2014 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #1767099
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SEATS:MID/REAR ASSEMBLY:RECLINER filed September 7, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1767099 (ODI reference 11432037) concerns a 2014 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on September 7, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 3, 2021. The vehicle had 85,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as seats:mid/rear assembly:recliner, 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 seats:mid/rear assembly:recliner 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 2014 SUBARU FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2014 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that he lowered the rear passengerâs seat to make some room in the vehicle to install the child safety seat. While attempting to raise the seatback up to lock it into place, the rear passenger seat would not latch in place securely. The seat had to remain in the lowered position. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 85,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1767099 |
| ODI Number | 11432037 |
| Date Filed | September 7, 2021 |
| Failure Date | September 3, 2021 |
| VIN | JF2SJAMC1EH |
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.