As a professional car reviewer and a recent Subaru owner, I am always a little surprised at the exuberance everyone else seems to have for the brand. I’m not alone. Many, if not most, of my automotive peers seem to feel this way. Yet, talk to a regular person and the feelings they have for Subaru are strong. Talk to a new Subaru owner and those feelings are even stronger. I call this the “Subaru Effect.”
I was reminded of the Subaru Effect this morning when I saw that Consumer Reports named Subaru as its overall #1 brand, beating out BMW. How did it happen? It’s worth going deeper into both the Consumer Reports methodology and Subaru’s approach to the car market for this morning’s Morning Dump. Similarly, people tend to think of electric cars as simpler and more reliable, but reality and expectation are quite far apart as Consumer Reports found in a recent study.
Tesla has its own aura, though the light from that aura seems to be dimming a bit and so Tesla is aggressively leasing vehicles to try and keep its sales going. This will probably work for a while, though we’re going to run into a shortage of buyers until batteries or infrastructure get better. Infrastructure is slow, so perhaps new battery tech is the answer.
Happy Friday, let’s do this.
Subarus Are Just Well-Marketed Economy Cars, But That’s Ok
Do people love Subarus because “loving” a Subaru was a key part of the company’s marketing for the last decade, or is the advertising an actual reflection of the company’s user base toward the brand? I’m genuinely not sure.
The arc of Subaru in my lifetime is fascinating. As a child, my grandfather had a reliable Subaru wagon he used to drive me up and down the Texas coast. It was just a decent economy car. As a teenager, the rally exploits of Colin McRae helped make the Bugeye WRX the car to own… and eventually crash into a tree. Somewhere around college the brand somehow came to represent both flat-billed AWD enthusiasts and the outdoorsy/crunchy/granola REI Co-op set.
While the company still does make a WRX and even a BRZ, it’s now mostly a brand for normal people who want an economy car that doesn’t necessarily feel like an economy car. It’s quite brilliant, really, and it continues to work. Put AWD and some body cladding on an economy car, give it a little lift, and suddenly everyone who wants to kayak buys one. The brand also cleverly plays this up as it gives a ton of money to national parks and animal foundations. By not being a car for everyone, like Toyota or Honda, the brand has been able to cultivate a perception that’s attractive to a ton of buyers.
It even worked on me as, in 2016, I purchased a Subaru Forester as a family car that was safe enough, had AWD, and wasn’t too expensive.
The first couple of years were fine, though I eventually came to regret buying it due to its poor fuel economy, boring driving characteristics, and a seemingly endless series of small but expensive or annoying repairs it needed. Based on talking to other older Subaru owners I’m not alone in this, though there are plenty of Subaru owners who did not have this experience. This might be a case where I’m in the minority.
This might explain how Subaru went to the top of the Consumer Reports brand list, where it replaces BMW as the top brand by a single point. The rest of the top five are Lexus, Porsche, and Honda. At the bottom are Dodge, GMC, Land Rover, Rivian, and Jeep.
How does CR put this list together? Here’s the publication’s explanation:
We rank automakers based on their vehicles’ average Overall Score—a combination of our road-test scores, safety ratings, and predicted reliability and owner satisfaction data. This provides a definitive number to help consumers see which brands shine and which might be best avoided.
I want to note a couple of things here because I know the people at CR and have visited the company’s test facility in Connecticut. Many of the contributors and editors are sharp drivers, experienced wrenchers, and owners of quirky old cars. That’s not necessarily the CR audience, so the rankings are skewed toward the average CR member, which someone on Reddit described as “a support group for people who are bored out of their minds by their cars” yesterday.
Maybe, but CR has a huge readership to survey and buys the cars that it tests, going to great lengths to disguise themselves so automakers can’t send them a specific vehicle. Enthusiasts might not agree with the rankings, but the publication’s methods are unique in this industry.
