Subaru BRZ Reliability by YearBest & worst years, problems & recalls — NHTSA data
Comparing used Subaru BRZ options? We analyzed 10 model years (2017–2026) using real NHTSA complaint and recall data so you can spot stronger years, avoid riskier ones, and know what to inspect before buying.
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Model-year trends show patterns — they can't tell you whether this car was crashed, flooded, or rolled back. A VIN check can.
- Accident & damage history
- Odometer rollback records
- Open recalls & title brands
Based on NHTSA complaint data, the Subaru BRZ has 25 owner complaints and 4 safety recalls across model years 2017–2026. The most reported issue area is ENGINE. 2022 drew the most complaints; 2018 drew the fewest.
- Make
- Subaru
- Model
- BRZ
- Model years analyzed
- 2017–2026 (10 years)
- Total NHTSA complaints
- 25
- Safety recall campaigns
- 4
- Crash-related complaints
- 1
- Fire-related complaints
- 1
- Worst model year (by complaints)
- 2022 (10 complaints)
- Best model year (fewest complaints)
- 2018 (1 complaints)
- Top reported issue area
- ENGINE
- Reliability signal
- Good
By model year
Subaru BRZ: which years to avoid & which to buy
Based on total NHTSA owner complaints per model year. Higher complaint counts indicate a riskier year to buy used — lower counts suggest a cleaner reliability record.
These years have the most owner complaints. Inspect carefully and always run a VIN check.
These years have the fewest owner complaints on record — lower risk starting points.
Crash test ratings
NHTSA NCAP crash test ratings
New Car Assessment ProgramNCAP crash tests measure how well a vehicle protects occupants in controlled frontal crash, side crash, and rollover scenarios. Stars are awarded per category (5 = safest). These laboratory results are independent of owner complaints and are performed by NHTSA engineers on new production vehicles.
Source: nhtsa.gov/ratings
What the complaint data suggests
GoodThe SUBARU BRZ has 25 NHTSA complaints and 4 recalls on record. 1 complaints involve crash-related incidents. This data reflects owner-reported issues submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- 25 total complaints filed with NHTSA
- 4 federal recall campaigns
- 1 crash-related complaints on record
- Review NHTSA complaint history for the most-reported components
- Check recall completion status at nhtsa.gov/recalls
- Verify service records for frequently complained components
Consult the by-year breakdown to identify model years with elevated complaint rates.
Consult the by-year breakdown to identify model years with fewer reported issues.
- Run a VIN check on the specific vehicle you are considering
- Verify all open recalls are completed at nhtsa.gov/recalls
- Request service records for the most-reported complaint components
- Have a certified mechanic inspect the vehicle before purchase
Problems by model year (best vs. worst)
Source: NHTSA public complaints database. Updated: Aug 2026
Safety recalls
NHTSA safety recalls
4 recalls foundSafety recalls are mandatory repair campaigns ordered by NHTSA when a vehicle defect poses an unreasonable risk to safety. Manufacturers are required to fix recalled vehicles free of charge. Always verify open recalls before buying a used car.
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:FUEL PUMP
VISIBILITY:REARVIEW MIRRORS/DEVICES
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:DELIVERY:FUEL PUMP
EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNAL
Source: NHTSA Recalls Database. Data covers model years 2017–2026. Always run a VIN-specific check below for the most up-to-date open recall status.
Common problems
What goes wrong most often
The vehicle systems owners complain about most, ranked from all 25 NHTSA complaints — these are the areas to inspect first on a used car.
Owner complaints
NHTSA complaint reports
25 totalThese are consumer-submitted safety complaints filed directly with NHTSA. Each complaint describes a real owner's experience. Complaints flagged as crash-related or fire-related are highlighted.
See attached document for complaint.
Engine hiccups while engine temperature gets enough level. Nothing comes on dashboard but I can definitely felt the car's hiccup very randomly.
Stock blinkers rapidly flash faster than normal, blinkers cannot be seen in the rear at the time when signaling left or right during this time
I purchased a new 2022 Subaru BRZ. Shortly after the purchase, the wheel bolts loosened which caused catastrophic damage to the wheel, and all brake components. Upon further research, we believe this may be an inherent vehicle defect. This problem is subject to a recall involving hub bolts which can loosen to the point where the wheel can detach from the vehicle damaging the brake components and posses serious safety issue. The consumer is requesting to reimbursed for repairs, rental, and legal fees.
