AutoUtility currently tracks 85 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2020 Subaru Impreza. Visibility, Wipers & Glass issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 56 complaints (65.9% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 2 filings cite a crash, 2 cite a fire, 2 report one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 85 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Visibility, Wipers & Glass (56 reports • 65.9% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Brakes & Traction Control (5), Electrical System (4)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 2 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 2 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 2 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
85
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
2
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
2
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
2
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2020 Subaru Impreza

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

#1 Problem Area 65.9% of complaints

Visibility, Wipers & Glass

56 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 5.9% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

5 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
#3 Problem Area 4.7% of complaints

Electrical System

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
🔥 1 fire report
#4 Problem Area 3.5% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report 🔥 1 fire report 🩹 2 injury report entries
#5 Problem Area 3.5% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

3 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 2020 Subaru Impreza

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

Electrical System NHTSA ODI ID: #11746233
Fire Cited Filed: 06/24/2026

"The electrical system failed and battery then exploded. The vehicle is behind held at a tow yard and has been inspected by allied insurance CPI of tower federal credit union. It is available to be inspected for the time being but will be scrapped soon. Both my safety and the safety of others was at..."

Incident Date: 06/17/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Visibility, Wipers & Glass NHTSA ODI ID: #11734220
Filed: 04/28/2026

"For the second year in a row my windshield has cracked. Nothing hit it, or happened to make it crack. Both cracks were long and coming from the bottom of the windshield under the passenger wiper blade. I noticed it today, 4/28/26 and the same thing happened in the beginning of April last year with..."

Incident Date: 04/28/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: VISIBILITY/WIPER
Visibility, Wipers & Glass NHTSA ODI ID: #11715092
Filed: 02/02/2026

"I HAVE NOW HAD 4 WINDSHIELDS CRACK AND BREAK AND NEED TO BE REPLACED. IT SEEMS LIKE EVERY TIME ONE LITTLE ROCK HITS THE WINDSHIELD BOOM ANOTHER FULL REPLACEMENT IS NEEDED. EVERY TIME I GO FOR A ROAD TRIP THIS KEEPS HAPPENING THE MUST BE A DEFECT WITH THE DESIGN OR TYPE OF GLASS USED FOR THE SUBARU..."

Incident Date: 01/30/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11714764
Crash Cited 1 Injury Entry Filed: 02/01/2026

"I got into an accident going 60 miles an hour I crash into a guardrail totaled the car but no airbags deployed I broke my wrist and dislocated my thumb"

Incident Date: 01/15/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11690067
Filed: 09/27/2025

"Reference complaint no.11684658 confirmed. From email from Tech representative "VDC HYDRAULIC UNIT REPLACEMENT. IT IS AN INTERNAL FAILURE OF THE ABS CONTROL UNIT. THERE ARE SENSORS INSIDE THAT MEASURE BRAKE LINE PRESSURE. THE LEFT FRONT SENSOR IS STUCK AT NEGATIVE 59 BAR. SHOULD BE ZERO AT REST...."

Incident Date: 08/15/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES,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 Impreza

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

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Subaru Impreza 79 5 2 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Subaru Impreza 75 7 1 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Subaru Impreza 125 10 7 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Subaru Impreza 149 5 5 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Subaru Impreza 193 6 5 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Subaru Impreza Current Page 85 2 1 Current
2021 Subaru Impreza 14 1 2 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Subaru Impreza 12 0 1 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Subaru Impreza 4 0 2 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Subaru Impreza 30 1 2 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Subaru Impreza 5 1 0 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Subaru Impreza 0 0 0 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 2020 Subaru Impreza

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
Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER 49 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 11 0 0 0 0
Visibility / Glass NHTSA category: VISIBILITY 4 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 3 1 1 2 0
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 3 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER 3 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 2 0 0 0 0
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 1 0 0
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
STEERING,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
Suspension NHTSA category: SUSPENSION 1 0 0 0 0
Tires NHTSA category: TIRES 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES 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 (85). 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.