[Ed Note: Consumer reports scores are a big deal in the Auto Industry. One of the strangest moments in my engineering career happened when I poked fun at Consumer Reports during a meeting in which an engineer was discussing us (i.e. Fiat Chrysler) making sure that we designed our vehicle to satisfy a Consumer Reports metric (yes, automakers design their cars around CR testing!). I, a car enthusiast, said something like “We really want to design our car based on boring Consumer Reports,” and the engineer (an older guy) said something along the lines: “If you don’t understand the importance of Consumer Reports, let’s go outside right now and I’ll show you the importance of Consumer Reports.” I think the guy wanted to fight me for me poking fun at CR? It was extremely, extremely weird. -DT].
Looking more closely at Subaru you can get a sense of why the brand ranks so highly. First up, the brand’s road test score is high. Again, let’s go to CR to explain:
“The road-test score is an amalgam of a model’s driving experience. It factors in power delivery, handling agility, braking performance, ride comfort, noise isolation, seat comfort, controls’ ease of use, and fuel economy,” says Gabe Shenhar, associate director of Consumer Reports’ auto test program. “For EVs, the score also reflects range, charging time, and ease of plugging and unplugging. Brands that produce well-rounded vehicles that are capable in multiple areas are ranked highly.”
Subaru doesn’t make a lot of big, heavy crossovers and trucks, and instead makes fairly comfortable cars that handle reasonably well. While this may be skewed towards normal drivers, the lack of bigger and heavier vehicles has clearly helped Subaru’s road test score average. Other brands in the top four are BMW, Audi, and Porsche. Chrysler, which only makes the Pacifica, is also up here in sixth, so that tells you how these measures are weighted.
While reliability varies a lot from model to model, Subaru doesn’t make a lot of different vehicles and there’s a lot of platform sharing. Owners of Subaru who are CR members report the fewest issues after purchase, so Subaru is now at the top of the rankings for “Predicted Reliability,” ahead of Toyota, Lexus, Honda, and Acura. When it comes to used-car brand reliability, Subaru ranked much lower at 9th, which is a little closer to my experience. On “Overall Satisfaction” Subaru also only came in 8th, being great at nothing, but good enough at everything.
This is a kind of amusing outcome and goes to show what level the idea of a car matters more than the reality of the car and that the “Subaru Effect” is strong. People who just bought Subarus report few issues and are excited about the prospect of owning a Subaru. Overall, though, people who have had a Subaru for a while are less satisfied than BMW or even Chevy owners. Even more amusingly, used Subaru owners, on average, end up with a “reliability verdict” worse than Nissan, Volvo, and Buick.
And while Subaru isn’t the most economical car company when you look at individual models, the lack of trucks does mean that Subaru’s CO2 footprint is relatively low. The addition of Toyota’s hybrid systems to Subaru vehicles will be a huge improvement here.
Subaru got mad at us when we pointed out the Crosstrek Wilderness had the wimpiest skid plate you’ll ever see, even if we liked the vehicle overall. That was a car enthusiast complaint as clearly there are a lot of Subaru owners who are just Subaru enthusiasts (the brand is selling well). You know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. People being enthusiastic about their vehicles is what this place is about, right? [Ed Note: There’s a fascinating book titled “Where The Suckers Moon” all about how Subaru built its powerful brand starting with a cheap, tinny little mini-car from Japan. Worth a read! -DT].
I think “love” does really make a Subaru a Subaru. Soon after buying a Subaru I also became an REI Co-op member and bought a big tent and started going camping. Was I brainwashed? Maybe. Sometimes a little brainwashing is nice.
PHEVs And EVs Still Have Reliability Issues According To Consumer Reports
There’s this idea that electric cars, having less complicated drivelines, are somehow less likely to break than their gasoline counterparts. That’s not quite true. Companies have been making gasoline cars for 100+ years and have gotten quite good at it. Electric cars are new and there are basically no startups making ICE-powered cars, meaning that most of the new startup car companies are making EVs.
From Consumer Reports again:
“While they remain extremely fuel-efficient, today’s hybrids also deliver reliability that is similar to conventional gas cars, despite their added complexity,“ Fisher says. On average, hybrids have a similar number of problems as cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE).
[…]
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are more of a mixed bag. As a category, they have 70 percent more problems than ICE vehicles. The ability to drive locally solely on electricity but still take long trips without range worries makes PHEVs attractive. But having two distinct powertrains—electric and an internal combustion engine—increases the chance for problems.
