AutoUtility currently tracks 29 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2024 Subaru Forester. Air Bags & Restraints issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 7 complaints (24.1% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 4 filings cite a crash, 1 cites a fire, 1 reports one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 29 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Air Bags & Restraints (7 reports • 24.1% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (6), Visibility, Wipers & Glass (5)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 4 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 1 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
29
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
4
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
1
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2024 Subaru Forester

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 24.1% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

7 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report 🔥 1 fire report
#2 Problem Area 20.7% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

6 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 2 crash reports 🔥 1 fire report
#3 Problem Area 17.2% of complaints

Visibility, Wipers & Glass

5 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 6.9% of complaints

Body & Structure

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report 🔥 1 fire report 🩹 1 injury report entry
#5 Problem Area 6.9% of complaints

Exterior Lighting

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2024 Subaru Forester

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11757169
Crash Cited Fire Cited Filed: 08/15/2026

"While driving my grandbaby home I was unable to avoid hitting a deer when it ran into the road. Neither the automatic braking nor the airbags deployed when I hit the deer at the front left side. It destroyed the headlight and damaged the fender and quarterpanel lightly and slightly bent the hood. I..."

Incident Date: 08/12/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS,STRUCTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11733227
Filed: 04/23/2026

"Windshield cracks/chips very easily even when nothing has touched it. I have had 4 cracks in less than 6 months with no reason as to why they are occurring and they are ALL on the driver side, NOTHING on passenger side, which seems very odd. This car was bought brand new in February 2025 and this..."

Incident Date: 04/22/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11733185
Filed: 04/23/2026

"I am writing to formally request that the NTSB investigate an apparent defect in the EyeSight driver assistance system installed on the 2024 Subaru Forester. I have experienced repeated instances of unreliable and unsafe behavior, including unexpected alerts and the EyeSight system disengaging on..."

Incident Date: 02/13/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Visibility, Wipers & Glass NHTSA ODI ID: #11715758
Filed: 02/05/2026

"4 Subarus and this is my 5th spontainious windshield crack (2nd on this vehicle)."

Incident Date: 02/02/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: VISIBILITY/WIPER
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11711351
Filed: 01/16/2026

"On the morning of December 13, 2026, an incident occurred involving our 2024 Subaru Forester. While attempting to make a right-hand turn, the vehicle failed to decelerate as expected and subsequently struck a utility pole. The vehicle’s safety systems did not appear to activate in an effort to..."

Incident Date: 12/13/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Subaru Forester

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Subaru Forester 613 53 3 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Subaru Forester 410 39 3 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Subaru Forester 582 39 1 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Subaru Forester 492 26 3 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Subaru Forester 832 36 3 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Subaru Forester 596 26 0 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Subaru Forester 207 16 0 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Subaru Forester 96 8 1 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Subaru Forester 73 8 1 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Subaru Forester Current Page 29 4 2 Current
2025 Subaru Forester 90 11 4 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Subaru Forester 0 0 3 View 2026 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2024 Subaru Forester

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 17 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 6 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 5 0 0 0 0
Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER 4 0 0 0 0
AIR BAGS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
AIR BAGS,STRUCTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 1 1 0 0
Back Over Prevention / Camera NHTSA category: BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 1 0 0 0 0
Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 1 0 0 0
Steering NHTSA category: STEERING 1 0 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 1 0 0 1 0
Tires NHTSA category: TIRES 1 1 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 1 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (29). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.