This is a new car. There’s was only 31 miles when I purchased. One day, there’s some sound when I driving the vehicle. Once I parked, all the warning lamps was on, then my car wasn’t able to move. When the incident happened, it was only 4 months of using it and only 5,498 miles. Then I bring my car back to retailer and they inform me I need to replace the whole engine because of lack of oil. Even though they Silas’s my car was lack of oil, but there’s no light on the dashboard lights up and told me I need to add more oil. The process of repairing took 5 months. After I read other owners post on social media, I believe I have the similar situation. It says “ RTV is a sealant used as a gasket for the Subaru FA24D engine in the car and is allegedly applied too liberally at the factory. When RTV is dislodged in the engine's oil, it can clog the pickup. That can cause oil starvation“ Roughly a month later of fixing it(5 months of repairs) , there’s a strong scent of gas when I open the door of my car. And I can’t turn it on the first time. Second time of trying turning it on, all the warning lamp went off again. And the car couldn’t drive again. I bring back to the retailer and this is their respond, “ the technician found fuel is pouring out of the pressure relief valve of the left side head due to a possible failing injector on cylinder #3. We must do a teardown to verify the initial diagnosis.” And the final diagnosis The technician found two injector o-rings that were defective, causing fuel to leak and flood the cylinder chamber, which in turn caused the vehicle to stall. Parts can fail for many reasons, in this case we can attribute it to the quality of the parts themselves.“
During my early commute on a sunny morning shortly after sunrise with the sun at the rear of the vehicle, when selecting the turn signal, the dash display flashes rapidly, i.e., hyperflashing, and it has been confirmed that the rear signal light does not operate during this anomaly. The forward turn signal does function but flashes at a rapid rate. This is a repeatable occurrence when the sun is behind the car in the early morning from early sunrise to about 60 minutes later. Once the sun is high in the sky, the turn signals operate normal. This condition occurs on either turn signal and I have also experienced this with late afternoon sun. I have captured this anomaly on video but this site does not allow upload of .mp4 files. This is a link to a video I uploaded on YouTube showing the anomaly in later afternoon sun. https://youtu.be/dHwMCdlJfYQ I have communicated this concern to Subaru of America and shared the video links to them. Their last communication was to contact a dealer. I understand that the dealer would need to confirm my concern. However, it would need to be a sunny day on the time of appointment plus the duty hours for the technicians are outside the window of the sun elevation when this problem occurs. Other owners of the 2022 BRZ and Toyota GR86 have reported similar experiences on the web forums with turn signals behaving as I have detailed.
Read 14 more owner reports
When the sun is facing the rear of the car, the rear turn signals do not activate, and the turn signals flash rapidly. It is exactly what happens in this youtube video: https://youtu.be/dHwMCdlJfYQ This is a danger, because my car will not properly signal when I change lanes or take a turn. Subaru will not look at the vehicle. In this post in a community of owners for this vehicle, an owner states that the dealer ignored the issue, and Subaru of America sent a generic, irrelevant response. https://www.gr86.org/threads/fast-blinker-caused-by-low-sun.4733/post-96056 This behavior by the dealer and the manufacturer is irresponsible and dangerous. This issue needs to be resolved at the federal level to ensure the safety of myself and others on the road.
Found traces of silicone in my engine. Checked the dipstick out of curiosity and found silicone or RTV sealant. The car only has 500 miles on it. Will do oil change after break in period of Subaru’s recommended 1000 miles and will have them check the oil pan filter for more RTV…
The engine has excess RTV sealant and is clogging the oil pick-up tube. This is cause the motor to have restricted oil flow and causing premature motor failures.
The new 2022 Subaru BRZ's and Toyota GR86's have been found to have an excessive amount of RTV silicone on the engine oil pan. This can clog up the oil pickup filter and cause oil starvation leading to catastrophic engine failure. A few engines have already failed and more people have been finding RTV silicone in their oil filters and dipsticks including me.
My car has excess RTV sealant on the oil pan that has now gotten into my engine and is causing oil starvation.
These particular vehicles (and their Toyota counterpart, the GR86) have been experiencing issues with excess RTV sealant used on the oil pan and timing cover getting into the oil. Once this RTV sealant is in the oil, it clogs the oil pickup tube filter. As the excess sealant collects on the filter, it begins to starve the engine of oil. There have been a number of documented failures so far (including one that made international auto news). Some owners are inspecting their oil dip stick and finding anywhere from light to heavy sealant residue even on the dip stick. I inspected my own and found traces of RTV sealant stuck to it as well. In the provided picture, you will see traces of sealant on the length of the dip stick as well as the tip. At this time, Toyota and Subaru have not issued a recall or service bulletin of any sort for this problem. The online forums for these vehicles are filled with nothing but posts about finding sealant on their dipsticks, or posts from those that removed their own oil pan and found sealant clogging the filter.