Several PHEVs are even less reliable than their conventional counterparts, such as the Mazda CX-90 PHEV, which scored well below average, while the regular CX-90 is below average. The BMW X5 PHEV, Lexus NX PHEV, and Toyota Prius PHEV each score just average, while the regular X5, NX, NX hybrid, and Prius all score above average.
Overall, CR found that PHEVs had 70% more problems than ICE or HEV counterparts, while EVs had 42% more problems. This is an improvement over previous numbers for both powertrains as companies get better at making these vehicles. Rivian, which is a startup, had by far the worst reliability.
Tesla Is Getting Into The Leasing Game To Juke Sales
While Tesla once had what amounted to a monopoly on EVs in the United States, the brand now suddenly has a lot more competition. As you can see in the graphic above, one of the ways brands get curious buyers into electric cars is leasing.
The Inflation Reduction Act also helps. One of the giveaways to the auto industry in the IRA was the ability for automakers to take $7,500 off any electric car that’s leased with no restrictions on where the vehicle comes from, what it costs, or how much money the customer has. This has been huge.
In an effort to keep its market share, Tesla has aggressively cut prices and offered extremely low financing (the company is super rich and can afford these activities). Now, Tesla is trying to make leasing more attractive by allowing people to buy out their leases, whereas before Tesla leasees had to return their cars.
“Tesla’s lease penetration has gone way up,” said Tom Libby, a senior analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “They are getting more and more aggressive because they need to — and because they have the financial resources to do so.”
Leasing a Tesla seems like a good deal, especially given that Tesla values vary so much due to all the price-cutting and the risk of a new model. This is all part of a growing trend of Tesla saying it isn’t going to be a normal car company and then doing more normal car company things.
Does SSB + SIB = The Future Of EVs?
Lithium batteries in either NCM or LFP form will continue to dominate the car market for years to come, but perhaps there’s something better than cells or pouches filled with lithium-based liquid electrolytes.
S&P Global Mobility has a “BRIEFcase” paper out today about the possibility that both sodium-based batteries (SIB) and solid-state batteries (SSB) could provide the market with what it needs to get that next level of penetration. Sodium is cheap and abundant and SSBs are more energy-dense, though both technologies have drawbacks:
SIBs are likely to compete with LFP batteries, as their energy density is approximately 160 Wh/kg, compared to around 200 Wh/kg for LFP. This lower energy density, alongside a shorter life cycle, limits SIBs primarily to low-cost, entry-level vehicles.
[…]
Despite the advantages, several hurdles exist for SSB adoption. The use of lithium metal anodes, which can lead to uneven plating and dendrite formation, poses risks to battery integrity. Additionally, solid electrolytes are less conductive, potentially limiting power output, especially in colder conditions. In some cases, external heating is necessary, particularly with polymer electrolytes.
SSBs are also five times more expensive than lithium-ion batteries, though with time that price will come down. Sodium batteries will also likely improve as more investment goes into them.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Is it weird that my favorite version of Alice In Wonderland might be the version portrayed in the video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? The book is super messed up if you take the time to read it and this video captures both the disorientation and the creepiness quite well.
The Big Question
What do you consider to be the overall best car brand selling cars in America right now?
Subaru should be the perfect brand for me and my needs. I’ve test driven a few over the years and never bought one. The engines are underpowered and loud.
Why is there a picture of a buttplug in this article?
Furthermore, when did Toyota start making buttplugs?
Not sure why you think Subaru is strong. Most people won’t buy them. Most people realize the hey are expensive and unreliable. I guess if you were raised in the cult you think everyone feels like you do but they don’t. Most realize a Subaru is an unreliable expensive pos.
Previous Subaru owner – 2001 Subaru Outback Limited Wagon, forest green, manual. I’ve had it for 80,000 miles, and there was always something wrong with it. I’ve had a 2004 Mazda MPV since 2006 I have driven it for 170,000 miles and we had less problems with it than Subaru. I also have a 2016 CX-5 – super reliable. So, I just do this Mazda>Subaru. Subaru is not even close… Plus the CVT??? Terrible. AWD and boxer engine sound is nice. I used to be team Subaru… Now I’m not.
