AutoUtility currently tracks 6 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2025 Subaru Legacy. Engine & Cooling issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 3 complaints (50% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 reports one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • • Total NHTSA Complaints: 6 reports
  • • #1 Reported Problem Area: Engine & Cooling (3 reports • 50% of submitted complaints)
  • • Secondary Problem Areas: Air Bags & Restraints (1), Steering System (1)
  • • Crash-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 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
6
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
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 2025 Subaru Legacy

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

#1 Problem Area 50% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
🩹 1 injury report entry
#2 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Steering System

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 16.7% of complaints

Fuel & Propulsion System

1 owner complaint 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 2025 Subaru Legacy

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

Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11718036
1 Injury Entry Filed: 02/14/2026

"Less than 500 miles cabin fills with engine fumes - smells like exhaust/crank case vapors - especially at idle and with outdoor air damper open on HVAC. If you open hood the engine bay smells like gas fumes. Upon inspection looks like passenger side exhaust manifold is leaking with splatter marks..."

Incident Date: 02/14/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11711901
Filed: 01/19/2026

"I purchased my 2025 Legacy from Brunswick Subaru (Brunswick,OH) on 9/22/25. A few days later, while riding in the passenger seat, the airbag light/icon stayed off. I am a petite female, weighing 100 pounds. I immediately called Brunswick Subaru's service department. The service manager drove me..."

Incident Date: 09/22/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Steering System NHTSA ODI ID: #11706406
Filed: 12/21/2025

"The Legacy (my third one) was about a month old and had about 30 miles on the odometer. I had no warning of any problem with the car. On or about 5:45 PM on Oct 22, 2025 I was driving my Subaru Legacy when the engine stalled. I was in the HOV lane of an interstate highway. Multiple times the..."

Incident Date: 11/22/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11705999
Filed: 12/18/2025

"At the end of a drive of 75 mi, 55-65 MPH on an 8 lane highway the engine stalled. Stopped in HOV lane. Restarting failed several attempts. Called police 911. Dusk, with light rain, slick highway. Poor visibility. Wife and I prayed a lot. Scarier than my year in Vietnam. Restarted after about 10..."

Incident Date: 11/22/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11684680
Filed: 09/03/2025

"The contact owns a 2025 Subaru Legacy. The contact stated that after starting the vehicle, there was white smoke coming from the exhaust pipes. Additionally, while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced a misfire with a rattling sound coming from behind the dashboard. The vehicle..."

Incident Date: 06/10/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
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 Legacy

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2025)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Subaru Legacy 159 15 3 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Subaru Legacy 146 9 3 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Subaru Legacy 118 10 2 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Subaru Legacy 117 7 3 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Subaru Legacy 123 2 3 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Subaru Legacy 121 1 6 View 2020 Problems →
2021 Subaru Legacy 31 0 3 View 2021 Problems →
2022 Subaru Legacy 32 3 2 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Subaru Legacy 10 2 2 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Subaru Legacy 16 0 0 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Subaru Legacy Current Page 6 0 0 Current
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 2025 Subaru Legacy

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 6 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 1 0 0 1 0
Engine & Cooling NHTSA category: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 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 (6). 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.

Related Official Reports for 2025 Subaru Legacy

Cross-reference safety recalls, crash test safety ratings, and EPA fuel economy for this model year

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.