At 20,000 miles I notice a popping coming from the right front wheel area at low speeds or turning to park. 2 dealerships told me nothing was wrong. At 45, 650 I insisted the dealership fix the problem as it was now on both sides of the front wheel area. Top hats and motor mounts needed replacement. The car only had 45, 650 miles on it.
A small stone put a tiny mark on my windshield, I woke up the next morning and the windshield was spidered in a huge circle.
The stock head unit (Model #: CA645UL) in my vehicle has been having Bluetooth issues. Every since I purchased the vehicle in 2016, from time to time, the audio from my Bluetooth would cut out and then come back on. It was only once in a blue moon ever since I bought the car, so I never paid much attention to it. However, recently it's been cutting out more frequently than usual. When I took my vehicle in for the 60,000 mile service on 12/12/24, I decided to mention this audio problem to see if the service center could address it while they are working on it. The technician attempted to update the software for the audio unit. After attempting the software update a few times, the technician found the old software was corrupted, causing the system to completely fail. This points to an internal fault in the audio unit. This issue affects my safety in two ways: 1) I can no longer make phone calls via Bluetooth. This poses a safety concern as I would need to take my eyes off the road to make or answer a phone call, which may result in a crash. 2) My backup camera is no longer functional due to the head unit because compromised. This poses a safety concern as I can no longer see as well when backing up or parallel parking. The problem has been confirmed by the dealer. I have attached a photo of the invoice from the dealership.
-Manual Transmission issues with grinding or failure to go into gear. Vehicle is available for inspection upon request. -Merging into highway traffic can be dangerous when I'm more focused on my transmission grinding loudly and having difficulty shifting gears to get up to speed. -Unknown -Unknown -No warning lights of any kind
This week when I started my car, a yellow caution light appeared on my dash and a “check SRS warning light” appeared next to it. It would turn on and off, so i am unsure of what the problem is. I brought my car in for an inspection on January 28th, and they didn’t detect any issue regarding airbags or anything related to it. One thing i noticed is whenever the passenger seat is pulled forward or backward, it then turns on.
2017 SUBARU BRZ LIMITED WITH PERFORMANCE PACKAGE WAS INVOLVED IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT ON 4-5-21. SUBJECT VEHICLE HAD STOPPED AND WAS SLOWLY ENTERING TO CROSS AN INTERSECTION OF A DIVIDED HIGHWAY WITH A 50 MPH SPEED LIMIT WHILE BEING STRUCK BY AN ONCOMING CAR AT AN APPROXIMATE 90 DEGREE ANGLE WHICH IMPACTED THE LEFT FRONT FENDER NEAR THE HEADLIGHT AND BUMPER AREA.. UPON IMPACT, THE FRONT ENGINE PORTION BURST INTO FLAMES. THE LEFT FRONT DOOR WAS NOT IMPACTED AND DRIVER WAS ABLE TO ESCAPE AS FLAMES IMMEDIATELY ENGULFED THE PASSENGER SECTION. WHAT WOULD LIKELY HAVE RESULTED IN A REPAIRABLE LEFT FRONTAL DAMAGE CLAIM ACTUALLY BECAME A TOTAL LOSS DUE TO THE FIRE DESTRUCTION. THIS AUTOMOBILE WAS PURCHASED NEW FROM A SUBARU DEALERSHIP ON 10-9-17 AND THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON AT APPROXIMATELY 3,300 MILES. THE CAR WAS TAKEN TO JIM KARAS SUBARU IN MEMPHIS, TN FOR REPAIRS. THE ENGINE WAS REMOVED FOR REPAIRS. ACCORDING TO MECHANIC'S INSPECTION AND REPAIR REPORT 521894S DATED 4-20-18, 'FOR P219A AND P119F PULLED VALVE COVERS AND INSPECTION VALVE CLEARANCE AND FOUND THAT ALL INTAKE AND EXHAUST VALVE ARE OUT OF SPEC AND TO TIGHT. REPLACED VALVES, ALL VALVE SHIMS TO BRING ALL INTAKE AND EXHAUST CLEARANCES INTO DESIGN SPEC. REPLACED ALL GASKETS AND ORINGS AS WELL AS HIGH PRESSURE FUEL LINE'. IT IS NOTED THAT SUBARU MAY HAVE HAD FIRE HAZARD ISSUES WITH OTHER REPAIRED SUBARU BRZ MODEL YEARS WITH THE FA 20 D BOXER ENGINE MANUFACTURED FOR YEARS BEGINNING IN 2013. MANUFACTURER MADE NO ADAS AVAILABLE ON THIS CAR.
