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Comment by emeril | Hacker News Reader

subaru infotainment is junk but they are a good deal for a safe car

I've heard that the redesigned 2026 Outback has a much nicer interior. Lots of physical buttons and supposedly more stable infotainment software.

We've been pretty happy with our 2020 Outback so far (bought it just before the chip shortage). My only complaint is the stability of the infotainment software. The big portrait screen is actually quite nice, and with CarPlay I don't really care about the rest of UI and software. Except that the stupid thing just crashes all the time.

yeah, I've heard that too - I have a new forester - it's def slow/finicky

maybe I'll get a outback instead next time, they are kind of the same to me though the hybrid on the forester I have def makes it a more pleasant less CVT'y ride...

I'm hoping they bring the new Outback design (both exterior and interior) to the Ascent. The 2027 Ascent is already out and unfortunately it's the same old styling and infotainment.

I can confirm. My Subaru 2023 forester's infotainment unit got replaced after 1.5 years due to it randomly crashing, and Carplay being unstable. On a long road trip, if you go to get gas, unplug your phone, and try to replug, just wouldn't connect. Even rebooting it. Nothing. Also had my 2 front speakers stop working, which mean handsfree didn't work since phone calls are routed to front speakers only. Had to unplug the car battery, wait, and then the speakers worked.

Does anyone know why the mini display on the top, lags so much when changing music tracks or even Radio stations? It even sometimes doesn't update the radio station, and just mixes up data from 2 different stations. Replacing the infotainment unit didn't fix that or the lag. It's like purposely designed to be annoying.

That small display on top of aircon vents is called Multi Function Display and it's its own thing, IIRC getting information from CAN bus from supoorted nav units. If that one is dropping messages, maybe it's a grounding or a harness issue?

I also only use Android Auto, and plugging my phone in updates all the clocks automatically

I will never buy Subaru because their infotainment garbage had a phantom power draw causing dead batteries left and right. Subaru refused to acknowledge it, so I spent $1k out of pocket to get it fixed to have a usable car.

Then I got a notice in the mail that Subaru agreed to replace and compensate people for the phantom power draw issue, except I wouldn’t be eligible because I couldn’t prove it since I already fixed my issue…even though Subaru knew all the VINs with the problem.

https://www.subarubatterysettlement.com/

Plus I have had to replace bearings and control arms within 50k miles…which I expect better on even American brand cars much less Japanese.

indeed, i have had several subarus in my life from a bone stock 98 impreza RS through to the newest STI, and while i love them and will probably never buy another brand, the infotainment (and speakers) absolutely suck in all of them.

I mean, who cares about $automaker's infotainment if Carplay or AndroidAuto is available?

Who cares about carplay or androidauto when plain ass bluetooth does most everything you should be caring to do while operating your vehicle (which you should in fact be 100% focused on and not touching your damn phone or other screens or anything else.)

At least Android Auto supports integration with steering wheel buttons and center console display on many cars — I imagine CarPlay too — this means you can can keep your music and navigation (favorites and such) in one place.

I don't know, my Volvo supports both and I pretty much never bother using Android Auto, it's just such a faff. The built in interface(sensus) works great and the navigation is really good. Like, what do you use either of those two systems for?

Subaru's bluetooth implementation adds multiple seconds of delay, so your navigation instructions will be so late that you'd miss turns if you relied only on audio.

It also randomly crashes and fails to connect (in my experience)

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