Other speed control problem on the 2012 Subaru Impreza
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 8 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Subaru Impreza report other speed control problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 65,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 51,847 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14,453 miles | 26,870 miles | 43,000 miles | 49,500 miles | 66,300 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 8; the 2012 has 8. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While driving in normal circumstances, engine power was lost, and complete loss of throttle control occurred. Car would accelerate extremely slowly, and not past 20-25 MPH (presumably 'engine fail-safe mode'?). Thankfully not on a high-speed road. Obd code was p2138, indicating a faulty accelerator position sensor, which was replaced by dealer under warranty. *tr
Driving about 30 - 35mph when all of a sudden the car lost power. The car did not stall, but engine went down to idle speed and my accelerator pedal had no throttle control. The "check engine " light came on as well as the "traction control" light. I drifted to the right shoulder of the road and turned engine off. After opening the hood to check engine - observed nothing unusual - I re-started the car. The car seemed back to normal, but the engine code lights stayed on. The warning lights eventually turned themselves off - 3 or 4 re-starts later. Subaru dealer reported a p2138 obd code, but he did not replace/repair anything. The same exact thing happened 9 months later (july 2, 2014), and subaru dealer reported a p2138 code once again. No repairs or replacements done! *tr
I was driving on the highway and I was accelerating to pass someone when all of a sudden my car revved up very high and accelerated very fast to an unintended speed. I braked with no effect. I put all my weight on the brake, almost standing up, for about 10 seconds, then I heard a loud snap under the car, like I just unstuck something, then it revved back down to a controllable speed. If it wasnt for the fact it was early morning and there weren't as many cars around me on this highway I would have surely been hit or hit somebody else. Very scary. Luckily, I didn't, and my car's been driving okay for past few days ; it is at the dealership as I write this (4/21/16) getting checked out.
Also reported on the 2012 Subaru Impreza
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other electrical problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other speed control problem happen on the 2012 Subaru Impreza?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2012 Subaru Impreza?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed