2024 SUBARU FORESTER — Complaint #2072262
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE filed March 8, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2072262 (ODI reference 11647168) concerns a 2024 SUBARU FORESTER and was filed on March 8, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 1, 2025. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:hatchback/liftgate, 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: 1, 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 structure:body:hatchback/liftgate 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 2024 SUBARU FORESTER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I opened the back hatch of my 2024 Subaru Forester to retrieve an item. I then pressed the button to close the hatch. It was an extremely windy day and right when I pressed the button to close the hatch an empty grocery bag blew out of the car. I caught it and shoved it back into the car. The hatch was closing at the time and it struck me on the head. I contacted a local Subaru dealer and Subaru corporate to confirm that the hatch was supposed to stop and reverse when encountering an obstruction. It did not. I have been suffering from a severe headache since this happened a week ago. I will be taking my car in to have it repaired as well as seeing a doctor since my headache has not resolved. Please investigate and ensure this safety issue is corrected by Subaru.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2072262 |
| ODI Number | 11647168 |
| Date Filed | March 8, 2025 |
| Failure Date | March 1, 2025 |
| VIN | JF2SKADCXRH |
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.