2014 Subaru Forester — 2.5L

The 2014 Subaru Forester marks a sharp inflection in the model's federal record, with complaints jumping more than fivefold from 77 in 2013 to 403 in 2014, even as recalls drop from 12 to 2. This sits at the transition between the third-generation (2009–2013) era of relatively low complaint volume and the fourth-generation (2014 onward) era of substantially elevated filings, where 2015 (613) and 2017 (578) push even higher before the curve tapers in the early 2020s. The 627 Technical Service Bulletins logged for 2014 are the highest single-year figure in the entire 1998–2026 record, signaling a heavy service-campaign load consistent with early-model-year refinement work, while the 48 crash-related complaints and 3 fire complaints are non-trivial safety tallies. Suspension leads the complaint breakdown at 83, followed by Air Bags (37) and Engine (34), though the data does not specify root causes for these clusters. Taken together, 2014 represents the bottom of the fourth-generation arc — the model is still working through early-build issues when it is new, and a decade of accumulated complaint history (403 in 2014, 613 in 2015, 578 in 2017) suggests latent problems that may still surface. As a used purchase, 2014 is not the most prudent year in the Forester lineup; buyers should budget for suspension and airbag scrutiny, verify recall completion (only 2 were issued at the federal level for this model year, but prior years' 15–16 recalls may still apply to carryover components), and ideally consider a 2012 or 2013 model instead, where complaint volume is roughly a quarter of the 2014 figure.