NHTSA complaint #11512008

Owner complaint summary

My 2019 Subaru Outback is used primarily for short-interval driving within my village. On the initial instance during the summer of 2022, the car would not start and did not have enough battery voltage to crank the engine. Lights and electrical components were non-responsive. After recharging the battery, the condition resolved. On January 2nd of 2023 the car was once again experiencing a dead battery condition. My assumption was that the battery was approaching end of life and I replaced the battery with a new one. Once again the condition resolved. On February 27th 2023 the car again experienced a dead battery condition and would not start. The battery was less than 2 months old. After recharging the battery the condition resolved. I took the battery to the place of purchase for testing, and the battery tests normal. The car is available for inspection upon request. The safety of my family members that drive the car are at risk of being stranded at any moment if the car will not start. I have not had a dealer or independent service center perform a diagnosis. However, an independent service center informed me that this was a common problem with Subaru vehicles ranging from model years 2016 to 2019 and was related to a Subaru technical service bulletin (#11-174-17R) addressing potential battery discharging after repeated periods of short-trip-driving resulting in a dead battery. The newly purchased battery has been inspected by the place of purchase and deemed as functioning properly. There was no indication or symptoms prior to failure.