2016 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #1696209
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:SWITCH filed September 29, 2020
NHTSA complaint #1696209 (ODI reference 11361857) concerns a 2016 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on September 29, 2020. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 28, 2020. The vehicle had 25,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:ignition:switch, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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:ignition:switch 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
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2016 SUBARU FORESTER. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE KEY WAS STUCK IN THE IGNITION. THE CONTACT STATED THAT SEVERAL ATTEMPTS WERE MADE BEFORE THE KEY RELEASED AND WAS REMOVED FROM THE IGNITION. COLONIAL SUBARU (761 E CHESTER ST, KINGSTON, NY 12401, (845) 339-3330) ACKNOWLEDGED THE THAT FAILURE HAD OCCURRED IN OTHER VEHICLES. THE MECHANIC ATTEMPTED TO TAP THE SHIFT COLUMN TO DISLODGE THE KEY HOWEVER, THE KEY REMAINED STUCK IN THE IGNITION. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE AND REFERRED THE CONTACT TO THE NHTSA FOR ASSISTANCE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 25,000. THE VIN WAS NOT AVAILABLE.*DT THE CONSUMER STATED THE REPAIRS WERE MADE AT THE OWNERS EXPENSE BUT CONSUMER COMPLAINED TO SUBARU ABOUT HAVING TO COVER THE COSTS AND SUBARU REIMBURSE THE CONSUMER FOR THE REPAIRS. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1696209 |
| ODI Number | 11361857 |
| Date Filed | September 29, 2020 |
| Failure Date | August 28, 2020 |
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.