Total Complaints
4 filings
SUBARU SUBARU · model year
4 NHTSA complaints for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 1987SUBARUSUBARU carries 4 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 2 fires, 0 injuries, and 2 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 1987 SUBARU is suspension:rear with 2 filings, followed by fuel system, gasoline:delivery:fuel pump (1) and tires:temporary/emergency spare tire (1). Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability.
NHTSA currently has 9 investigation files overlapping the 1987 SUBARU. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
4 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| SUSPENSION:REAR | 2 |
| FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:FUEL PUMP | 1 |
| TIRES:TEMPORARY/EMERGENCY SPARE TIRE | 1 |
SPARE TIRE MOUNTED IN ENGINE COMPARTMENT CAUGHT FIRE CAUSING FATALITY.
UPON VEHICLE STRIKING A TREE FUEL PUMP FAILED TO SHUT OFF, CAUSING FIRE/FATALITY. *SD
REAR AXLE CORRODED PRIOR TO RECALL, RECALL REPAIRS REFUSED DUE TO MODEL YEAR. (92V-001) *AW
REAR AXLE COMPLETELY CORRODED OUT AND SPLIT IN HALF, REPLACE REAR SUSPENSION MEMBER. TT
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.