The New Subaru Outback Feature Owners Dislike The Most And How To Turn It Off

Spouse has it in his car and I have it in my new Crosstrek. We agree it’s a beneficial feature to keep on. The car calculates the number of gallons you are saving when in engine off mode and I’m almost up to 1 gallon saved in less than 2 months. It adds up.

Do you have any updates on the 2019-2023 Outback problems with the audio unit. Apparently an out of stock item. I’ve been waiting for several months to have it replaced, hence no radio.

I just bought a 2024 subaru legacy sport, and I can confirm that the auto start stop feature is not the best. When the engine turns off its not a problem but on startup the car shakes as said in the article. Love the car but hate having to turn that off everytime I turn the car on.

I don't have any problem with stop/start on my 2023 Outback.
It takes less than a second to restart. Without even trying I'm usually ahead of my neighbor in the other lanes and reach 30-40 mph before they do and I don't leadfoot it.
I like it, it may not save a lot of gas but any savings these days is good.

On my subaru it is inconsistant. Fifty percent of the time tge outback will shut off, and fifity percentof the time it stays idleing.

There is a product you can buy and install called the Auto Stop Eliminator. I installed it in my 2021 Outback and it permanently turns off the feature.

I might have bought a Toyota (or something else) had I known at the time. I love my '24 Crosstrek but hate the start/stop. Not as much as my wife does though.

I have owned a new Outback for ten months and I don't understand the complaints. I barely notice when it turns off and on. Sounds like overly picky people.

I have owned three Honda Civic hybrids, which have the stop start feature. I traded one of them in at 170,000 miles; another one the transmission blew up at 250,000 miles; the other one has 270,000 miles on it and is still running fine. Never had a problem with the stop start feature.

Hello, the fuel saving is minor compared to how many times this auto stop/start will shake the car, not just side to side vibration, but also a push forward by the engine.
I do have other complaints about the Outbacks, as not just the 2022 model, the 2019 model too, same things:
- when I make quick hard steering wheel turn in and out of a parking spot, the steering system has a hard shock at the end of the stroke. That shock is hard enough to give me concerns.
- the rear wheels have way too much negative camber, -1.8 degrees and -1.6 degrees on 2022 Outback, and it's not adjustable. I will have to replace the tires too soon because of inside wear, as I did on 2019 model. That inside wear is also dangerous because it can not be seen easy by the owner and wear amount on the inside can get bellow the bottom of the grooves while the outside of the tire still shows some life left in the tire. I had to replace the tires on the previous 3 years lease, 15k miles per year. It will be the same with the current lease.
- My wife gets car sick if seating in the rear because the rear suspension allows the car to bounce too much on the road. I have 30k miles on the car and I already can see one of the rear tires bouncing on the road, as it happens when a shock absorber doesn't work right.
- and the final complain, when at about 20 mph and engine at 2000 RPM, with a medium load acceleration the engine shakes the car sideways. It started to be felt early, under 10k, even my wife felt the symptom but didn't say anything until I told her that I would not buy the car at the end of the lease.
- Do I trust a Subaru dealer for all these complains? No, unfortunately. These are all car design issues, dealers can't do anything about these, and they just try to dodge the questions and calm down the customer, "nothing to worry about, everything is fine" kind of answer.
- 2022 Outback is not a car to keep for me and I may switch to a different car manufacturer at the end of the current lease.
- Just a matter of style: the roof rails are ugly.

I always turn it off. As soon as the screen boots I reach over and hit the A button before I reach down to put it in gear. It's automatic with me - don't even think about it. The second think I hate is the nagging driver management system. I dontvneed it telling me to keep my eyes on the road.

I will not buy another Subaru because of all of their electronic crap.

I own a 2018 Outback, which does not an automatic shut off feature, which I really enjoy driving.

I recently rented a 2023 Outback and without a doubt I would not buy any new Subaru until the automatic shutoff feature can be turned off and stay off upon car shutdown and restart. What an incredibly annoying feature.

Start stop is horrible for vehicles no matter what anyone tells you. The first few seconds after starting an engine is when it suffers the most internal wear because oil isnt actively flowing inside. The thin coating that stays behind in the engine may help lubricate low friction points but it does not help areas that rely on a cushion of oil like cam and crank bearings. Those areas take the most abuse the first few seconds after starting the engine until oil pressure builds up. The fact that happens everytime the engine starts should be enough to tell you that you want that to happen as little as possible. You may save a couple bucks (literally) per year with the start\stop feature, but you risk having serious engine problems costing THOUSANDS to repair, if not an entire new engine.
A company called 4D Tech sells a device that simply plugs into a wire harness on the car that makes it so that the system remembers the setting rather than default to the "on" setting every single time you get in the car. After installation the system stays off forever unless you decide to turn it back on. It costs $100 but is the best thing I ever bought for my Subarus.

I have a 2020 Subaru Forester and September 2020 I bought a device from autostopeliminator.com for $99. I just checked and they have installation instructions and it was very easy for me to install. I’ve been getting 28-29 mpg. I put up with start/stop for a few months but it became annoying. My car is almost 4 years old and I still have the original battery. I’m in Tucson AZ.

2019 Subaru Forester. I detest this feature which barely saves fuel if the dashboard display of savings is correct. In Phoenix summers, if the ac is off for seconds you feel it. I try to shut off the feature each time I start the car. Concerned about premature battery and starter wear. This feature is a foist if the worse kind.

You can actually control auto start/stop on the fly. If you press heavily on the brake pedal, the feature kicks in. If you break lightly, it doesn't. Therefore by adjusting your breaking style, you can determine whether the motor stops when you come to a halt.
This applies equally to the auto vehicle hold function.

I despise the feature. It played a role in whether to purchase a new forester. The fact that you cannot permanently turn off the feature smacks of the government as in we know better than you common fools. Just hate it.