Other driver assistance problem on the 2017 Subaru Outback
8 crashes 4 injuries 12 of the 25 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 driver assistance problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Subaru Outback report other driver assistance problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 600 miles at the tenth percentile to 60,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
69% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 600 miles | 7,000 miles | 30,929 miles | 42,000 miles | 60,400 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, 8 a crash and 4 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–$1,800 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 31; the 2017 has 25. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2017 subaru outback. The contact stated that the reverse automatic braking system independently applied itself. The contact stated that this was due to the asphalt being at an angle where it was close to the sensors of the vehicle. Autonation subaru scottsdale (15678 n northsight blvd, scottsdale, az) informed the contact that they would need to temporarily disable the feature to prevent future failures when reversing the vehicle. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the braking system was operating as designed. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.... .updated 11/16/17 *bf vehicle purchase date should be or before incident date updated 9/7/18*jb
Since purchase on 2/19/17 from parker subaru cda, complaint of shaking front end, wandering on highway and freeway from side to side in a dangerous manner, from complete loss of steering in snow, slush and gravel as of 2/28/17. I have been very specific about the incidence. Going in my driveway at least 8 inccidents; in snow or slush conditions, in depts on only a couple inches or less in the winter of 2017. In the summer of 2017 three incidents of complete failure was reported on grave road at speeds of 15-MPH, I have had the very same complaint every visit: 2/28/17, 3/23/17, 4/6/17. 9/13/17, 10/22/17, 1/22/17- @ parker subaru cda.
Lease date | 08/25/17 on 01/17/18 after several days of the eye sight system turning on and off, I notice that a piece of foam had fallen in the way of the passenger camera. I notified subaru of america of this through their website and mike shaw subaru fixed the issue. Today, after two day of eye sight system turning on and off, I notice that a piece of foam had now fallen in the way of the driver side camera. I have not had this repaired. Both events severely interfere with the cars safety features from operating and, in the case of the first occurrence, the auto braking system did deploy incorrectly at times.
Also reported on the 2017 Subaru Outback
Other electrical problem
Other visibility problem
Windshield cracking
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other powertrain problem
Parasitic battery drain
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 25 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 driver assistance problem happen on the 2017 Subaru Outback?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 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 driver assistance problem on the 2017 Subaru Outback?
25 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.6 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