2016 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #1558274
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM filed April 16, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1558274 (ODI reference 11196601) concerns a 2016 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on April 16, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 15, 2019. The vehicle had 50,400 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same SUBARU FORESTER cohort independently describe similar electrical system failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2016 SUBARU FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
WE'VE HAD THE CAR FROM NEW LEASE THE BATTERY HAS DIED AT LEAST 4 TIMES. AFTER THE 2ND TIME, WE TOOK IT TO THE DEALER TO BE CHECKED. THEY SAID BATTERY AND CHARGER WERE FINE. IT IS NOT FINE IF THE BATTERY CAN'T HOLD ENOUGH POWER TO START CAR AFTER LEAVING KEY ON ACC FOR 15 MINUTES WITH NO LIGHTS, NO RADIO, NOTHING KNOWINGLY DRAWING POWER. EVEN WHEN THE BATTERY STARTS THE CAR NORMALLY, CRANKING IS SLOW, ALMOST UNABLE TO CRANK. I HAVE HAD TO RESCUE MY WIFE, HER SON-IN-LAW HAS HAD TO, BUT WHAT IF WE AREN'T AVAILABLE. A CAR SHOULD BE GENERALLY ABLE TO START UNLESS YOU'VE LEFT THE LIGHTS ON FOR HOURS. THE LAST SITUATION, DRIVEN TO MCDONALD'S, PARKED AND ENGINE OFF, KEY WAS TURNED TO ACC TO ROLL DOWN WINDOW; NOTHING ELSE. AFTER 15-20 MINUTES, CAR WOULD NOT START, DEAD BATTERY. I HAD TO COME AND JUMP IT.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1558274 |
| ODI Number | 11196601 |
| Date Filed | April 16, 2019 |
| Failure Date | April 15, 2019 |
| VIN | JF2SJAFC2GH |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.