All generations and engines together · 6,642 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 54k
Better than most small SUVs, by age and by mileage. Watch suspension and lights & electrics. A solid used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating suspension advisories.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
The Lineartronic CVT can start to judder or lurch at low speed, hesitate before engaging drive or reverse, and pick up a whine under load. Owners report it setting in from around 50-65k miles, worse on cold starts. A full CVT replacement or rebuild runs well over £2,000, so a car with early symptoms is worth walking away from or renegotiating hard on.
Owners of early FB20 2.0-litre petrol XVs report the engine using noticeable amounts of oil between services, sometimes needing a top-up before the interval is up. It surfaced widely enough on the international XV forums that Subaru Owners Club UK members were comparing notes against US reports of the same thing. No UK recall or fix exists; the practical answer is to check the dipstick yourself before buying and ask for oil-use history.
A long-running owner complaint: creaking or cracking from the front struts and lower control arm area over bumps and under combined braking-and-turning, sometimes appearing within the first year on a near-new car. Dealers have variously blamed strut design, control arm bushes, or just called it normal for the part. This lines up with the measured MOT data, where suspension is the standout fault for this class of small SUV, though it's usually noise and wear rather than an outright failure at test time.
The Starlink touchscreen can freeze, drop into a boot loop where it keeps restarting without finishing, or lose GPS signal and satnav map accuracy. A hard reset (holding the power/volume knob down, or disconnecting the battery) sometimes clears it, other times it needs a dealer reflash. Not dangerous, but annoying and one to check works properly on a test drive.
A number of owners find the battery goes flat after the car sits for a week or so unused, with immobiliser lights flashing and a no-start on return. Garages diagnosing it have pointed to the factory alarm or keyless system pulling current when parked rather than a duff battery. Cheap enough to fix with a decent battery and use, but worth knowing if the car will be left standing for long spells.
On the 2.0 Boxer diesel, some owners have had repeated DPF warning lights needing a dealer regeneration, with one documented case recurring every 3,000 miles and diesel getting into the sump oil in the process. Subaru initially covered it under goodwill before blaming driving style on a later claim. Only affects the diesel, which Subaru UK dropped from the XV range around 2018, so it's a non-issue on the far more common petrol cars.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 3,095 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Same segment (Small SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.