Subaru Recalls the 2022 WRX for Owner's Manual Errors
Recalls often involve important, safety-critical equipment and technology, but some seem almost silly by comparison. Chevrolet once sent a bunch of Sonics to customers without brake pads and had to recall them, and in 2013, Honda recalled the Odyssey because of badges installed on the wrong side of the rear gate. Recently, we learned that Subaru recalled the new WRX, but not for a reason having to do with any vehicle component or system.
Subaru is recalling the 2022 WRXs for an error in its owner’s manual. The literature may give incorrect instructions for adjusting the sensitivity of the car’s high-beam assist system. Only 4,615 vehicles are included in the recall out of more than 18,000 the automaker sold last year, as some owner’s manuals are correct and some models lack the feature.
High-beam assist automatically activates the high beams and can switch them off when the system detects oncoming traffic. Blinding the oncoming driver is an excellent way to end up in a head-on collision, so a recall is a small price to pay.
Thankfully, affected owners won’t need to make a trip to the dealer. Subaru will send a new owner’s manual insert with the correct information, “which can be installed in the original owner’s manual by the customer.” If stapling a few pages together isn’t your thing, you can head to a dealer, who will operate the red Swingline on your behalf.
[Image: Subaru]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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If anyone needs proof that automotive styling has reached an all-time low, it is that the Subaru WRX isn't being singled out as an abomination on the scale of a Pontiac Aztec or 1958 Lincoln Continental. These days it is almost expected for a new car to be hideous.
What are the LIMITS of STUPIDITY?
To recall a vehicle because of errors in its... manual is a new Frontier altogether.
Instead of recalling it, how about emailing its owners the correct manual? It will cost them NOTHING.
I seem to remember once a manufacturer did this by issuing a page-sized sticker you just pasted over the offending page in the book.
Does anyone actually read the manual?