My son's new 2019 subaru forester touring burned to a crisp (total) on saturday, 10/19 in i-95 near new rochelle, ny. vehicle was in the left lane and the car in front stopped and they hit it, then they were hit in the back, too. their car burned but the car in front and behind did not. the car in front was even able to move indicating nothing wrong with its gas tank.
Vehicle quickly developed a "surge, sputtering, jerk" type action when coasting or maintaining speeds above 35mph. also when braking, there is good and predictable speed reduction until about 10mph when the transmissions seems to unlock and the car lunges forward since there is suddenly not enough brake pressure because the transmission has shifted for some reason. dealer has been able to replicate the issue but has no known fix. brand new car 1 month old and it runs like a brand new car should, until you get to maintaining cruising speeds. very disappointing to have this one issue with something that is otherwise a fantastic car.
I leased this car late march 2019 and from day one i smelled a gasoline like odor when turning on the car for the first 5 to 10 min. i've had bmw forn10 years and subaru is new to me. i thought the smell was normal because it's a 4wd. at my last vehicle service at subaru i mentioned the smell to them. they ultimately discovered that the car has a faulty exhaust. they said the smell came from a plastic bag that they found inside the hood of the car. however, my brother in law had opened the hood 2 weeks prior to check the oil level of car bc of a sound it was making and there was no plastic bag at that time. i am going to have the exhaust replaced this saturday but i wanted to report this just in case there are more cars that have the same problems.