Early on the radio/phone feature became defective. Due to travel and a high workload, I was unable to get the vehicle in for service until after the warranty had expired. After a great deal of discussion, they agreed to repair the radio/phone feature, charging for their labor. They only agreed to this because I had all of the Car Complaint facts. I want to state again, this dealership and I had what I felt was a great relationship. However, I began to realize I was not their priority. Their product is not as good as I expected. It is also apparent, they are keeping their clients on the hook until the warranty expires.

The Sirius satellite radio began arbitrarily changing stations, switching off, or switching to search mode. It is random and does not always happen, sometimes it happens so rapidly it sounds like someone is spinning the tuning knob. I called the dealer. They said they never heard about that (there is lots of information on the internet about this problem in Subarus) but they would be happy to update my software for $120, but no guarantees that it would solve the problem. The issue goes away for weeks and then reappears, doesn't seem to correlate with temperature, time of day, station selection, etc. It is really distracting. I have not had it fixed because I don't want to get into a loop of throwing money at the car randomly in hopes I find the right cure, since the dealer was unsure.

Within a month of buying this vehicle new, the radio (and the integrated navigation system) froze up and quit working. The dealer replaced the entire unit and, for a while, the unit acted normally. Recently, it has begun to freeze up again and the only way to clear it is to turn off the engine, let it sit a while, then restart it and sometimes it will clear itself. It can also clear itself while driving.

In addition, for a late model vehicle, the radio reception may be the worst we’ve ever had. Even strong stations will fade out while driving and then the signal returns. Sometimes this occurs in areas where there are trees, other times it occurs out in the open. All in all, the radio is a huge disappointment. We have SiriusXM and when the radio freezes this doesn’t work either.

I’ve noticed other owners report this problem with their radios. My guess is that Subaru has made a very nice vehicle where it counts in the engine and drive train but cheated a bit when it came to the accessories including the battery which I’ve reported in a separate post we had to replace in less than 3 years.