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In June of 2001, we purchased a 2001 Subaru Legacy Outback LL Bean model and drove it on the hilly,
windy roads of El Dorado County California for seven months without a problem. In February of 2002, the car began what became
a regular intermittant malfunction. Descending the 1.5 miles of steep, one lane road (the one we live on and drive daily)in
low gear per the instructions in the Subaru manual, the car began accelerating on it's own, taching to over 5000 rpms. By
firm pressure on the brake, the car could be controlled, but the car fought against the braking. This occurs daily for 3 to
5 days then as mysteriously as it begins, it stops for a few days to as long as 5 weeks, then does it again. On this page
are the reactions from SUBARU of AMERICA to our request for repair of this serious malfunction.
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CA Lemon Law
L.L. Bean
Nat. Hwy Safety Adm.
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WE took the vehicle to dealer for repair six times. A mechanic drove it twice, and Pat Buckley, Subaru's District Ops Manager
rode in it once down the steep hill. None of the test drives was under the same conditions or during a period when the problem
was occuring, so Murphy's Law prevailed, and the car performed "normally" for them.
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Subaru's offical stance was the the car had no defect, even though they are in possession of a videotape showing the malfunction.
We invoked California's Lemon Law and demanded that Subaru buy back the vehicle.
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Subaru's response is reproduced above. Draw you own conclusion as to the value Subaru puts on the safety and protection of
the public as regards its vehicles, not to mention customer service. we will be persuing legal action aginst the company
for failure to perform under the express warranty. If you have questions, e-mail us.
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 Epilogue
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Update: In August of 2002, The problem became even more severe. We rushed it to dealer while it was acting
up, phoned ahead for a tech to meet us. Before he got out of the parking lot he said we should not be driving this car.
They kept it for 3 weeks, driving it with laptop "plugged in." They determined it was a faulty sensor in Throttle control
computer (duh). They replaced entire throttle control mechanism and took it for testing. The car has fuctioned
well since then. This throttle mechanism is used in many other makes and models of cars, as attested by the many responses
we received to this site from Toyota, Isuzu (a Subaru affiliate), jeep and other vehicle owners. If you have this kind
of trouble, and Subaru (or any other Manufacturer) gives you guff like we got, contact state of federal agencies for back-up.
FYI, thanks to the fine folks at L.L. Bean, Subaru sent us a feeble apology and a plant. We're just happy to be alive...
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marciaandray@earthlink.net
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