What ownership is like, what breaks at what mileage, what the repairs cost, and what to check before you buy one.
← All Subaru Forester generations
NHTSA complaints per catalog listing run from 0.93 for 2007 (74 complaints across 80 listings) to 3.90 for 2003 (191 across 49), against a generation median of 1.42. The highest year, 2003, is 2.8 times that median. Flagged by our rule: 2003.
| Miles | Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| No consistent mileage found in sources | EJ25 head gasket seepage and failure (naturally aspirated cars most often; XT turbos used multi-layer gaskets) | $4,000-$5,000 at most shops (JustAnswer); about $1,500 USD from one overseas quote including head machining (owner forum); $2,800 on a 2008 turbo with belt and pump (owner forum) | Sources describe EJ25 head gasket work on the Forester generally and the quotes spread widely because the bill is mostly labor. One owner post breaks a job into a $300 gasket, $300 head resurfacing and about 12 labor hours; a 2008 turbo job with timing belt and water pump, done with the engine out and heads machined, was quoted $2,800. Check for oil or coolant seepage at the heads, coolant loss, and overheating on the test drive. |
| around 105,000 (Samarins) | Timing belt service | Not verified as a standalone price; the $2,800 2008 quote above bundled belt, water pump and head gasket work | The Forester uses a timing belt in this generation. Ask for proof it was done, and ask about the water pump at the same time. |
| any | Recalls on file (5 campaigns in our records): 02V282000 (2003), 03V047000 (2003), 04V473000 (2004), 07V043000 (2006), 11V464000 (2003-2008) | Free at a Subaru dealer when open | Confirm each by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. Includes a lower control arm recall and an automatic transmission recall on early cars in our records. |
A year is flagged by our rule only when all three hold: (1) its NHTSA complaints per catalog listing is at least 2.0x the median for its generation, (2) the share of ads that mention a problem is above the generation median, and (3) we track at least 30 listings for that year. The cutoff was fixed before we looked. Ad mentions are not failures, and a flag is a reason to inspect harder, not a verdict on any one car. We also re-ran the ad test with the 'rust' flaw left out, because the ad reader counts phrases like 'no rust' as mentions, and publish a flag only if it passes both ways.
Complaints add up over a car's whole life, so older years in a generation can look worse here than they are. Read this flag next to the complaint details below.
| Year | Complaints | Top components | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 191 | Fuel System, Gasoline, Fuel/propulsion System, Engine... | |
| 2004 | 219 | Fuel/propulsion System, Fuel System, Gasoline, Suspension | |
| 2005 | 93 | Suspension, Vehicle Speed Control, Fuel/propulsion System | |
| 2006 | 88 | Vehicle Speed Control, Engine And Engine Cooling, Suspension | |
| 2007 | 74 | Suspension, Engine, Power Train | |
| 2008 | 50 | Suspension, Engine, Unknown Or Other |
source: NHTSA complaints database (api.nhtsa.gov). Complaints are owner reports, not confirmed failures.
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We don't tell you to skip a year; we flag by a fixed rule, and today it flags 2003 only (191 complaints across 49 listings, 3.90 per listing against a 2003-2008 median of 1.42). 2020 comes close but is not flagged: 3.21 per listing against a 2019-2024 median of 1.62 is 1.99 times the median, just under the 2.0 the rule needs; its complaints are mostly visibility (windshields). Third-party lists name other years: CoPilot says 2014, CarTalk lists 1998-2001, 2006, 2009-2010, 2011-2015 and 2019. 2014 has 0.94 per listing and 2019 has 4.34 in our data.
Older EJ25 cars do. Sources put naturally aspirated EJ25 Foresters from roughly 1999 to 2010 at higher risk of head gasket leaks (Car Costing, Hitches Guide). JustAnswer says the repair typically runs $4,000 to $5,000 at most shops; owner posts range from about $1,500 USD overseas to $2,800 for a 2008 turbo job including timing belt and water pump. Look for oil seepage at the heads and coolant loss.
Subaru's bulletin TSB 02-157-14R covers FB25 oil consumption in 2011-2014 Foresters, and a class settlement covered those years (Jalopnik). An owner forum post says updated piston rings went into production on 2013-05-08. Ask for oil change records and check the oil level cold.
Yes for some cars. Subaru extended CVT coverage to 10 years or 100,000 miles on 2014-2015 Foresters (Subaru OEMDTC; NHTSA bulletin 16-107-17R). Many of those cars are past that limit now, so confirm status by VIN with a dealer. A replacement outside coverage is quoted at $3,500 to $7,000 (CVT Mechanic).
Owner reports vary: about $609 including EyeSight calibration (Reddit, 2020), $640 plus $250 recalibration (owner forum), and about $2,300 to $2,500 quoted in the Bay Area in 2024 (Reddit). These are single reports, not price lists. Windshield and wiper complaints are the largest NHTSA group for 2020.
We don't rank generations. Our own numbers: the 2009-2013 generation has a median of 0.81 NHTSA complaints per catalog listing and the 2014-2018 generation has 1.31. Those rates are not directly comparable across generations, because newer cars have had less time and different ways of being reported.