I’m certainly no expert on Subarus, but I think the company deserves credit for pulling off TWO massive jedi minds tricks on the car buying public. Besides the one listed in the article, they seemed to have convinced some buyers (especially females) that Subarus are made in Australia. I guess years ago, all of those silly Outback commercials weren’t so silly after all.
Not counting something as rarefied as Ferrari (although they have the most amazing range), I’d likely say good old reliable Honda is the best overall brand.
Just a tad sportier than Toyota, and, with a few exceptions, extremely reliable.
I own a Fit so I may not be the most objective poster.
I think Subaru is popular among folks who want something more interesting than a Toyota or Honda, but who are turned off by the status-focused or aggro-focused marketing that dominates many brands. I don’t like that stuff either, but neither do I like Subaru’s “I could go off-road, but I never will” vibe.
This one hits close to home because I am both feeling manipulated and also can’t avoid a vague feeling of superiority over non Subaru owners, but then I remember the manipulation part, and the cycle starts over again. I think the answer to your point is “yes”. Meaning all points are true.
I started Subaru ownership in 2007 with a brand new Outback 2.5 manual (not the turbo), and sort of by accident because I had to cancel my deposit for a manual Element after repeated delays. So that was the marketing / manipulation part: the WRX fame, the legendary reliability (sorta), the tribe I already was feeling some mutual understanding with: flannel-camping-understated-family-frugal types whatevers. I wore no damn flannel, were a childless couple and likely not frugal, but the mind tricks worked. We got it and we LOVED it. As a non-kid owning young couple, this car was absolutely epic. We camped, drove through snow storms in Canada, hauled construction debris, commuted, street-parked it in NYC, and took it on a 3-year stay through Europe, all of which this wagon took in stride.
And now comes the smug part. As years passed and shenanigans added up, I kept realizing what a gem that car was. Good looks, lightweight body, epic traction, super comfy and vaguely upscale interior with a more than decent sound system. Cavernous trunk (now with 2 kiddos, always needed) and overall a pleasure to own, while ONLY CHANGING OIL and washer fluid 10 years in. And we’re talking driving out of snow drifts up to my mirror, without a shovel, just rocking it back and forth while Wranglers struggled. Or camping in far out wild places in Eastern Europe, driving 150kmh on the Autobahns, taking it skiing in Austria and so on. This ain’t a cheap, basic economy car! And had I gotten my hands on a Japanese spec one with their low gear tranny, that would have been epic. I dare a Rav4 or CRV match those exploits. We would be here a while.
So I sailed with certainty into my second one, a 2017 Outback with the mighty flat-six 3.6 engine, convinced of the choice. And marketing regrets started to seep in. It’s a fat ass SUV really. Decidedly the spirit has faded, and the compromises are now glaring and maybe this one, along with the weak Forresters, are the best embodiment of the mind control techniques at Subaru HQ (as father of girls, I may or may have been moved to tears by their father-daughter ads). But you know what? It’s still a car that can cruise comfortably at 96 mph in northern Canada (gasoline is cheap there) haul an entire trade show booth content for my small bussiness, look decent at a wedding, and drive through snow and gravel just fine without tipping its ass at 4000lbs. Sure, I can’t have the same fight anymore with those Rav4 or CRV owners because they’re all the same car essentially, but then again, isn’t the Great Uniformization doing this for the 3 or 4 Cars left on the market? ( Sport Car, Family Car, Super Car and Truck Car)
So I would sum up: great marketing for a decade, based on well planned and distinctive cars. Then coast on that as you reach mass market status. But then again they still have the Crosstrek and that has a whiff of potential. Therefore, yes.
This is the correct take. Sure there’s a lot of aspirational Subaru owners, just like any other lifestyle brand. But those aspirational owners are the halo effect of the actual hard-core users. I’ve had a few friends (who will never be as adventurous) buy Subarus after riding with us on an adventure.
We have a 2017 Forester XT (turbo) and 2 pre-schoolers. We go on forest service trails most weekends during the spring, summer and fall. Our last trek was in early November to an off-grid hut near Vail. During the winter, we ski many weekends, especially when there’s deep snow. Their flat and low engine provides awesome handling that can’t be faked when slippery. The suspension on forest trail roads makes me feel like a rally driver. Sure, we have replaced the front lower control arms around 80k, but driven hard enough, everything becomes a wear item. At the price-point, there’s nothing close, and in the dry, shifting with paddles, the suspension and engine come alive.
