Other visibility problem on the 2017 Subaru Impreza
1 crash 1 of the 19 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 visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Subaru Impreza report other visibility problem at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 55,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 45,415 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.
67% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,985 miles | 11,171 miles | 23,000 miles | 39,235 miles | 54,400 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, 1 a crash is 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 $150–$1,400 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 50,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 43; the 2017 has 19. 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.
I have noticed that it is simply not possible to adjust the driver-side rearview mirror outward enough to be able to properly see vehicles which could be in my side blind spots, and this feels incredibly unsafe. I'm happy that the car has blind spot detectors on the mirrors, but that is no substitute for visibility. In addition, I don't believe the lower trim levels have blind-spot detectors. I am 6'3', which is on the taller side, but still, I am not the only one experiencing this problem and I have never had this problem in any other vehicle I've driven. Other owners are also unable to adjust their side mirrors to the sae and aaa recommended positions. L can't believe that the vehicle was allowed to be designed and produced with these mirrors! This is a terrible flaw in the design, and in my opinion, should be re-designed, fixed for the 2017 year, and a safety recall should be performed for already-produced vehicles.
I believe my car experienced a spontaneous explosion of the sun roof glass: while driving on a straight section of highway I heard and felt a sudden, loud, explosive sound that I thought was from something hitting the roof of my car. At the time I was driving it cloudy but no precipitation, approx. 36 degrees, dry road conditions with minimal traffic, approx. 3:30pm. I was in the right lane, no construction or objects noted in the road in the area and not near an overhead roadway or elevated side of road. I exited the highway at the nearest exit and pulled into a parking lot to inspect my car, at which time I found a large section (approx. 10" x 4-5") of sun roof glass was missing and the surrounding glass was broken and protruding outward (see attached photo). This was mysterious as I had assumed that something had struck the top of my car and, thus, expected to see the glass pushed downward from the impact. No object (rock or other projectile) was found resting on the sun shade, which fortunately was closed at the time of the incident. I called my subaru dealership where I purchased my car in june 2017 new (all equipment…
I believe my car experienced a spontaneous explosion of the sun roof glass: while driving on a straight section of highway I heard and felt a sudden, loud, explosive sound that I thought was from something hitting the roof of my car. At the time I was driving it cloudy but no precipitation, approx. 36 degrees, dry road conditions with minimal traffic, approx. 3:30pm. I was in the right lane, no construction or objects noted in the road in the area and not near an overhead roadway or elevated side of road. I exited the highway at the nearest exit and pulled into a parking lot to inspect my car, at which time I found a large section (approx. 10" x 4-5") of sun roof glass was missing and the surrounding glass was broken and protruding outward (see attached photo). This was mysterious as I had assumed that something had struck the top of my car and, thus, expected to see the glass pushed downward from the impact. No object (rock or other projectile) was found resting on the sun shade, which fortunately was closed at the time of the incident. I called my subaru dealership where I purchased my car in june 2017 new (all equipment…
Also reported on the 2017 Subaru Impreza
Other lighting problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Windshield cracking
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 visibility problem happen on the 2017 Subaru Impreza?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2017 Subaru Impreza?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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