At approximately 122,000 miles the CVT transmission on my Subaru Outback developed a rasping noise when under acceleration. The Subaru dealership said the transmission and torque converter needed to be replaced at an estimated cost of $9500, which almost precisely matched the market value of my Outback in excellent condition. They also said they would give me $1000 trade-in on the vehicle, which was otherwise in excellent condition. After researching the history of transmission problems on the 2012 Outback, including Subaru's warranty extension from 60K to 100K and until July 31, 2018, for which I was not notified, I phoned Subaru USA. They admitted there had been a long and rich history of transmission problems with the 2012 Outback. And that for this reason they had extended the warranty, which had now expired. They also agreed that they had no record that I had ever been advised of the warranty extension.

They said they would discuss my case and get back to me by the end of the day. Late in the day on July 29, Subaru USA called me back and said that as an indication of Subaru's "good will" on the matter, they would be pleased to offer me $1500 credit toward the purchase of a new Subaru and that they would make no other adjustment.

We are a three Subaru family. Mark us as totally disenchanted by this experience and Subaru's ham-handling management of an obviously systemic problem with the Outback transmission. The reliability of the Subaru Outback is grossly overrated; three Subaru Outbacks will soon be a thing of the past for this family.

Dealership wanted $8500 for a new transmission on a car with 175K miles on it. We had a great Subaru Mechanic put in a transmission with 45,000 miles on it for $2200. We loved this car. Nothing else was wrong with it. Looking back, we had been experiencing stalls and lowering RPM on hard braking We thought this would solve the issue. Little did we know that 7 months later that transmission would fail. Then our mechanic put two more in it and never got the lights off (all under warrant).. They had about every decent Subaru mechanic in Vermont look at it. No one could get it fixed. Finally, it was put another $8500 in it for a new transmission or give up on it. By now it had 197,000 miles on it. So, we traded it in and got $1850 for it and bought Honda CRV. Our mechanic told us that he was getting Subarus in each week with the same problem. The head mechanic had put two in his Subaru. He said the company that sold us the used Transmission had told our mechanic they had run out of transmissions. Another company was reconditioning them. But, the bottom line is that the numbers of requests for transmission was skyrocketing. This is obviously a engineering flaw that Subaru is not admitting too. Check the internet and you will see many people complaining on a variety of forums. As much sa I loved our Subaru before this, I have to say don't buy one right now. Subaru is not being honest with this and don't deserve your business.

Bought the Subaru new in late part of the year. The car has been driven mostly highway miles. We did not have any issues before hand with the car other than normal maintenance. Never had any issues with the transmission up until this night when we were driving on the highway and after taking off from a stop light, the car started shifting wildly up and down and the dash lights were all lighting up; cruise control, high trans temperature and others. While on the shoulder, we tried to take off again but the car transmission lost power. We had the car towed to a local garage ( not a dealer ), and checked out. They drained and pulled the pan, it was full of metal. They called me later in the day with the estimate, which is for a remanufactured transmission, $9200! I about liked to fell out! Subaru doesn't rebuild or even offer parts to rebuild a CVT transmission. I called the Subaru shop and they said that the estimate is about a $1000 higher than their price, but would need to see the car first in order to check it out. I was also told that I could also put a salvage trans in, but would be liable for the labor if it wasn't a good one.

I contacted SOA to see what they would say about it. They stated that, "based on your miles, it appears that you are doing a lot of driving! I hope you are enjoying these trips." They also said they would need to see the car at the dealer and they would follow up with the Service Manager, which is understandable. But it takes about a week to hear anything from them on my original email, so I elected to handle it myself. Its highly doubtful that they would cover the transmission since it had been out of warranty since about 60,000mi. I had also never had the transmission flushed, which I've been reading about in other web sites.

I ended up finding another transmission shop that could get a salvage transmission and replace it. They quoted me a price of $3400 for a 60,000mi salvaged transmission. That is with a 90 day warranty. That's where the car is now.

Subaru's are suppose to be great cars, well, I've had other vehicles for well over 111,000 miles with out such an expensive repair. Unfortunately the Transmission is computer controlled, so no fixing just a part of it. Subaru offered $2000 off the repair cost, but sounds like they bumped up the price by $1000 first, so net $1000 out of warranty. Car is completely useless, and can't determine if its worth putting $7000 in to fix it, when after the fix its only worth $10,000. I'm not sure I like the car (or trust it) enough to put in another $7000. What happens to cars that are in accidents? I was hoping that I'd be able to find a 2012 that was in an accident and could buy the transmission and have it installed. Can't figure out how to start. So annoying. ANY SUGGESTIONS?