I eased into a parking spot, stepped on the brake, and put the gearshift into park. As soon as I shifted the car lunged forward, picked up speed, and drove into the building. I never took my foot off the brake and had to move the gearshift down to reverse (not up) to get out of the building, which verifies that the vehicle was in park when it accelerated. The brake and accelerator are not close enough for me to accidentally have my foot on both.

- Bloomington, IL, USA

On many separate occasions (but reported to Subaru authorized service dealer on 03/28/12, 10/01/11, and 09/21/11), our hood has partly popped open while driving the vehicle at a range of speeds and in a range of temperatures. It is as if the initial hood release latch has been pulled from within the car, but the hood then catches on the manual release under the lid. Once loose, the hood wobbles (with increased violence at high speeds) and is obviously not secure. The Subaru shop tech initially adjusted and realigned the hood latch. On a subsequent visit, the entire hood latch was replaced. This did not solve the problem, and on visiting after the third occurence, the said they had no recommendations as they could not replicate the problem either on the road or in the shop, and were showing no diagnostic issues with their equipment. Subaru of America were contacted by the shop and had no available recommendations. The vehicle has been inspected but the Subaru shop and is clear of prior body damage. The unpredictability of this issue is most alarming -- we can never tell when our hood is going to come loose while travelling, and have had to pull over several times on the freeway when travelling at high speed to secure the hood.

- The Dalles, OR, USA

Shortly after purchasing this vehicle (new), the hood latch began to occasionally open by itself while driving. The safety latch does catch the hood before it opens all the way, but it is nevertheless disconcerting, and certainly a safety issue. I currently have approximately 82000 miles on the vehicle, and would estimate that the hood has self-opened while driving at least 20 times. The dealer suggested that I was not closing the hood sufficiently when changing the oil, or when adding washer fluid. I do not change my own oil, and rarely need to open the hood, as the dealer or a quick-lube service have been performing the maintenance. There seems to be no relationship between speed or road condition, as I have not been able to cause the hood to open on demand, and neither has the dealer. There also seems to be no relationship to the number of miles since the last occurrence. Sometimes the time between occurrences is very short (less than a week, and less than 150 miles), and other times I can go several months between occurrences. The dealer has seen the vehicle for this problem at least 8 times, I believe, and has done virtually nothing but "adjust" the latch. I have communicated this problem to the manufacturer, who referred it to the dealer. The dealer asked if I knew when it was going to happen again (I did not), and they asked me to bring it in the next time it happened so that they could see that the hood latch was open (I did).

- Lynchburg, VA, USA