FWIW, Subaru of America is a great place to work. The whole Love Promise thing is real.
Lots of “penetration” talk in this one, especially so close to the picture of that
buttpelectrolyte solution.My grandfather almost lost an arm because of a flat-brim-hatted douchecanoe driving more WRX than he could handle, so I’ve never had anything but irrational hatred for Subarus
I lost my virginity in my girlfriend’s Moms’ ’85 Subaru GL Wagon so yeah, I like Subarus.
Making love. It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Shaggin’ .. it puts the “W” in wagon.
Best 42 seconds of my life!
I put over 200,000 miles on an ’85 Subaru GL sedan. It was a pretty good car but best described by my mechanic at the time:
“Subarus are designed by all the engineers who came home and found their wives sleeping with mechanics.”
A lot of my personal affection for Subaru is the dealership experience feels less like your first night in prison compared to other dealerships. All things being equal-ish, I’m going buy a product from a seller that a.) pays attention to me without being overbearing; b.) talks to me assuming I’m NOT an idiot; c.) willing to negotiate on price
All that said, once my ’09 Outback gives up the ghost, Subaru doesn’t even make the top three possible replacements.
I understand Toyota are into plug-in stuff but did they really have to provide a butt plug picture ?
Gotta’ be consistent on messaging.
If you want a Japanese car with German levels of reliability, try a Subaru. Preceding comments about outdated tech, lackadaisical drivetrain and dubious reliability align with my owner friends’ anecdotes. Definitely the new Volvo.
On the road, I avoid the Forester and Outback, since those automotive equivalents to NPR totebags generally go 10 miles below the flow of traffic.
The crosstrek and wrx are more likely to cut you off and smell like vape smoke, so I give them a wide berth, too.
Disagree… Mazda is that vehicle. And no CVT.
Thank you for saying it before I did.. lol
Fair point. Credit to Mazda for driving dynamics. I’ve always been pleasantly surprised when renting them…except for the burning oil smell.
Never had a burning oil smell in ten years with our CX-5. Is this a thing?
To understand Subaru’s popularity, one needs to see its cars not as lower-quality Toyotas but as higher-quality, still-available Saabs.
A Subaru even was sold as a badge-engineered Saab. At the time, with a longitudinal turbo-four, it was more of a Saab than anything coming out of Europe.
Take the kind of ’80s person desperate to let you know how quirky they are with a Saab, and their modern equivalent has a non-WRX/BRZ Subaru.
Oh, just exactly right.
This
I also believe Subaru’s reputation is overrated. Subaru was a standout when AWD was rare but between EJ25 head gaskets, CVT transmissions and a premium price the bloom is off the rose. Plus the PNW is so full of Subarus that I am a maverick for driving a Mazda. Not only that but my Mazda CX-5 can go places a Forester can’t because the first generation CX-5 has 8″ of ground clearance, no CVT and a stone reliable engine.
I can’t argue with the thousands of people who bought and love their Subarus but I also confess to not understanding the hype.
On the whole, they’re all ugly (except the BRZ). The interiors and tech are a decade behind and feel like a seriously cut rate place to be. The powertrains range from slow to painfully slow and are made worse by the CVTs they’re shipped with. And what do you get for all this? Still poor fuel economy.
I can’t imagine trying a Subaru and an AWD Mazda and choosing the Subie. I know the AWD is “better” in the Subaru but at what point is an advanced AWD system worth all the other drawbacks when a “regular” AWD will fit your needs 99% of the time?
Subaru replaced Volvo as the maker of cars that people think are more reliable than they are.
That said, kudos to any company willing to name a car Ass-scent.
Daily Subaru driver here.
There was a fascinating Freakonomics episode about car colors, and specifically Subaru’s proliferation of non-metallic paints and (relatively) greater color choice. Subaru’s customers, trained to think of their cars as “more durable,” associate some of the brand’s colors with ceramic and that material’s properties.
