Subaru Steps Up Quality Control After Embarrassing Growing Pains
Remember the I Love Lucy sketch when Lucy gets a job at a factory where she has to wrap chocolates? She’s feeling pretty smug over how well she is performing until they accelerate the line and candies begin spilling out onto the floor and she scrambles around trying to save them all.
Well Subaru is suffering from a similar, less hysterical, problem right now with its own quality control.
The Japanese automaker has continued to break its own sales records over the last decade. However, during this rocket ride to planet sales, the company has seen a gradual lapse in quality. There was an influx of recalls this year and the company also saw itself drop six places in this year’s Consumer Reports reliability rating.
Subaru and its parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, don’t want to make a habit of this.
During an interview with Automotive News, Fuji CEO Yasuyuki Yoshinaga said quality was Subaru’s primary concern and the company has begun efforts to avoid future problems while continuing to manage its impressive and consistent growth.
“We’ve always been focusing on quality, but we did have an increase in recalls,” Yoshinaga said. “We’ve assigned a former FHI officer who was in charge of global quality assurance to oversee and enhance Subaru’s quality in the U.S. market.”
Like many rapidly expanding automotive manufacturers, Subaru’s lapse in quality is almost certainly due to its maturation. Growing pains are somewhat inevitable, especially for a company blooming quite as boldly as this one. Subaru has eight consecutive record-breaking years under its belt in North America, and it hasn’t dealt with a singly monthly sales decline since 2011.
The company expects this sales trend to continue well into next year, Yoshinaga told Automotive News, even as he acknowledged that U.S. market demand “has already peaked out.”
Still, the demand has forced Subaru to increase production wherever it can.
“The background of our current situation is Subaru’s rapid sales growth that has caused strain to our U.S. production and to our suppliers,” Yoshinaga said. “Having recalls like we’ve had this year, we realize the strong need to strengthen our effort to ensure high quality.”
The infamous Takata airbag inflator callbacks affecting nearly every major automaker didn’t help, but there was also an increase in Subie-centric recalls this year. Subaru issued a callback of 77,000 Tribeca SUVs due to an unsafe hood latch in February. May had Subaru finding around 48,500 Legacy sedans and Outback wagons that needed problematic steering columns fixed. The biggest recall happened last month, when the company said 100,000 of its turbocharged motors ran the risk of failure and even starting a potential fire.
Consumer Reports seemed more interested in faulting the company for the introduction of buggy electronics and safety systems.
“They were a little slow to adopt the advanced electronics,” Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, told Automotive News. “They slipped from being excellent to quite good. I’m sure they can recover.”
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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The only Subaru plant outside of Japan is in Lafayette, Indiana. That plant has been open since the late '80s, and produced mostly the Legacy and Outback. Shortly after GM divested itself of its Subaru investment, Toyota bought into the company. The Lafayette plant produced the Camry from 2007 until this year (70,000 units in 2015), when they ended Toyota production there in order to meet Subaru demand. That plant should have been able to transition to higher Subaru production numbers without a loss in quality. I wonder if Subaru is maybe playing the blame game a bit here. Are the defects engineering/design or production related? For my own little anecdata, I've owned two Subies, both purchased new. My '95 Legacy wagon, built in Indiana, was a strong runner and had absolutely no oil consumption issues with its 2 liter engine. On the down side, it ate brake rotors and had rust issues starting in its 8th year. I replaced the Legacy with a 2004 Forester, built in Japan. Starting at about 60k miles the 2.5 engine leaked oil at the head. From hanging around the brand forums, it was clear this was a common issue that the company wouldn't acknowledge. That Subaru was my last.
Quality problems are nothing new at Subaru who are they kidding? Oil consumption. Buggy electronics. Head gasket and oil leaks. Failed wheels bearings even with low mileage. Have even seen many transmission failures on 2002-2005 examples. Not saying they are horrible cars by any means but I have had far fewer issues by far than most of my friends and colleagues with my last 3 Impalas which went way past 100K with only minor issues and maintenance.