I WAS DRIVING ON THE FREEWAY WHEN THE CAR STALLED THREE TIMES; THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON, THEN TURNED OFF. WHITE, SWEET SMELLING SMOKE BEGAN COMING OUT OF THE ENGINE. I PULLED OVER SAFELY. UPON INSPECTION OF THE CAR, IT WAS FOUND THAT THE VALVE SPRING COVER CAME OUT OF THE RIGHT SIDE (PASSENGER) ENGINE HEAD. SEE ATTACHMENT FOR A LIST OF ALL PARTS AFFECTED.
THE PASSAGER AIR BAG TURNED OFF WITH ME IN THE SEAT
Showing 20 of 25 total NHTSA complaints. Source: NHTSA Complaints Database
Check the exact car
Before you buy, check the exact Subaru BRZ
These pages show model-year patterns across 10 years. Enter a VIN to verify the exact vehicle's accident history, title brands, odometer records, and open recall status before purchase.
The basics
How to read this data
Complaints, recalls, investigations — here’s what each number actually tells you about a used Subaru BRZ, in plain English.
What is an NHTSA Complaint?
An NHTSA safety complaint is a report filed directly by a vehicle owner or driver describing a safety-related issue. Anyone can submit a complaint at NHTSA.gov. The number of complaints is a signal of how common a problem is — but complaints per model-year matter more than raw totals, since popular vehicles naturally receive more reports. The Subaru BRZ has 25 complaints on record across 10 model years.
What is a Safety Recall?
A safety recall is a mandatory campaign issued by NHTSA when a vehicle component poses an unreasonable risk to safety or does not comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Unlike complaints (which are owner-reported), recalls are formally investigated and confirmed by regulators. Manufacturers must fix recalled vehicles free of charge. The Subaru BRZ has 4 recall campaigns in the NHTSA database.
What Are Crash Complaints?
Crash complaints are NHTSA filings where the owner indicates a crash occurred as part of the incident. 1 of the Subaru BRZ's 25 complaints involved a crash. This metric is particularly important because it indicates how often defects resulted in actual collisions — a key safety signal beyond general reliability.
How Is the Reliability Verdict Calculated?
The reliability verdict (Good) is generated by analyzing the vehicle's total complaints, recall history, crash complaint ratio, fire complaint ratio, and top component failures relative to class averages. This verdict gives buyers a quick interpretation before they review year-level details and VIN-level history. It should be treated as one decision input, not a substitute for a VIN-specific report.
Why Do Newer Years Have Fewer Complaints?
Newer model years appear to have fewer complaints because there has been less time for owners to file them. Complaints accumulate over years of ownership. A 2020 model year vehicle will typically show fewer complaints than a 2015 model year even if it is less reliable — simply because fewer owners have had time to report issues. Focus on complaints per year of market presence when comparing across model years.
Fleet Data vs. Individual VIN
Everything on this page reflects aggregated data across all Subaru BRZ vehicles on the road — not any specific car. Two Subaru BRZ vehicles of the same year can have very different histories: one may have been in three accidents and have an open recall; another may be clean. A VIN check gives you the individual car's history: accidents, title brands, odometer records, service history, and real-time recall status.
What Are NHTSA Investigations?
When NHTSA receives a pattern of related safety complaints, it opens a formal investigation. A Preliminary Evaluation (PE) is the first stage — NHTSA determines if a safety defect may exist. If evidence is strong, it escalates to an Engineering Analysis (EA), which can result in a mandatory recall. The Subaru BRZ has 0 investigations on record (0 active). Investigations listed above may have already led to the recalls shown on this page.
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How does the Subaru BRZ stack up? Compare complaint history with similar vehicles.
By state
Check a Subaru BRZ by state
Title-branding rules, flood-damage exposure, and salvage laws vary by state. Run a free VIN check or explore state-specific vehicle history guidance before buying a used Subaru BRZ.
Research more
Keep researching before you buy
Compare brands and categories, then check the exact car's history by VIN.
Subaru BRZ reliability — frequently asked questions
Is the Subaru BRZ reliable?
Good. The Subaru BRZ has 25 NHTSA owner complaints and 4 recall campaigns across model years. A commonly reported issue area is ENGINE. Use year-level data as a pattern guide, then verify the exact car with a VIN check before purchase.
Which Subaru BRZ years to avoid?
Years with the most NHTSA complaints: 2022 (10 complaints), 2017 (7 complaints), 2018 (1 complaints). Use these years as a shortlist for deeper inspection, and always run a VIN check on the exact vehicle before purchase.
What are the most common Subaru BRZ problems?
Top reported issues: ENGINE (11 complaints); UNKNOWN OR OTHER (4 complaints); EXTERIOR LIGHTING (3 complaints).
Does the Subaru BRZ have recalls?
Yes — 4 NHTSA recall campaigns have been issued for the Subaru BRZ. Check nhtsa.gov/recalls or run a VIN check to see if your specific vehicle has open recalls.