Anyone having issues with a bad battery or am I just unlucky? After about 1,000 miles the battery in my 2020 OB Ltd went completely dead. The local dealership tested the battery and said it was defective. Adding insult to injury, the seller claims they have no spare batteries in my local area (Seattle/Tacoma). After 1 week with a loaner car they find a battery in Houston and tell me it will be another 4 days before they have it in place to install it in my car. At this point I suggest they just replace a battery from one of the new 2020’s in their part. My service says the batteries in those cars may have the same problem. He recommends waiting for the “new and improved” one coming out of Houston. I reluctantly agree to wait longer. Long story short – there seems to be a low level of confidence in the batteries installed in the initial run of 2020 outbacks. After a little internet research, battery problems may have plagued various Subaru models for several years now. Just wondering if anyone else has that much background
Battery “problems” haven’t really been a real “issue” for Subaru, and not just Subaru. There are about 3 vendors that make the batteries and 2 of those vendors had manufacturer defects, not to the point of ever getting a recall or anything. I asked the right places and got some good answers. But basically it comes down to 2 of the vendors that produce the raw components had a problem. I went through about 4 batteries (both OEM and aftermarket) in my 06 heritage and was able to track them down to a single dealer that did the OEM core and Sears another battery I had.
With Subaru’s new start/stop system requiring more load to keep the engine running and to keep future problems to a minimum, they had to upgrade it a bit.
Also, keep in mind that the exterior is so new that the parts pipeline is not fully stocked as most are being worn out in production to keep up with demand. I’ve seen this happen on many of the new models, especially if it’s new, like when the Crosstrek came out and they’ve refreshed it as much as they did the exterior (over 90% new to the Platform new Global).
I checked the Optima and they haven’t released a battery for the 2020 release yet, likely due to the larger load. Optima tends to base its batteries at 20% above OEM.
