2019 SUBARU OUTBACK — Complaint #1790714
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:TRUNK LID:LATCH:EMERGENCY MECHANICAL RELEASE filed January 28, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1790714 (ODI reference 11449216) concerns a 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK and was filed on January 28, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 1, 2021. The vehicle had 30,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Alabama based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:trunk lid:latch:emergency mechanical release, 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 OUTBACK cohort independently describe similar latches/locks/linkages:trunk lid:latch:emergency mechanical release 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 2019 SUBARU OUTBACK shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that on multiple occasions, the battery was inadvertently drained, and the vehicle would not start. After recharging the battery, the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who indicated that the battery was not faulty. The battery was recharged but the rear hatch door would not open while pressing the open button on both the key fobs, the driverâs side seat panel button, or while attempting to use the hatch button at the rear of the vehicle. The contact stated that the only way to open the rear hatch door was by using the emergency release inside the hatch space. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 30,000
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1790714 |
| ODI Number | 11449216 |
| Date Filed | January 28, 2022 |
| Failure Date | November 1, 2021 |
| VIN | 4S4BSAHC7K3 |
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.