The voice in my head was screaming “it’s the same freaking foil-thin sheet metal!” but whatever. They know their customers.
I do have to say, I used to drive a Land Cruiser that I THOUGHT was good in the snow and ice. An Outback with Blizzaks runs circles around it.
We love our Subaru Ascent. It’s (relatively) easy to work on, wife loves the comforts, and as a family with two kids it’s safety scores were really important to us.
When I wanted an small SUV, a Subaru was $2k AWD cheaper than a Toyota CRV. Most auto reviewers expect every car to be a Porsche 911 and grade by that. Does it accelerate to get me on the freeway? Can it get to get to 85 if I need to pass someone without the engine shuddering? can I see out the car on all 4 sides? Is the car reasonable comfortable? BONUS for Subaru’s – LOTS of buttons and gauges so 99% of the car did not require me to learn a new OS … it has CarPlay and it took a 25 seconds to sync to my phone. I live in the suburbs in NorCal so hardly any real weather except if rains hard and maybe there are slightly deep puddles, I feel safer – that’s all I want from a car. It starts up. No CHECK ENGINE light has ever come on. My left speaker is a little wonky after 5 years but it sounds great for an included system (do not understand people who pay for $5k for a stereo upgrade, are you listening to a symphony you wrote in a drive from Seattle to Yellowstone every weekend??). Other than oil changes and regular maintenance, I have bought new tires because I ran over a nail and I needed new wipers in 5 years … that’s all I want from a car. It’s not ugly and it just works. Mileage is fine, it’s no Mazda but it was also cheaper and the nearest Mazda dealer is like 40 miles away now.
if that’s all you want from a car… why are you on here 0.o
People like cars and read the autopian for a variety of reasons. Gate keeping is dumb.
Fair actually, I retract my statement.
The sheer cult of Subaru makes a lot of ‘normies’ into slight car people and I think that’s honestly a very good thing. Car enthusiasm is a dying breed so it’s refreshing to see suburban moms who are so excited about their flat-four cute-utes.
I saw what you did in the second paragraph of battery portion… Good job slipping it in there.
I had an 04 Impreza that was pretty reliable. Well, except the head gasket, but that was the previous owners problem (aka my mom). Otherwise it was 95% wear items.
Until a couple of weeks ago my wife had a Forester, it was largely fine. Wear items mostly as it was 12 years old. Only time it didn’t start was when a mouse chewed some wires but I can’t really fault the car specifically for that one. And the time a transmission cooler line rotted out and caused a small fire. My neighbours ended up buying it for their daughters since their Suburban was way too big and fuel hungry for new drivers.
My dad had an 05 Impreza that he traded in on a 2014 Forester that my step mom now owns. The Impreza was really reliable for him, eventually age and rust took it out. Only non wear item on the Forester has been the AC but she seems to be the touch of death with car AC systems as her 98 Corolla, 2011 Matrix and now Forester have all had AC issues.
Maybe my expectations in cars are low but Subarus have largely been fine in my family. Also I know people bitch and moan about how hard they are to work on but I honestly didn’t find them any more difficult than other cars I’ve owned.
Subies get modded a lot by the flat brim hat crowd. Some of those cars make it back into the market with leaking valve covers and failed turbos, leaving a poor brand reliability impression on the new buyers.
Nah, there was a class action lawsuit for engine failures on the non-turbo 2.5l from like 2008-2014. It was real, and it was bad.
Source: Former 2011 Subaru Forester owner.
We still know of the vehicle, it has less than 200xxx km. 2nd engine and 4th set of head gaskets.
2012 Forester with 205,000km when we sold it. No oil consumption, no engine issues. I have no doubt that some failed but our only engine issue was a leaking valve cover gasket at the 11 year mark.
Nah, you can blame the rodent damaged wiring on the tasty Subaru wiring. It is a long standing problem going back to the 80’s models. In one episode of My Name is Earl, Joy even has a line “Mice ate the wiring in the Brat again” when she is either asking for a ride or to borrow the El Camino.
It’s happened to a few of my neighbours as well. BMW, GM, Chrysler have also been hit. I live next to a valley and large botanical garden and we have no end of wildlife on our street. So it’s a tasty wiring and no shortage of rodent problem.