Buyer Research

2016 Subaru Legacy — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $9,000–$14,000. There are 2 high-severity known issues you need to know before handing over a check.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 15 Subaru Legacy years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

Second year of the sixth-generation Legacy, and the record has changed character completely from the 2010–2014 cars: the CVT stall is gone from the top of the list and the story is now the battery. Fifty-one electrical complaints are 35% of the file, and the word owners use 83 times is battery — new ones dying in weeks, cars stranded after a dealer visit, a key that will not come out in Park. Subaru settled a class action over battery drain on 2015–2020 Legacys; the extended coverage it created has expired for a 2016, so what you inherit is the habit, not the warranty. Then windshields that crack from the bottom while parked, and three narrow-window recalls that all matter — two for fire, one for a steering column that may not steer. Buy one that starts crisply after sitting, with an original or Subaru-glass windshield and every recall closed, and price a battery and a draw test into the deal; it is a comfortable, roomy, all-wheel-drive sedan with an honest set of faults.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 146 owner complaints for the 2016 Subaru Legacy, and 3 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 35% of them are about one thing — electrics and electronics. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

3 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2016 Subaru Legacy

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Battery drain — new batteries dying in weeks, cars stranded, and a class action behind itMedium

The largest cluster on this year by a wide margin. Owners replaced batteries twice in a year across two brands, had the alternator and starter tested good, and still found the car dead after sitting; one picked it up from a dealer service visit and it would not start in the lot. Subaru settled a class action covering 2015–2020 Legacys over batteries drained faster than they should be, with an extended battery warranty running to eight years or 100,000 miles — which a 2016 has now aged past. A shop can measure the parasitic draw with the car locked and asleep; anything much over 50 milliamps is the problem. Ask the seller how long the car can sit, and look at the date sticker on the battery.

Repair cost (estimate): $100–$250 for a draw test; $150–$400 for a battery; $300–$900 if a module is found staying awake

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (51).

Windshield cracks from the bottom edge while parked, and replacements crack againMedium

Eighteen visibility complaints and they are nearly all the same: a crack starting under the passenger wiper or at the base of the glass, spreading while the car sits in the driveway, and in one case a Subaru-fitted replacement cracking in the same spot a month later. Others say ordinary gravel chips run a foot in a day. The 2016–2017 Legacy and Outback share this glass, and the same complaint runs across Subaru's lineup in these years. An EyeSight car needs a camera recalibration with every windshield, which is why the bill matters. Look along the bottom edge in raking light, ask whether the glass is original, and if it is not, ask who fitted it and whether EyeSight was recalibrated.

Repair cost (estimate): $400–$1,100 for the glass, plus $250–$600 for EyeSight recalibration

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under glass, wipers and mirrors (18).

Key will not come out of the ignition in Park — and one steering wheel that would not come backLow

Most of the sixteen steering complaints are filed under the wrong heading: the key refusing to turn back far enough to release after the car is put in Park, roughly a third of the time for one owner from 62,000 miles, fixed only by restarting and shifting through the gears. It is the shifter's Park signal or the ignition-lock solenoid, and the part was replaced for at least one owner. One report is different and worth its own line: a steering wheel that stayed turned after a right and had to be forced straight. Try the key a dozen times at the end of the test drive, and on a quiet road, let go of the wheel after a turn and watch it come back to centre on its own.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$500 for the ignition lock or shifter switch

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under steering (16).

Steering column machined wrong — turning the wheel may not turn the car (recall)High — wallet impact

Recall 16V292 covers 2016 and 2017 Legacy and Outback vehicles built February 29 to May 6, 2016: the steering column may have been improperly machined so that the wheel turns without moving the front wheels. Dealers check the column's lot number and replace the column where it is in the bad range, free. About ten weeks of production, so check the build date on the door-jamb label and then the VIN on NHTSA. A column that is going to fail gives nothing to feel beforehand; a car in the window with this recall open is not a car to test-drive until it is done.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: 3 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Two driveshaft recalls, both with a fire at the end of themHigh — wallet impact

Recall 15V794 covers Legacys built October 24 to November 16, 2015: the nuts holding the driveshaft to the rear differential were not tightened properly, and a shaft that drops can hit the fuel tank and open a leak. Recall 15V502 covers cars built July 3 to 27, 2015: a deformed seal cap on the propeller shaft yoke lets transmission oil leak onto the exhaust. Both are free — an inspection and tightened or new nuts for the first, a new propeller shaft for the second — and both are short build windows. Confirm on the VIN. Underneath, look for oil wetness along the driveshaft toward the rear differential and any smell of hot oil after the drive.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: 3 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Head unit that ghost-touches itself, and a CVT that still needs a listenMedium

Two smaller things worth a minute each. The factory touchscreen's layers can delaminate, after which it registers touches nobody made — changing stations, switching sources, redirecting navigation — and the fix is a new unit. Watch the screen for a minute at idle and see whether it does anything on its own. Separately, thirteen powertrain complaints on this year, with one crash, remind you the Lineartronic CVT is the same basic transmission as the 2010–2014 cars'; Subaru's ten-year, 100,000-mile extension on it has expired for a 2016. Ask about fluid changes and do ten firm stops from 30 mph feeling for a shudder.

Repair cost (estimate): $300–$1,200 for a replacement head unit; $1,200–$2,500 for a torque converter if the CVT shudders

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the transmission and drivetrain (13).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Battery with a recent date sticker and a seller who mentions jump starts
✗Crack at the base of the windshield, or a replacement fitted by an unknown glass shop
✗Build date inside February 29 to May 6, 2016 with the steering column recall open
✗Key that needs the car restarted before it will come out
✗Touchscreen changing stations on its own at idle

Good Signs

✓Parasitic draw measured under 50 milliamps on a shop invoice
✓Battery replaced under the class-action extended warranty, with the dealer receipt
✓All three recalls shown complete on the NHTSA VIN lookup
✓Original windshield, or Subaru glass with an EyeSight recalibration invoice
✓Key releasing cleanly from the ignition on a dozen tries