After 125K a the transmission failure is catastrophic as the manufacturer's option is complete replacement with no assistance. The cost of replacement is more than the value of the car.
Transmission had failed on me shortly after warranty period was over. Car was violently jerking every-time I was making relatively sharp turn. Had to rebuild transmission and replace central differential.
Went for a drive to run errands and then the transmission started shifting violently in the lower gears. After the third red-light, the transmission shifted so hard that the car shut off on me. After sitting on the side of the road for a while, I started the car again and drove it straight to the dealership. The dealership informed me that it was a CVT transmission issue, and Subaru was aware of the issue.
I was quoted to replace the transmission at $6000. In an effort to avoid a recall at all costs, Subaru issued a warranty increase to 100,000 miles instead of 60,000 in direct response to the increasing complaints about the CVT transmission. The car has 103,000 miles so it is not covered under the warranty, I tried contacting Subaru and they said 103,000 is over 100,000 sorry. What is interesting is that under the maintenance for transmission, it says no maintenance is required, to not even change the transmission fluid. So if you tell your consumers that the CVT transmission does not require maintenance, and tell them not to change their fluid aren't you liable if the transmission fails?
I was told by the dealer that the transmission needed replacement at a cost above $7000. I see that the failure of CVT transmissions was frequent enough for Subaru to extend the warranty. Mine lasted until two weeks after the July 31 warranty cancellation. There has been no offer to extend the warranty for my case, and the dealer will offer only give me $500 for my vehicle....this isn't right.
This vehicle had only 63000 miles on it and in the past month it started jerking and shuttering when I would come to a complete stop. Some of the time the car would stop running and I would be in the middle of stop and go traffic and I would have to put the car in park re-start the engine to start driving it again. I took it into my regular mechanic and he said that it was the torque converter and he was not qualified to replace the Torque converter, so he referred me to a transmission mechanic. I spoke with that mechanic and he said he has been getting a lot of subaru's that have the new CVT transmission in them in his shop lately around the same mileage that mine has. He stated that Subaru used to have a bulletproof transmission but now it is truly junk, with many failures. He said that he would fix it but he was a couple of weeks out and since I needed my car as soon as possible to take it to the dealership. So I did and they fixed it in about a half a day and charged me $1,700 dollars for the repair, plus what my mechanic charged me to figure out the issue, totalling over $1,800 dollars. Subaru has been know as a reliable car with no issues, and this is definitely not the case for me and as a result, This will be the last subaru I own!!!!! This and many other issues are the straw that broke the camels back.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
After 125K a the transmission failure is catastrophic as the manufacturer's option is complete replacement with no assistance. The cost of replacement is more than the value of the car.
- Andrew K., Dallas, TX, US