into a lower parking area.

- Waccabuc, NY, USA

- the contact stated that the driver was pulling into a parking space with a 2005 Subaru Outback when the car unintentionally accelerated. The contact stated that his mother was doing about 5 mph. The contact stated that is was a nice day and weather was not an issue. The contact stated that the car stopped when it struck trees and that front end damage was done to the car. The contact also stated that the car's engine continued to run until his mother turned the car off. Updated 1/19/2007 -

- East Brunswick, NJ, USA