I recently leased a 2023 Outback Onyx Edition and I’m all about Subaru…
Context: When the vehicle is unlockedthe fuel filler cap can be opened and closed using alternating push-and-release actions — that is, push and release to unlock, then push and release again to close, etc.
I found out today when the vehicle is locked and the fuel filler door is normally closed, if you press and release the fuel filler door one time (as if trying to open it), it remains apparently closed and locked as it is supposed to, but in fact, it opens the internal mechanism in an undetectable way, so that when you unlock the vehicle the next time, the door swings out allowing you to open it fully. Since the filler door is on the opposite side to the driver, this situation will almost certainly go unnoticed.
I don’t know if this is the intended design or something else is going on here. If someone were to come and bump or push the filler door in, say, a crowded parking lot when getting out of a neighboring car (the fuel filler door version of “filling the dial” 
), the next time I unlock the car, the door opens, now without my knowledge as it is on the opposite side of the vehicle. It will remain unattached and unprotected until I finally find it – in the meantime, who knows what someone might do with it?!
Additionally, I found that if the filler door is open, when you close the machine again, you can still grab and unlock the filler door without unlocking the vehicle! This leads me to believe that an adjustment may be needed…perhaps the locking pin is not fully engaging the door properly.
Combine that with the fact that I live in NJ and there will always be someone else filling up my car (by law), so I won’t always know exactly what situation the attendant might walk away from the filler door if I don’t get out, walk around , and check it myself, which I would like to avoid.
Am I making too big of a deal about this and is it actually a design flaw? I do think about the potential for vandalism and damage if you don’t check the filler door every time you unlock the car, but maybe the probability of that happening is low enough not to worry.
– Doug
