We leased a Subaru Outback 3.6 on 13-MAY-2018 and purchased the car from leasing on 21-DEC-2020.

Starting about Aug-2023, the Infotainment Console started behaving wildly: failing to connect to carplay, connecting in-and-out, flashing wildly and the radio turning on and off.

I took this to the Glendale, CA Subaru dealer (says it's the largest in USA) where we had leased and then bought it. They mentioned nothing about this problem being known or about a class-action suit that had already been filed and closed. They "played" at fixing it as a software error and returned the car. This "fix" lasted one day and then back to the problem.

I then went back and they told me they had ordered a replacement console but it would take 6 weeks. They said it would cost about $3,500. I was flummoxed, since this was a defect and acted very irritated. They then said they could probably get it reduced. 6 weeks passed and I called and then went in and left the car. They fiddled with it and it seemed to work somewhat once and then reverted to its insane behavior. I called again last week and they said they didn't know how much longer but probably another 5 weeks.

Everything I read out here does not sound good. Does anyone else have a similar state of things?

Thanks, Joe

The radio often does not connect well with the bluetooth / cell phone. Much rather, the unit is totally stuck and cannot be accessed, so neither do volume up/down work, nor does the radio on/off button work, or any other button. So the system is totally frozen. The only way to remedy this is a restart of the car, i.e., ignition off, wait, ignition on, then maybe better luck. This happens all the time, around once or twice per week. The cell phone itself is a modern Samsung Galaxy model, updated to Android 11, without any bluetooth problems with a range of other devices including various headphones.

The suggested solution is to first split the car software necessary for driving and the head unit software that always crashes. Then add a hardware button, a "reset software" button, to perform a cold restart of the head unit software that seems to be designed to crash every now and then. That would allow the user to perform a head unit reset without having to restart the ignition.

2018 top Outback model, twice in the first 11 months the entertainment system has completely died. This leaves me without a backup camera, radio, NAV, phone Bluetooth. The fix is to replace it, but Subaru does NOT have replacement units. On top of that, when it does get replaced everything that had been programmed is gone and must be reprogrammed. Not sure if it is associated, but I have periodic problems with the windows and entertainment system losing settings while it WAS working. Have now gone 2 weeks without the system and the dealership cannot even give me an estimate of when a replacement will available. This was my first and probably last Subaru.